A blog of my Invisalign experience by using a dentist in London W1 Harley Street. Invisalign is nearly invisible orthodontics. There are pros and cons of Invisalign and some of the cons are only discovered during the Invisalign journey... (not on the Invisalign website and dentists wouldn't tell you!)
Can't believe it's Chinese New Year already! Today is quite an eventful day as India is also having their own Republic Day celebration and guess what, it's a public holiday in Australia too!
Today the weather is unusually nice- pretty sunny but still cold. I guess it's a good start of Ox year. Hope everyone will have a bullish and prosperous year ahead!
I got my renewed passport today. Compare the photos on the new passport to the old one, I have indeed aged a fair bit and I look UGLIER! Sighhh. It's all the stupid new rules about keeping a stern, unhappy face.. At least I had a small grin in my previous one which brightened up my face a little. The photo on my new passport looks dreadful and 80% dead. (Excuses, excuses, I just can't face the fact that I am uglier, that's all!!)
I am really hoping my Invisalign will perform some miracle and make me prettier again in 10.5 months time!!
20th January was an important day for my Invisalign journey. Actually, I feel today is the proper starting point of this journey- coz everything finally arrived: attachments, teeth filed and the PAIN! And it's even MORE painful when taking out the trays. The first time when I wanted to take out the trays, lower tray was okay, upper tray seemed impossible. My husband even offered his help to take them off for me! But I was far too scared to let him do that- I just had a picture in my head that my teeth would come out with the tray too! +_=
Now, some closeup pictures of my filed teeth. I have loads of tiny gaps between my teeth- it's quite strange coz I can feel the 'air' going between my teeth when I breath in and out using my mouth. :)
Looks a bit funny, doesn't it? Oh well, beauty comes with a heavy price tag! Hopefully it's just the right amount of room for my upper teeth to rotate and in a few months time, the gap will disappear! (Same applies to the gap on my lower front teeth!!)
Now a few more gaps on the side... You can also see my three attachments on my upper teeth. They are so annoying as they make the tray so much harder to take off! I literally have to yank them out and it hurts so much! Although it's slightly easier to take the tray out now (2nd day of wearing my 2nd set of trays), still painful! And my finger tips are in pain too- not just my teeth! Wow, I just realised that my lips look super dry!
When I first got the aligners, even after the 1st week, the aligners never smelt much even straight after I took them out. But on my 10th day, I noticed that it has started to smell a bit. :(
Although I feel a bit of toothpaste and running icy water is good enough for cleaning the aligners... I just want to try out different methods to see whether they're any better! SO...
Asda Denture Cleaning Tablet
I read a lot of reviews that Efferdent cleans the aligners really well but we don't have that brand in the UK! I am wondering whether Steradent (the leading brand here) works the same? Or even a supermarket's own brand like Asda denture cleaning tablet? Since the Asda denture tablet was only 30p for 30 tablets, I've decided to give it a try - Plus I'm at the end of my 1st tray anyway)! On the instruction, it said to leave it for an hour or overnight but I reckon since I don't use my aligners to eat, 10 minutes should be sufficient! (Sometimes you just have to be your own doctor to try out your own prescription!) Anyway, I only soaked the trays in warm water with the tablet while I brushed teeth/washed face.
Result: sparkling trays!
Verdict: I think the tablet makes the cleaning a lot easier as sometimes with just toothpaste & water, it's a bit tricky to clean off the white tooth scum on the edges of the trays... But the tablet that I have contains bleach, so I had to make sure I really rinsed the trays properly.
Fairy Liquid
Some people also said to use 'Dawn' dishwashing liquid. Again, we don't have Dawn dishwashing liquid but we do have 'Fairy'! So- I am going to give that a try tomorrow morning!
Doing new things with my aligners keep me excited about wearing them- I guess this is the only way to make me want to wear them for more than 22 hours a day! BUT, what other new things are there to keep me entertained for the rest 11 months?!
