Stuck on aligner #14 :(

Happy 2014 everyone! :))

2013 had been an amazing year for me, with many new experiences and friends made, and it also marked the start of a few journeys, such as the one for my Invisalign. I hope 2013 had been great for you guys too! :)

My 2013 ended well, with a trip to Taiwan in December. As we all know, good food and local delights are irresistible when you're overseas! I, unfortunately, am a foodie and I do eat quite a lot and quite often. As advised by my dentist, I wore my aligners for as much as I can during my trip and also the same set of aligners (which was #12) for the entire 14-day period. Due to little access to washrooms as I roamed the different towns, streets and night markets, I generally only wore my aligners from the time I returned to the hotel and until it was time for breakfast, which made up to about just 9 hours or so each day. Very far off from the optimal 22-hours/day. And the consequence?

Well, because I had the same set on for 14 days, at the end of that period my teeth were still on track for their progress in movement generally, based on a review I had at my dentist shortly after I returned to Singapore. It was, however, extremely sore for me when I placed the aligners back on at the end of each day. It's true when people tell you your teeth's alignment can shift in just a day. In the morning after I had my aligners on through a night's sleep, my teeth would be in aligner #12's position. However, I did notice that the alignment would be kinda off at the end of the day (it was obvious for 2 of my lower incisors which should be straight at #12) just before I place the aligners back on, which explains the discomfort and soreness I felt. Fortunately, the discomfort didn't last long and my teeth felt ok by the time I had to sleep.

After 14 days with aligner #12, I was back to my 10-day cycle with aligners #13 and #14. I was supposed to move on to #15 since last Monday, but I couldn't because.....

There's a defect in the top aligner of #15 :(

Usually when switching to a new set of aligners I'd just rinse and put them on without checking much. But this aligner really felt odd on my top left molar, so I took a look in the mirror and saw that it totally didn't fit onto my molar. It was only when I removed it that I saw the huge hole and the distorted plastic at the back of the aligner. Had brought it back to my dentist, and while they get a replacement for me, which would take 1-2 weeks, I can only stick with aligner #14 which I'm wearing for the 19th day now :( It's boring, my aligner's getting more worn out (because I'm wearing the same one for so long), and there's no progression with teeth movement. It's just stuck at this stage for now :(

I hope I get my aligner #15 really really soon! >.<

#10 marks a milestone achieved!

How time flies!!

I've zoomed past aligners #6, 7, 8, and 9, and now I'm on aligner #10!! :) Milestone achieved!! 

(Well it's not entirely rational but #10 just seems like one good milestone to arrive at. It does mark the completion of 1/6 of my journey! :D)

Yes it's been a long long while since I last updated but I'm really still in the same stage of teeth movement. There is little change in my smile at the moment, but definitely lots of moving at the back because there are gaps between all my molars and premolars now (which make eating meat and veggies annoying cos they get stuck so easily). Here's a picture of the full view now, nevertheless, for some comparison from how it originally was. Aligner #10 is the top picture :)

And a comparison of my aligners to see how far I've come! Top row is aligner #1 and bottom row's aligner #9 (because I'm wearing #10 now). I know the aligners may look unclean but they're really all cleaned before they're kept :( After being through that few aligners, I've come to accept that stains are gonna be there regardless of how meticulous I am with the cleaning, brushing and rinsing. So, yeah. Here're my old aligners~

It's not very obvious, but the "teeth" in aligner #9 are more spaced out than those in #1, and the shape of aligner #9 is also slightly more U-shaped than #1's, which is more "V". The ideal shape at the end should be a nice U-shape :)

Had two short aligner reviews before I moved on to aligner #10, and basically everything's going according to the treatment plan :) I'm having lesser of sore gums now, though it can still be hard to bite on the day that I switch over to a new set of aligners. My teeth felt more sensitive to temperature changes though (e.g. rinsing after having a hot drink, or having an iced drink just after removing my aligners), which I wondered if it was a temporary state because my teeth are moving and "weaker", or that my frequent brushing of 4 - 5 times a day had resulted in sensitive teeth (which was an issue I never had before Invisalign). My dentist informed that it wasn't likely to be either of those, but I could continue to monitor to see if the issue persists and in the meantime, try toothpaste for sensitive teeth to see if it helps, which the clinic also kindly provided. So, we'll see how it goes!

Anyway, I was overseas in Batam a few weekends ago too and it definitely was tricky! For one thing, it was hard having little or no access to a proper cleaning system when you're out and eating. There was no other choice but to just rinse (at not-so-clean basins) and re-insert my aligners after a meal outside. Another issue was, of course, the duration of my aligners being actually on.. But you're not doing yourself justice by not eating all the local delights and whatever you want when you're in another country!!

