Alright, so I am writing this on the second full day of having my Invisalign trays in. My teeth are tender.. and I had steak for dinner the first night of having them in (wtf). But first.. how about we back this up a bit? I will get you caught up on the process of getting my aligners (aka trays) in. Alright, so late last month I went to have my impressions and photos done which were then sent off to the Invisalign lab where they created a mock up of what my teeth. They can show you what your teeth should look like after you go through all the aligners. Your “case” is pretty much what they call your Invisalign journey. I’ve got about 30 aligners to do and will switch to a new aligner every two weeks.
After the initial consultation the next step is having the impressions done. This wasn’t horrible but I would be lying if I said I enjoyed it. The dental assistant and the dentist use two different type of mixtures to create two different sets of impressions for both the bottom and lower teeth. This gives them a good idea of your entire mouth. The first set of impressions took 30 seconds each. The second set of impressions took three minutes each. Unfortunately, I had to redo the second set of impressions which took a bit longer than it could have. After the impressions, the dentist took a ton of photos using an DSLR camera. These photos included the inside of my mouth. They got these by using a mirror to get the reflection and took photos from side angles and the front of angle. They also took photos of me from the side and head on with my mouth closed. Lets just say, I never want to see those photos. However, these photos help Invisalign to create your aligners.
A couple weeks later I came back for my ClinCheck appointment. ClinCheck offers you and your dentist a visual of how your teeth with change from tray to tray through out your case. It’s neat because if gives you a look at what your teeth should look like after all your aligners are done. The ClinCheck also shows you how many attachments you’ll need and how much IPR you will have to have done – if any.
The attachments are little tooth coloured bumps placed on your teeth. These are strategically positioned and will help assist with the alignment of your teeth. I have what seems like a lot of attachments. Nine on the top and six on the bottom. IPR is essentially shaving the sides of your teeth to create more space for your teeth to move around.
As you can see in the above photo, I’ve prepared myself by putting together a little travel pack. After all, with Invisalign you must take the trays out to eat or drink anything other than water. That being said, you should have them in 22 hours a day for the best results. After eating or drinking, you need to brush, floss and I even mouth wash before putting my trays back in. I’ll continue to post updates here for anyone interested.
