Week 8, Tray 4

I've been wearing my 4th trays now for a week and with the exception of the first day, they weren't tight at all. I've had a few dinner outings this week so, I've had them out for about 2 to 3 hours each time and they don't even feel tight when I put them back in. On the days that I know I'm going to be going out for dinner, I tend to have a quick breakfast and lunch and put them right back in so that I don't worry about how long they're out while I'm enjoying my dinner. I'm trying hard to stick to the 22 hours a day but find that sometimes I just need the extra break at dinner time. It's usually in the evenings when I feel like I just want to take the trays out and let my 'bare naked' teeth relax a little!

I think my work colleagues are beginning to notice. I was an avid coffee drinker and I've stopped that because of the hassle of having to take the trays out and brush my teeth. I now have a cupboard full of bottled water since I seem to be drinking lots of it! I have mentioned to several people if I notice that they are staring at my teeth (probably me thinking that they are staring at my teeth more than anything).


I've also been really attentive to all the blogs and forums on Invisalign and I've noticed something really funny. People post pictures on thier blogs as well as on other forums and I realize that I have begun to recgonize them just from their teeth! I've enjoyed the blogs though since I have found them really helpful.



I think it was while I was wearing tray #3 that I was getting worried about whether or not I had made the right decision. I'm starting to feel a little better about this now. I'm in my 8th week and since my treatment is supposed to last about 30 weeks (15U, 14L), I'm almost one third of the way through so I'm thinking it's not that bad. I haven't seen a lot of significant improvement just yet. Someone posted the question on one of the forums on when to expect to see improvement and it seems like lots of the 'experienced' invisaligners agreed that it takes a while. Most seem to comment that it took somewhere in the range of tray 7 to 10 to see significant improvement. I still have the ugly gaps in the front so, I'm not quite there yet. I see my ortho next week and I will be asking on when to expect the gaps to start closing.


I have a big week ahead. My daughter's high school graduation and prom is coming up. Just yesterday I remember walking her into her first day in kindergarten! That was 14 years ago!


That's it for now!

I'm mid-way through Tray 3 and I'm finding my speech a little difficult. I think the bottom tray of this set goes a little deeper into my mouth and I'm finding it sometimes difficult when I talk fast so I have to be really conscious to talk slow or I end up sounding funny.

I'm quite conscious of the spaces between my teeth from the IPR and it looks much better with my trays in, so I've been keeping the trays in a lot and as soon as I'm finished eating, I brush, floss and pop them back in. This means that I've had the trays on for well over 22 hours each day and that's a good thing!

I have uploaded my clincheck video. I watch this all the time!! It's only 3 seconds and it goes rather quick.

Tray 3 - The Beginning

Last night I started with Tray 3. Again, no real pain just feels tight. I didn't take any medication so it wasn't even that uncomfortable.

My only problem: I beginning to feel like there is no end to this. All day today I couldn't help but think "what have I done". During my last visit to my ortho, I had IPR done so I have these spaces in my top front 6 teeth and it looks terrible when I take my trays out. I'm feeling like I'll never get through this or I've made a big mistake. I'm starting to lose momentum in thinking that I've made the right choice. I've got thoughts of just going back to the orthodontist to tell him to put bonding on my teeth where he did some IPR and just leave it be. All I've been doing is reading other blogs to see if this is normal to have this feeling so early in treatment. I hope I don't lose the motivation.

I have attached a picture of what my teeth look like with the IPR. They look worse than when I started so this is why I'm feeling like I've made a big mistake!

Mid-way through Tray 2

So, the first week of Tray 2 is done. They're loosening up a bit. Didn't have any pain with these trays luckily enough. The first few days they were really tight but not painful. They were difficult to get on and off and still taking a while to get them out.

With all the IPR I had, I'm really self-conscious about the space in my two front teeth so I've been keeping my trays in for a long time. I tend to not want to let people see me with the spacing in my teeth. I guess it's a good thing since the longer they are in, the better. Some days, I come home from work and take them off just so I can give my mouth a breather for about 15 minutes.

This past week I've also been out a lot and I've had to get used to brushing my teeth in a lot of public washrooms. Luckily,there haven't been a lot of people around since I feel like I'm taking out dentures sometimes!

The ortho gave me Trays 3 & 4 and I've been comparing Tray 2 (the one that I'm currently wearing) with Tray 4 and I don't see much of a difference. When I look at other people's blogs, it seems like their trays look significantly different but they have a much greater span between trays so maybe I'm expecting too much.

That's it for now. I'll post again when I start Tray 3