Although it wasn't that much of local delights for this trip, the long meals I had were definitely way off the optimal 2-hours limit for aligners being out. As advised by my dentist previously, it is understandable that patients eat more often and leave their aligners out for a longer period of time during holidays (haha :P). What we can do is to compensate a little by wearing the set of aligners for the full period of 2 weeks, and of course continue to try having the aligners on for as long as we can.

Well, I have a longer 9-day trip to Taiwan (the land of awesome street food!) comin' up in December and that would definitely be a greater challenge than that weekend trip which seems like peanuts right now. Let's hope things will remain well during this time! :)

On to aligner #4 and #5

Aligner #3 was a sore experience! Following the tightness that came with the elastics in the first few days were very sore molars and gums on days 6 to 8. It was really hard to chew my food and I had to opt for a slightly softer diet on those days, so no biscuits, crackers, or m&m snacks :(

Aligner #4 was pretty much a faster experience and time just seemed to fly by quickly. It might be because I was busy as well, but it did seem like a shorter experience with the aligners and very soon, 10 days were over and I was on to aligner #5! :)

I'm now on day 2 of Aligner #5 and I gotta say, this set of aligners are the tightest yet. Besides aligner #2 which was tight because I just had my attachments and elastics newly added on, aligner #5 almost took my teeth out when I tried to remove them >.<

The aligners weren't difficult to remove, but the removal did send up shots of intense soreness from the teeth to the roots to the gums. The intense sensations were short-lived, fortunately, and the intensity now is not as high as it was during the first removal of aligner #5. I do hope my teeth get accustomed to their new positions soon!

Other than that, I do feel my last molars moving into place and more small gaps in btween the rest of my teeth. Routine-wise, however, I gotta admit that I'm getting a little lazy now haha. There were quite a few occasions where I took drinks, like Milo, with the aligners on and only gargled my mouth after that. Also about one or two occasions where I snacked about 2 hours before dinner time and only gargled before putting my aligners back on because I figured dinner time was gonna be soon and I will be eating again anyway =X Bad habits!!! Am trying hard not to let them kick in because they do increase the chances of potential decay and my aligners did get more stained as well :( The stained aligners probably aren't obvious to others but they are very noticeable to me because I see them everyday and the discolouration just gets stronger. So, it's not good! I shall attempt to stick to the optimal routine more for aligner #5. Wish me luck!

Stretchy elastics and aligner #3!

Trip to the dentist on 4 Sep'13 to add on buttons for my elastics! Somehow my blur brain registered that elastics will only be on from my 5th aligner onwards....... But it's really from my 2nd aligner onwards so after the buttons were attached on today, i had my elastics as well.

Frankly, I'm not that excited about elastics because they kinda make the treatment a lot more visible :( But okayy for the sake of achieving my desirable end results, let's just quickly get them over and done with!

At the appointment, I had a quick aligner review with my dentist who informed me that I should be feeling some gaps at the back of my teeth where food gets stuck very easily too.

Well guess what?
Bingo! Well done teeth! Great that u're movin' in the right direction and so quickly too ;)

And since my dentist was there, I had a quick check with him about my current cracked aligner and asked if it's ok to switch to the next set when I'm only on my 11th day. Not that the aligner was causing me discomfort in any way, but there would always be this worry that my aligner might break when i remove it this time every time i have to do that. Also, just in case another aligner cracks in future, I want to know if it would be alright to move on to the next set. So according to my dentist, if I'm able to wear my aligners on for 22 hours a day, and in view of the current treatment stage where we're moving tooth by tooth towards the back, it would be alright to switch aligners at the 10th day or even on the 7th day :)

So I'm on to my 3rd aligner now!

First impression: It feels reaaally tight together with the elastics. Besides the usual initial tightness with a new set of aligners, it also felt like my jaw movements were restricted, or like my jaw was "clamped" together when my mouth's closed :X

normal smiley view with aligner and elastics

full front view with aligner and elastics

elastics on the left

elastics on the right

The last photo's the best I could get to give a slightly clearer view of the button that the elastics hook on to. The two buttons on the front (attached to my canines) are tooth-coloured while the two at the back (attached to my molars) are metal, much like those on traditional braces. After the buttons are bonded to my teeth, they're trimmed for comfort so that they don't cut my skin. So far, the only issue I've had is with the metal button on my left molar, which seems to "catch" onto my cheek when I eat, making me bite myself a little :( For that, my dentist gave me some wax to stick over the metal button so that the surface kinda smooths over. However, if the wax doesn't help, then the button can be re-positioned. Well, the wax does help a little, and I don't bite myself so often now after my skin got used to the button. Hopefully the issue gets completely resolved soon!

