4th visit, brace fitting

Monday 16th August.

I've finally had my invisalign braces fitted! Yipee!

After waiting a good few weeks for the return of the aligners, I am finally a true 'brace face'. My half hour appointment lasted nearly 45 minutes today. Tony Burns, my orthodontist, ran throught the expected outcome of the aligners with me. I was then taken to the treatment room to begin the inter proximal shaving stage of treatment. Not pleasant! Although not at all painful as I had imagined it to be. After tolerating what seemed like a pneumatic drill vibrating inside my skull, I now have nice little spaces in between certain teeth to allow movement of my over crowded teeth. Only a few teeth have been filed as Tony seems to think it will be less traumatic to carry out the procedure intermittently rather than all at once, so still rather a lot of 'shaving' of teeth to be done. At least I know it isn't painful now.

Attachments: In order for more pressure to be put on certain teeth to aid movement, I have had 5 attachments on my top teeth and 4 on the bottom set. These are the only slightly noticeable things once the aligners are in place but boy can you feel where they are once you remove the aligners!

Once the dentist had fitted the aligners I was given clear instructions on how to look after them/ store them. Sounded easy enough.... turns out it's quite time consuming with having to remove, clean, brush and floss each time I eat. I'm just getting used to removing the very tight aligners and replacing them after each meal. The knack is to flick them off from the inside and outside of the teeth before trying to ease them off. Being totally honest, I found myself sweating (probably in panic!) the first time I tried to remove them! 25 minutes it took me, just to get them off to eat a banana!!! At one point I did start to panic that it would be an impossible feat, but hey, patience is a virtue and I won't be beaten. Off they popped. My new 'spaces' are gathering bits of food that I'm not used to, so flossing is an absolute MUST!

I have been prescribed numerous tubes of high strength flouride toothpaste to help avoid potential cavities. If I get ANY cavities with the amount of over zealous cleaning and flossing I am doing, I will be gutted. I have never looked after my teeth so much in my whole life! I purchased Retainer Brite tablets to keep the aligners bacteria free and nice and bright looking.

I have had the aligners on for 5 days now and can honestly say they are not half as bad as I expected. I did take a strong ibuprofen tablet the day after fitting, as my gums were throbbing, but nothing too dramatic. Nobody has noticed them and I have a slight lisp which is disappearing more each day. My teeth are very sensitive once the aligners are removed and one of the attachments is making it extremely difficult to chew my food as the top tooth is catching it as I bite down, which I shall mention next time I visit the clinic. All in all I am very very pleased with them. I can now remove them and replace them in seconds and although slightly uncomfortable for a few days, I now don't feel like I have them on! Brilliant. They must be doing their job already with the tenderness of the gums.

Side effects: Very dry lips, can't work out why, but nothing a tub of vaseline can't rectify. Also the benefits are I don't snack AT ALL in between meals as it would be a total pain in the backside to remove, clean, brush, floss, replace just for the sake of a flapjack or a biscuit which can only be a positive!

I have to change the aligners in 2 weeks for the next set (13 upper, 20 lower in total), which I am told will feel tighter and maybe slightly uncomfortable to begin with.

So......... a successful fitting and few first days, here's to the next 2 years to gain the Hollywood smile!!!!!

Clincheck for Invisalign braces

Blimey, payed for my braces yesterday(21st July 2010) and now have a very large dent in my bank balance BUT, looking at the video and pictures from my Clincheck it should be well worth it in the end. Big thanks to Siobhan for forwarding the digital disc of the video and images to add to my blog. Just have to wait 4 weeks (16th August) to go for the next stage of treatment, which will involve shaving minimal amounts from the sides of my teeth to ensure that there is enough space for the teeth to move into and then having the braces fitted on the same day. The best news is that I don't have to have any extractions, WOOO HOOOOOO!!! Check out the before and after video and digital images. Fingers crossed the finished result is as digitally predicted. I am impressed so far.

