My lack of speediness in the blogging department once again shows that nothing too exciting has happened since I last checked in, apart from in the last week.
I have been on set 22 of 22 (hells yes!!) for three weeks and four days now. I was advised to wear this set (remember my bottoms finished way back at 14) for longer as my orthodontist wasn't too sure if my teeth directly on either side of my front ones (insert flash name here) would drop down level by themselves or not, so we decided to wait another week before taking any action in the hope that it happened. It did not. So now, as of Monday just gone, I have two metal attachments, one on the gum line of each of the two offending teeth, which rubber bands hook onto and to down the tooth, around the bottom and back up the inside where they slot into grooves made into my aligners.
Not very sexy! But it does make me so greatful at how invisible my treatment has been so far, and reminds me how lucky I was not to have full metal braces. These will stay on for a month, a bit of a disaster it is my birthday in 5 days and I do feel self conscience around people a lot more than I used to, and also, I have lots of job interviews to go to and am worried that my appearance may affect getting work. In retrospect though, a month is a short time to be inconvenienced - I am lucky.
Now, I have talked about the pain invisalign causes in the past, but let me tell you, I was NOT prepared for it this time. Thinking my teeth were straight (well almost) made me think there would be no more pain - turns out that pulling teeth downward instead of just moving them is much, much more painful. Pair that with being cold and having no painkillers on hand, Monday night was not a nice one for me or anyone in my company - at one point I was awake in the night trying not to wake Josh with my whimpering.
I'm sure you all can see from the photo above that my teeth are looking great! The two teeth with the bands still need to move around a bit, which is a huge hastle because it means that I have to get all my buttons/attachments taken off, moulds done again and all the process started again for refinements. This will happen on the 18th of June at my next appointment. This appointment will be along one, because as well as that being done, I also get my teeth shaped to be all uniform, and my front one that is chipped filled in. In earlier photos I think you will see that my eye teeth and others too have notches in them - these are from when your teeth first cut thru at a child, normal wear and tear get rid of them - unless you have a screwed up bite, like I did. They have not had the chance to wear down naturally so my orthodontist will be working his magic and doing it for me. I think that bit excites me the most - finally having not just straight, but uniform teeth!!!
In past posts I complained about my bottom aligner that is being used as a retainer was getting scungey. Well, after more than 16 weeks of having it, my mouth just feels foul. The aligner has build up on i that a toothbrush cant get away, it is not clear now, rather opaque and foul smelling, and I am constantly paranoid of having bad breathe. Even now, just after brushing and flossing and soaking my aligners in denture cleaning fluid - the dissolvable tablet kind - I feel I do not have very fresh breath. Yes I can taste mint, but also yucky mouth taste too. If anyone has tricks to get rid of or help with this, please comment on this post - I feel pretty unhygenic these days :(
That's all for now - I'm sure this has served as a decent lengthed update for yall!!
Comment if you have questions etc!
Faith <3
