Invisalign: Tray 19

I realized that I hadn’t written about my Invisalign experience in MONTHS, and thought it was high time I wrote a little something.

When I last wrote about it, I was pretty miserable. But thankfully, and as I had expected it to at the time, that passed after about a week. Once my tongue adapted to the new brackets that had been attached to the inside edges of my teeth, the pain and discomfort went away. As did all of the canker sores. I am pleased to announce that it’s been quite some time since the treatment has caused any of those nasties.

And as the treatment has progressed, removing the aligners has also gotten easier and easier. The less crowded the teeth get, the easier everything gets.

And, I never thought I would say it, but I actually like the look of my teeth with the aligners on more than when they are off. The plastic makes them look smoother and shinier. Even so, I’m excited for the day (which isn’t all THAT far off already!) where I can take them off and get the brackets removed and show off a brand new smile.

I had a check-up with the orthodontist earlier this week, and he was blown away by how well the treatment has gone so far. He confessed to me that he had never honestly thought my teeth would respond to the treatment all that well. It might have been nice to know that before I signed up and signed contracts agreeing to pay several thousand dollars.

However, had he expressed his doubts, I might never have gone through with it, and then I’d still be back at square one. So, I forgive him.

I was shocked to see him get so excited about my teeth, because while I do see some change in them, I didn’t think they had changed enough to warrant as strong a response as he gave. But I see my teeth every single day, so the changes are harder for me to notice.

I spent the past few days searching through old pictures trying to find a good shot of my teeth from before treatment so I could compare them. I didn’t get my act together to take really good ones before I started treatment, and couldn’t find any from my own candid libraries of photos. Apparently I was really good at doing half-smiles and closed-lip smiles in order to hide them.

But I finally found one, and WOW! The changes are astounding. Now I see why he got so excited.

Here is a picture of my teeth from before I began Invisalign treatment.

Quite the difference, no? What you can’t see in the first picture is that I also had an underbite. Currently, my top teeth have moved to be even with the bottom ones, and within two months, will be in front of them and I will have a proper overbite.

And that’s after only eight months of treatment. I have just under four months left. It’s possible I’ll need some refinements that could extend my treatment by a few months, but I’m completely and totally happy with the results so far.

No more closed-smiles for me! I’m showing these pearly whites everywhere I go from now on!