2nd Visit

Second visit to Orthoworld yesterday, 23rd June 2010, with permission from Dr Burn's himself at to use his name in my blog now. I didn't feel at all nervous today as I knew what to expect. I simply went back to have the bottom set of impressions/ moulds (see picture above)re-taken due to the fact I have an odd sized jaw that the standard sizes wouldn't fit initially.

Maria, the dental nurse was well prepared for me, slightly pessimistic which was lightheartedly verbally noted by Dr Burns, with 3 nozzles just in case the first moulds didn't take again. Bless her, she must be psychic because 3 impressions later Dr Burns had a mould of a good enough standard to send away. I have to say it's a jaw aching experience, a bit like warm plastercine being squashed around your gums at the same time as having to breathe through your nose. The only discomfort was the mould pressing down on my partially erupted wisdom tooth. It makes me laugh that Dr Burns looks the other way when pressing the impressions down so he doesn't have to stare up my nostrils for half an hour, can't be the most pleasant view.

Dr Burns now sends the moulds off to America to be checked to see if the treatment will work for me. Invisalign then send a digital image back of what the braces should achieve during and at the end of the course of treatment. Then, when they call me it will be all systems go. I'm looking forward to actually getting the braces fitted now although I'm still apprehensive about the pain that people keep telling me the braces cause when your teeth start to move.

I've been trying to get into the habit of brushing and flossing my teeth every time I eat a meal and it's a bit of a nightmare to say the least. Especially when I'm at work and having to dash the bathroom inbetween work and eating to make sure I clean them properly. I think maybe if I get used to doing it now, then hopefully it won't be as big a shock once the braces are on. I'm becoming quite obsessive about other peoples teeth now. I find myself looking at everybody's to see how straight, crooked, white, stained they are!!!!!

I didn't manage to post this blog yesterday due to work commitments so I'm running a day late.

First appointment for impressions.

Well, today was my first initial appointment to visit my Orthodontist for the impressions to begin my Invisalign treatment. I was dreaming all last night of having my teeth pulled out so was rather nervous when I got there. My appointment was 1.15 and I was taken immediately for thorough photographing and xrays of all my teeth, jaws, gums and profile. Still a little nervous at this point but the orthodontist(whom I will name Mr B) was great as were the assistants.

After having my teeth thoroughly examined, prodded and poked,I had my first impressions done; not pleasant but in no way painful, although I began to think my dreams of having all my teeth extracted were happening when Mr B tried to remove them!!!!!

Impressions are done on top and bottom sets of teeth; having someone pressing putty like substance in my mouth whilst pushing my tongue back and just waiting..... and waiting.....and waiting until it sets. Then another set of impressions are done for finer detail to send to Invisalign. Then another set of impressions are done on my bottom teeth because I have an 'inbetween' sized bottom row of teeth that the dental trays didn't fit properly, hence another appointment booked for 2 weeks time for more impressions!! Oh the joys!!! Saying that, I am VERY excited at the prospect of straight teeth in 20 months time!

The dental assistant printed out the photographs of my teeth (not a pleasant sight) and also put them on a disc to upload onto here, what a star! The only downside to todays appointment was me having to stop talking and remain still for such a long period of time, a challenge in itself as my other half will happily confirm. Oh,and the dint in my savings when I paid the deposit for my treatment!

All I can say is that by 3pm my jaw was aching slightly but I was much more at ease with the treatment. I have a lot of crowding of my bottom teeth and some teeth out of line on the top which I am hoping will be near perfect when complete. When I get the braces, they have to be worn for 22/23 hours a day and changed for new ones every 2/3 weeks. I cannot eat or drink anything only cold water with them in and after removal for eating and drinking any other substance,must brush, floss, rinse and also clean the trays. Blimey! It's going to take some serious commitment but should be well worth it. Apparently the only severe discomfort is when you initially insert the first set of trays and each time you change them afterwards...... so pretty much a whole lot of time by the sounds of things.

After my next couple of appointments I receive a video disc of how the treatment starts and how it will look complete in digital images. I will post this video to my blog. Overall, very happy with my first appointment and looking forward to the next one.