I finally received my Invisalign today. And after a couple hours, I’m doing alright. I think.
I was a little discouraged to find that I was going to be receiving the bracket attachments to every tooth except for the front four on my top row of teeth. I knew I would have to get some, but I was hoping for only a few. Instead, only a few teeth were spared.
I know they are tooth-colored and therefore a bit camouflaged, but not totally invisible to the eye. But mostly I will miss the feel of my teeth. It will be quite some time before I can run my tongue along the front of my teeth and have it be a nice smooth ride. Now there are rough bumps on each tooth as I go. Which also just makes me feel like my teeth are dirty and have a filmy coat on them.
Ew.
I had my first meal with the attachments on as well. And that was an experience. The food got caught on and around them, and I spent most of my meal trying to clean them up with my tongue while trying not to be obvious that I was trying to clean my teeth with my tongue after every bite. I can see how eating in public will take a lot of extra tact now.
The biggest problem I’ve encountered so far comes when it is time to take the aligners out of my mouth though. I had a practice run at the doctor’s office, and it didn’t go to tell. The damn buggers are so freaking tight that I couldn’t get a grip on them enough to pull them off, and even had I been able to get that grip, they are on so tight that it would be like trying to open the jar of apple butter spread that is sitting in my fridge. It just won’t budge.
Finally the doctor gave me some weird medical instrument to see if I could get it off by prying them off. So there I was with this long sharp piece of metal in my mouth like a crowbar trying to get these damn aligners out of my mouth.
No such luck.
So finally with their help, I got them off, but not without popping one of the attachments off in the process. They assured it’s ok if that happens and I can just get one put on in its place in a subsequent visit.
Gee, great. Can’t wait to get that put back on.
While on my way home and feeling a bit bummed because it wasn’t the rainbows and unicorns experience I was hoping for, I saw a lady on the train that had about four teeth in her mouth and all pointing in different directions like a compass.
“This isn’t so bad, Nick. This isn’t so bad”
And so far, the pain isn’t all that bad. I’m told when I wake up tomorrow is when I will start to feel it though. So, I have a bottle of Tylenol at the ready and plan on overdosing if I need to. the last thing I want to do is become so irritable from discomfort that I piss off everyone around me.
Perhaps it was bad timing that Kevin and I are leaving for another wedding in a couple days. First few days with Invisalign and I’m going halfway across the country to a formal event where I’m going to be digging around in my mouth pulling out aligners and trying not to lisp at everyone I meet.
Well, lisp more than my norm, that is.
The doctor gave me all of my aligners to hold on to, and I took a sneak peek at the final set (which I won’t actually use for about a year yet) and saw what my teeth will look like once this process is over.
It was a gorgeous site to behold.
This will definitely be worth it.