Keeping Me In Line (Aligner #1)

So, today I went to my ortho and got my first set of aligners fitted!!! I had to get one tooth “shaved” on either side, (0.1 of a millimetre, and he will shave them more when I see him next, in 5 weeks) and nine buttons. Yes, NINE. Getting the aligners fitted didn’t hurt in the slightest, once they were clipped in, I felt instant pressure on a few of my teeth. I have to wear this first set for three weeks, then I change to set number two, and from then on, it’s two weeks each set. I have 22 sets on top, and 14 on the bottom. So, that's almost a year's worth of treatment.

My ortho said that these were one of tightest lots he’s ever fitted, which worried me, as I was already getting hungry (I was too nervous to eat a big breakfast) and don’t have much fingernail height left (from nervous biting). Anyway, the appointment took an hour, and I wasn’t in too much pain after so we had a walk around and did some shopping. I was told I can eat with them in for the day if they don’t want to come out, and if I can’t get them out tomorrow morning, to call my ortho and go down there, he can take my buttons off so it’s easier.

I was sooo hungry on the way home I thought I was going to faint, so we got some hot chips, and I was eating them like a hungry seagull! Gulp gulp gulp without chewing!! When I got home, I tried to get them out, to clean my teeth since chips had got in under them (GROSS). Well, what a mission! My Outie tool I bought broke first try, SHAME ON THEM. The freight was 10x more than the product when I bought them online from the USA. I drunk hot water to loosen them, and after much swearing and panicking, I tugged them out.  Found they hurt the most when they are half out, and pushing my teeth weird ways, and when I first clip them back in.

I look some photos for yall, so have a looksie, excuse the horrid face I have to pull to show you all my teeth! Oh, for those of you who worry about the pain, I had one painkiller and one anti-inflammatory and I was ready to roll.

So exciting!!

They really aren’t that visible, even with the buttons. My partner said 7, on a scale of 1 to 10, for invisibility (10 being invisible to the point of querying existence.) He also said, on a scale of one to Nigel Thornberry, I am rather dashing...... Gotta love him. I rung my dad when they were freshly in, and he said that I didn’t sound in too much pain, so he will ring them and tell them to make it worse, since he’s paid so much, he wants to hear me whinge I guess.

Anyway, that’s a wrap for me, my invisible readers, Over and Out, and look at my photos! And click FOLLOW if you like this!!

Until next time,

Faith J

My teeth as they are normally

Here you can see some of the buttons glued on, I have 9 in total.

My first set of aligners.

Invisalign Aligners #1 in place.

With Bells On

Just a quickie today....

The receptionist at the practice rung today to remind me to be there at 10am tomorrow. LIKE I HAD FOROTTEN. I told her I'd be there will bells on, and she said that she can't wait to see them, soooo I'm contemplating wearing a huge bell or something just to be strange.....

I'll let you know how tomorrow goes as soon as I'm near a computer. I see that I am getting quite a few page views; for those of you who are reading this and finding what I'm saying interesting, educational or downright stupid but you want to keep reading, please please please click "follow" so I don't feel that I am wiriting this for thin air. Not that it matters, I mean, when I'm home alone I'll quite happily have full-on one-sided conversations with my cats......

Terror Building

I'm hungry. Hungry hungry hungry.
With only today and tomorrow as my only Invisalign free days left, I'm starting, well, actually rather CONTINUING (but more fervently) to panic a bit and seem to be having dentist-influenced dreams at night.

I'm really sure it's nothing to be afraid of, buuuuut, the thought of Nice Dentist Man scaling the outside edges of my teeth with a little dremmel type tool while I wear safety glasses to stop crap going in my eyes and craning my neck to watch a movie with no sound, Peruvian subtitles, that may or may not be Indiana Jones.

The only thing I'm really looking forward to is splashing out for Maccas for breakfast (DREAM BIG!) before it's dentist time. Hopefully I can stuff myself so much that I won't be hungry until dinner and only have to deal with the terror of taking my Invisalign out once that day..... But that won't happen - everyone knows I'm Miss Piggy's sister....

STAY POSITIVE WOMAN, me and only me is responsible for wanting this, so me and only me should STOP WHINING and grow a pair :)

Until next time, invisible readers,

Faith

PS, this isn't me, but this is what my mouth will be looking like within 72 hours!

