Tray 5 - Signs of Improvement!!

Here I am mid-way through Tray 5 and I keep looking at my teeth thinking I'm not seeing that much improvement until I took my usual pictures and WOW was I surprised! With each tray, at the half way point of wearing each tray, I take pictures of the front and the sides. I download them and file them into a directory onto my pc under "Teeth" and then into separate directories labelled "Tray 1", "Tray 2", etc (ok, you can call me crazy!). This time, after taking my usual pictures for Tray 5, I copied the pictures from Tray 1 and compared them to Tray 5 and was pleasantly surprised! The overbite has been significantly reduced. I hadn't really noticed how much until I saw the pictures.

As you can see, the two front teeth don't seem to be jutting out as much. Although intuitively I had felt that this was happening and I could feel that this was happening, I really did not realize how much it was actually happening! I'm soooo excited!!

One of the major factors in me deciding to get braces was my overbite. Whenever I was in pictures, I always made sure never to be caught in a side shot since it emphasized my overbite. This is why I'm so excited to see improvement!

The picture on the left is mid-way through Tray 1 and the one on the right is the picture I took this morning, mid-way through Tray 5.

The difference is amazing, don't you think??!! Although there is still an overbite and crooked teeth, the two front teeth are not jutting out as much.

I'm still waiting for the front gap to close and when that happens I'll be incredibly excited. I'm quite self-conscious about it since when we go out for dinner with friends, even if they don't notice the Invisalign, I feel like the gap is significant enough for it to be noticeable. All things considered, I'm a third of the way through (15U, 14L) so, not that bad!! I'll be done on my birthday, I hope! At the very least, I'll have a brand new smile for Christmas!!

Tray 2 - The Big Squeeze!

Today I got my second tray and LOTS of IPR! I got the front teeth all 'shaved' a little so there are gaps and it looks terrible! My ortho told me that I'm going to hate him for a little while but in about 8 months I'm going to love him so hopefully all those gaps will close! He's right...right now I hate him. For the first two weeks, I was fine since hardly anyone noticed and when I had them off, I felt back to normal even if only to eat. Now, even with them off, I feel like TOOTHZILLA!

My second trays are in and they feel like a really snug pair of jeans. The last few days of my first trays were like wearing an old pair of socks....fairly loose, comfortable, easy to get on and off. I feel like there is a band around my teeth. It's not painful....yet. My ortho said that things are really going to start moving now.

He gave me trays 3 and 4 and I won't have to see him for 6 weeks. Hopefully by then I will see some change. I looked at the trays and I don't see much so I'm not really encouraged yet other than by the pictures I see from other people's blogs!

One added bonus though....I've lost 4 pounds! Straight teeth and weight loss....in 8 months....now that will be quite the change!!!

That's it for now. I'll post in a few days to let you know how I'm doing with tray #2.