Cold Running Water with Sonicare Tooth Brush
I think this is the safest (chemical free!) option ever! I just used one of my old sonicare tooth brush head and with a bit of running water and it works! Although the trays didn't come out as shiny as the previous two methods, they look clean! I was a bit wary of using my normal tooth brush head coz my head might get damaged and heads are quite expensive to buy! So just use an old one if you have it! :)
Yes, you've heard it right! There was a tiny blood stain inside my upper tray (just on one of my teeth)!! Maybe it's not blood from my teeth- maybe it's because the bumps on the aligner cut into my lips at night and the blood went inside my tray? Or maybe the tray is putting too much stress onto my tooth? BUT I AM NOT FEELING ANY PAIN?!! I'm well bewildered by the event... So anyway I am going to wear these aligners religiously for at least 22 hours everyday before I see the dentist on Tuesday!!!
19th January Update: Today I went to McD and I saw bits of my Mcflurry turned pink (I didn't have any coloured chocolates if that's what you're thinking!). Anyway, I discovered the bleeding came from my upper lip (parts that are close to those awful bumps on the tray!). I'll definitely mentioned that to my dentist that the bumps are (probably) cutting my lip!
Oh well, I thought it was quite funny, so, for everyone's entertainment- I've decided uploaded this rubbish video on youTube! Plus I am sure when I am an old granny and when I look back, I'll laugh with my little grandkids. :D
Really, it's not normally like this- usually I do it in front of a mirror so I know exactly what I'm doing! I just got a bit nervous doing it in front of a web cam that's all. :P
Nothing much to say- the aligners are fine. I have to be honest and say that for past 2 days, I haven't been wearing them for at least 20 hours a day. I find it particularly hard to decide whether I should take them off while cooking! (Coz I need to taste the food!!) Coz cooking takes 1 hour, eating takes another 1 hour and you need to 'relax' a little on the sofa after dinner with a bit of tv right? That's another hour gone. Then you eat some fruits (they say it's not good to have fruits immediately after your meals). Then time just flies... Plus there is no pain, so I feel the aligners aren't doing too much on my teeth....
I am getting a bit lazier after doing this video- think I am only wearing them around 20 hours a day now... It just takes me long and longer to put them back on after meals rather than rushing to the toilet brushing my teeth like a good girl should! After week to go and I'll be getting my 'tighter' tray- can't wait for that as I feel the current tray isn't doing too much work! Guess I am quite eager to be in pain! LOL
I love this advert- it's just so beautiful and that's why I am totally sold on this particular treatment. Both the women on this ad are so, so pretty! Really lovely teeth and smile.
Although my teeth aren't what I want them to be, I never hold back my smile. But it's because I don't hold back my smile and I smile a lot, I can never see myself in metal braces- just imagine, a smile of metals?! That's so not attractive at all. =_+
I was so nervous and didn't know what to say! God, the me on this video clip is not my normal self and hope it doesn't appear to be too 'fake'. :P
Anyway, retainer didn't work out because I used to 'cleverly' adjust the metal line myself to loosen it so it didn't hurt as much. I used to misplace it too! Back in the primary school, a boy found it in the school rubbish bin- so that's the end of my retainer's life.
So hopefully invisalign is going to bring the teeth and the smile line that I've always dreamt of. I don't mind showing a bit of my gum when I smile but i do mind when my teeth appear like a set of denture that isn't put right!
Feeling brave today to take a photo of myself with the Invisalign trays in! They're pretty invisible, isn't it? Well at least 30 cm away from my mouth, they are.
I haven't really experienced any pain at all (haven't taken any pain killers) and the only pain is when my fingers touch the sensitive roots when I take the trays out. Oh, and on top of that, unfortunately I have developed a mini cold sore at the corner of my mouth, which adds extra pain when I take my trays out as I have to open my mouth wide. eeek! I guess this way, I am keeping my trays in even longer as outside my 3 meals a day, they are firmly kept inside my mouth as no snack is worth the pain of opening my mouth wide!
My teeth are feeling a bit sensitive when I eat now- somehow I have a picture in my head that when I bite down, one of my teeth is going to break!
It took me a while to find time to take photos... so here they are! (Plus I have to say it's really difficult to take decent photos of my ugly teeth!!)