Graze and Amaze

So, *sorry boss man* I am writing this post at work, it 9:15am, and I have so far eaten the following:
Crispy noodles (actually had to spit some out, had a mouth full when the phone rang just before)
A coffee (well, it's cold today, I needed warming up)
Some nuts and raisens

I don't really eat set meals, apart from dinner. Rather, I graze during the day. I realised today, four days from getting my aligners fitted, that this needs to stop, or I will be pulling them out, eating, brushing, putting them in, every hour or so. I EAT SO DAMN MUCH!!!!!

I feel very sorry for my poor poor body having to adjust to this :( It's not it's fault. And, another thing; next week is a friend's 21st dinner and drinks. Do I pull them out, skull some wine, brush, floss and put them back in? Or keep them out? Seems a bit lose lose to me! Lucky I dont drink much!!! Maybe this will make me start????

I'm getting real nervous that I won't be able to get my aligners out and I will die of starvation - quite a real fear if you see how much I eat :P

Reassurance, please people!

Stop, ClinCheck time

So, I decided it was about time I worked out how to upload videos to this thing, and you can tell I was successful, here are my ClinChecks!! You can really see my "fangs" move into shape! Excitey! Also, bought some Outies off of Amazon.com, the freight was horrific but I think they will be worth it, since I cant guarantee my nails will be able to support ripping these things out several times a day, as I have a tendency to chew my nails. Whoops. 

Slow progression

Well, I got a call yesterday from my ortho's office lady, telling me that my Invisalign aligners had FINALLY arrived. Coincidentally, I missed the call, coz I was brushing my teeth. Anyway, I rung back, to make my appointment, and they told me the closest date was over two weeks away. So I said NO. I have been waiting twice as long as any other cat has had to wait, so I am not waiting another two weeks. Call me pushy, but it worked - I'm booked in to get my aligners fitted on Thursday, only six days away, and if that wasn't good enough (which it still actually isn't) I'm top priority on the list if someone cancels an appointment with more than an hours notice.

Cost wise, apart from the initial consult fee of around $60.00 which was a loooong time ago, since it took me forever to get my A into G, my Invisalign treatment looks to be costing only $4000.00NZD. Well, we were told to pay $1500 when the ClinChecks came through, but that only turned out to be $1000, and we have another $2500 to go. I'm thinking that's very reasonable. Bear in mind, I didn't "shop around" like people do in big cities, as this was the only clinic in the area offering Invisalign.

I do have a few questions, and if I post them here, maybe it will help me to remember to ask the nice man with the icky tasting gloves - or maybe someone will actually read thing thing and answer them for me beforehand???

1) Can I wear these at the gym, silly question I know, but I'm just wondering about how fun exercising will be when I have plastic in my mouth. I only drink water anyway, no sport drink things.
2) Will this harm the progress of my bottom wisdom teeth cutting through? I was told they don't need to be removed for the treatment, but I'm thinking maybe the aligners will irritate the raw gum at the back of my mouth from them?
3) Can I whiten my teeth while using them? I read on another blog somewhere that a lady was doing it, but is it special whitening or just any old chemist stuff?

That's about it for today, I actually should use work's computer to do WORK. Please please please let me know if anyone is reading this...... I'm getting nervous about getting my aligners fitted, and would sure like some reassurance!!!

Here's me just over a year ago, with my cheeky fangs poking through...

A weirdo stockpiling

I just had a thought to share with you my recent trip to the supermarket with a friend.

We had planned a movie night, and needed the junk food to go with it. I also needed to buy some toothpaste etc, to stock up for when I got Invisalign, while I had the money. My partner put in a request for liquorice and chocolate.

We walked up to the checkout, Leanne with her popcorn, bikkies, wine, lollies and chippies, and me with a huge armful of toothpastes, toothbrushes, floss, denture cleaner, chocolate, and liquorice. Well, the look the checkout lady gave me! It was like "honey, I suggest not even buying chocolate if you are that anal over oral hygiene and tooth decay." Maybe in future I will buy the bits and pieces one or two at a time, in order to live life more inconspicuously. 