Putting on the elastics was pretty easy with the help of a little plastic holder (refer to photo below). So basically I just have to place one elastic band over the hook on the holder, use the holder to hook the elastic band over the metal button, and then stretch it up to the tooth-coloured button at the front :)

holder, elastic bands, and bag of elastics

Thankfully, elastics don't cut me, so wearing them was pretty comfortable and I adapted to them soon. Let's hope aligner #3 comes with a good experience too! :)


Fun fact: There are different animals on the bag to indicate the different strengths of the elastics! Zebra's the least strength and good for starters' use :) In the event that stubborn teeth don't move with the elastics, stronger elastics may be given (e.g. indicated by Elephant).

Oh no :(

Horrors!!

I found a crack in my upper aligner on Day 9 of 2nd aligner while cleaning them in the morning :(

Had a few petrifying seconds with fleeting thoughts about how the crack came about, like was it during removal was it because i brushed them too hard was it because i held them the wrong way.... Thankfully, they were still pretty functional so I placed them back on and called my clinic for advice.

According to them, since the cracked aligner wasn't causing me pain or discomfort in any area, and since I have an appointment just a few days later, I could continue using the aligner until then. Of course, I could make a trip to the clinic immediately and let them have a look, but honestly I think they wouldn't be able to do much either - I mean, it's not like they can "glue" and seal the crack up right? I could also get a replacement of my 2nd aligner (which will take about 2 weeks to arrive and will cost $100) but I find that unnecessary since I'll be switching over to my 3rd aligner soon.

And so, I had my cracked aligner on for the next few days and prayed that it wouldn't crack further or even break.

Moral of the story?
Be really gentle with your aligners! >.<

Day 18

Yup it's quite a big gap from the previous time i recorded my short journey with invisalign.. but was too caught up with things and now i finally found some time!

Back from my previous update, the rough-edges issue was well-resolved with the trimming done at OSD, and my lips and tongue were much more comfortable a few days later. my ulcers were able to heal, and my tongue was able to adapt well to the aligners so lisp was about 90% gone by the end of my 1st set of aligners. hooray! :)

had my 2nd set of aligners on 24 Aug, and i had attachments bonded to my teeth as well. quite a number of them, cos i had a few problematic teeth that really needed to move, so i have "bigger" attachments on my upper canines, two small attachments each on my 4 upper premolars, and one small attachment each on my lower canines and premolars. the attachments are tooth-coloured, so personally, without the aligners on, i don't find them that noticeable unless someone looks very closely at my teeth. With aligners on, yes they're more visible. However, people who didn't know about my invisalign treatment still don't notice it until I tell them :)

top: without aligners

bottom: with aligners

attachments on the left side

attachments on the right side

With the attachments, putting the aligners on are still easy, but it's definitely harder to get them off. I struggled with the worry of breaking my nails or the aligners, and requested getting a tool from my dentist to pry the aligners off but was rejected cos I shouldn't be dependent on the tool. :( it does makes sense, yes.. and I'm glad my aligners cooperated and finally came off after lots of tugging and pulling. They still don't hurt my teeth or gums, though they can be very tight on the teeth when i'm halfway through removing them. My fingers did feel slightly sore from the tiny battle though :( Thankfully, removal of the aligners over the next few days got better and they're now as easily removed as my first set. There was also no difficulty with eating and brushing as well.

Another thing that I'm excited about is also that there are now gaps between my upper molars, which means my molars are moving backwards pretty signifcantly already! :) My dental floss doesn't even get stuck between adjacent molars anymore; it just goes right between them with no resistance! However, food does get stuck in that space more easily so flossing's much more necessary now. Lots of effort needed! But I suppose that's all worth it cos I'm starting to get someee results even from my 2nd set of aligners :) I can't wait to switch to the next one!

Day 4 of invisalign! :)

Good in that I'm kinda getting used to the routine and my teeth feel pretty fine too. Not that much of soreness or tenderness, though it can ache a little when i bite and I cant bite down fully on my food :( think some indigestion will come along.. but that's not the bad part! bad part is the rough edges are causing some abrasion on my inner lips and tongue and giving me ulcerssss. yikes. gave OSD a call and went back to trim the rough edges. it's a bit better now but i can still feel the roughness.. it may be becos my skin is already sore and hypersensitive now so it doesnt feel significantly better, but let's hope it will really get better very soon.. don't want anymore random bleeding from my ulcer again :( go away!

*prays for better adaptability to invisalign. that includes having lesser of a lisp!*

other than that, all's good :) im happy that ppl dont even realise im on "braces" and are impressed by the technology now haha. let's hope things continue to be better :)