So- lets have a look at photos of the aligners first (they're less gross): The below picture shows that the two teeth on the right, (first bump), they're slightly higher than the rest of my teeth! A shot of these wonky two teeth on the upper arch: My lower arch aligner: Three bumps on the right side of my upper arch aligner:
Upper arch aligner:
Okay, so in with the gross photos- look away if you don't want to see... Lower slightly overcrowded teeth: The huge gap between my upper arch and lower arch: Side way (left): Side way (right): Front shot:
Nothing much to report, just finding myself keep sucking saliva out of the trays when they're inside my mouth because the trays are not sitting 100% tightly. I am also finding it virtually impossible to keep my mouth closed as on top my 'natural' overjet, I have three bumps on the left and 1 bump on the right of my upper aligner, which add extra things for my short upper lip to cover. Arghhhh- but the good thing is that the pain is very minimal! The dentist told me that in terms of pain, the 1st set was supposed to be the worst- so I can definitely deal with the pain, without pain killers, for the next 11 months!
Oh, and now I really have to 'plan' what to eat, in case I accidentally miss out the sweets- coz apart from the three main meals a day, I am too lazy to eat anything else (as it's quite a hassle to go through the 'take out trays-brush teeth-wash trays-put the trays back on' procedure.)
God, I've abandoned this blog for far too long- over 2 months - there is a story behind this! I did see my Clincheck in November, which was awesome and the final result looked pretty impressive. Shame that I couldn't get the clincheck file to share with all of you.. I'll try to persuade the dental clinic again to see whether I can get hold of the file. From the Clincheck, I learnt that my treatment process would take 11 months for my lower arch and 7/8 months for my upper arch. I have to say that I was a bit surprised because I thought my upper teeth looked worse than lower!
So, the reason of a 2 month gap is because I had to leave the country for almost a month in December (my big holiday of the year!) and my trays didn't arrive at the end of November (apparently they missed me out by just 1 or 2 days!). So, after a long, long wait til the festivities ended on 5th Jan (practice only started to operate from the 5th), I have finally got my trays today! I was so excited that my heart was racing quicker than the speed of the train into London!
So my dentist fitted the trays for me initially and asked me to take them off myself in front of the mirror with help of his instructions. The trays were not as soft as I had thought- they're quite rigid and strong. (I don't know WHY I thought they would be similar to the home teeth whitening trays- how would they move my teeth into right places in just 11 months?) It's not difficult to take down and put up the trays, actually, but you really have to open wide your mouth!
Oh, and one tip for you guys, before doing Invisalign, you should really have all your teeth checked up. Because I've been brushing my teeth a bit too hard, bits of my gum has recessed and revealed sensitive root. And now, every time I take off the trays, my fingers/nails are touching the sensitive parts and it hurts a little (okay, maybe quite a lot, but I wanted to put up a brave face). And because the moulds are made already, I probably can't go back to my normal dentist and ask them to put composite to cover the sensitive areas as it might affect how the trays fit on my teeth! I'll just have to live with it for the next 11 months I suppose! =_=
So my feeling after the 1st day is quite positive- the trays are easy to manage, they are indeed pretty much invisible (I am going to have 'attachments' on my teeth so the trays have 'bubbles' on them already, so if you look really closely and when i smile too wide, then people can notice the 'bubbles'), AND, strangely enough, I am not in that much pain, just a bit sore... And into the negatives... I met up with friends after my appointment at Starbucks and watching everyone enjoying their cafe latte and me with my bottled water was not a good feeling! It did lure me to take off the trays but the sensible side of me stopped myself as I didn't have my toothbrush or toothpaste!
I've been labelled as 'cute' for a LONG time... I know people are just being polite as 'cute' is just a nice way to say that you're not pretty! I don't normally smile without showing my teeth (coz my teeth are big and it's just unnatural not to smile without teeth!), so just want to try out Invisalign so my big smile don't scare people away! :P
Invisalign treatment will consist of a series of aligners that you switch out about every two weeks. Each aligner is individually manufactured with exact calculations to gradually shift your teeth into place. And since your Invisalign system is custom-made for your teeth and your teeth only, with a plan devised by you and your dentist or orthodontist, you know you'll end up with a smile that truly fits.
Can't believe it's Chinese New Year already! Today is quite an eventful day as India is also having their own Republic Day celebration and guess what, it's a public holiday in Australia too! 