Another thing, this morning dad asked after my Invisalign, wondering why they hadn't arrived yet. I told him they must be still on the boat... "A BOAT!? THEY COME ON A FLAMING BOAT? HOW BIG ARE THE FLAMING THINGS? GIVE ME THEIR NUMBER!!!!" Yes, certainly, so nice dentist man can turn into torturous dentist man when I visit him next.

A game called "waiting"

After finding out that my wisdom teeth can stay in, and feeling wiser for it (punny!) I make my next appointment to get photos and moulds taken of my chompers, so they can be sent to America and Invisalign can do their thang promptly and efficiently and send back my aligners. Hmm. So, after three minutes of goo on my bottom teeth and gloved fingers in my mouth, my ortho tells me to relax as he pulls the bottom moulds out. RELAX! It feels like he’s trying to pull my head off! Thankfully the bottom mould turned out good, so he moved onto the top. With gooier goo. After another three minutes of goo running down my throat and a strange man’s fingers touching my tongue, he pulls the top mould out only to find it didn’t work so good.

Time for round too, and what do you know, the same thing happens again. By now I have a grumpy partner sitting in the waiting room, a stomach full of blue goo, and a sore jaw. Thankfully it was third time lucky, and I was left to sit and pick out the blue gunk from my teeth on the trip home.

Waiting, waiting, waiting. After a month (It’s meant to take around that long) I rung up to ask where my aligners were. Long story short, my ortho sent the images in the wrong file format, and the people in America didn’t tell him until he inquired as to the whereabouts of my aligners as I did to him. He sends the pics again in a different format (why can’t they do it themselves over there?) and two weeks later I received an email containing my ClinCheck videos. Wow! To see my teeth move before my eyes and know what they will look like after was such a huge buzz! I was anticipating getting my aligners the next week. 

Two weeks later, however, I hadn’t heard from them still, so I rung. My aligners were on a boat, heading to New Zealand as we speak, the lady told me, and they will be here very soon. Another two weeks pass. This morning I rung them again, still nothing. 

Has anybody had a similar experience? I am of course “high priority” when they come in. Is it always this slow or am I just special?

Me: Oh, the crookedness!

In the beginning....

Let me introduce myself as Faith. I am from New Zealand, and I am pursuing Invisalign as treatment for my crowded teeth. As a child, my teeth were blessed (and still probably are), as, apart from the crowding – upper and lower – I have not had one filling in my life. No dentistry what so ever. No teeth pulling. No injections, no dribbly lips and numb gums. Needless to say, since I have never been in the hot seat like many of my friends, I am completely phobic of dentists, dental procedures and the smell of dentist. Last time I saw a dentist (before Invisalign) I was 13, and I bit him. I’m 21 now, and still have the nasty rubber glove taste in my mouth.

Many times as a teen I was offered conventional braces by my parents. Dad actually tried to force me, but to no avail. When I hit 13 and started a new school, people with braces were teased, so I wasn’t going to get braces!!! Being already quite unsocial and bookish, I didn’t want to add reason to be teased more.

In February, my father asked me what I wanted for a 21^st present. A holiday? A new TV or something? Jewelery? I answered INVISALIGN!!!! He said, “Invisa-what?” and so I described to him what it was and he seemed interested. He always says “Surely your teeth aren’t that bad! Giz a look” and then I open my mouth, and he said “oh right, now I remember.” Gee, thanks dad.

So, I was nervously excited and had dad to hold my hand at the orthodontists, which is an hour’s trip away, while I had my first consult. My orthodontist is a lovely, gentle man, who takes time to listen to me, so I wasn’t so scared after the first few minutes. He says I’m the perfect candidate for this treatment, and estimates around eight months as the time it will take.

I come away from the appointment very excited, and thinking things will happen fast and soon I will have Invisalign. I then had to make an appointment to see the scary dentist that specialises in pulling teeth, as my wisdom teeth are cutting through and they may need to be removed. After more rubber gloves in my mouth and some xrays, I am told they are fine to stay in or come out, what ever I please. As they aren’t too sore, I choose for them to stay. Mainly because I’m a wuss and would it require a two hour drive to the closest city for general anaesthetic to get all four removed at the same time. Not my cuppa tea thanks mate.