Invisalign - before and after pictures

Invisalign - before and after pictures

After 15 months and 33 trays I have finished the main part of my Invisalign treatment. *Lets out a huge YAY*. If you remember back to my old post (here), where I first spoke about my teeth and how much I wanted braces. And also to this post (here), where I talk about my first consultation and the price. It seems like such a long time ago.

So I'll go back to when I got my first tray. (Note I had 33 trays for the upper and 9 for the lower). The first was an absolute bitch. It hurt to put them in my mouth, my teeth were in agony and it was so uncomfortable. Thinking back I had to take painkillers. This was only the case for about 4ish days. The reason behind this is that my teeth back then were stubborn and had found a place that they wanted to reside in. So when I came along and applied lots of pressure they really didn't like it. But as the teeth got use to moving they become looser and therefore changing trays is not such a hassle.

The trays are very tight to begin with, obviously but will relax over the next couple of days. I found that early on in my treatment I use to get really bad ulcers on the inside of my cheeks and also the roof of my mouth from the plastic. But overtime my tissues became more resistant.

So you change your trays every 2 weeks (switch the trays at night so then in your sleep your teeth are moving and is left uncomfortable). In this time I use to give them a brush with toothpaste to keep them clean. I was also given this dissolvable tablet thing, which I would put into warm water that would clean the braces. But it didn't work that great. Also, like an idiot I put my braces into warm water to clean them with this tablet and then I cleaned them in cold water. And with this massive change in temperature it completely altered the shape of the brace so it became useless, so just watch out! I had to go up a brace asap!

After your first few trays you will have attachments put on your teeth. These are tooth coloured little globs of cement stuff. These fit into the bubbles in your braces which help to move those certain teeth. Getting the attachments on doesn't hurt at all and is not uncomfortable. I had two of mine break off out of 8 but you just go and get them put back on. The only thing I didn't like was when it came to taking them off. That can be annoying because you want all of this cement stuff off but you don't want to damage the enamel. Also with the attachments is that you can't clean those teeth that well so you will get a little discolouration. This goes as soon as they come off and you have a good toothbrush/toothpaste.

I had to have shavings between my teeth due to the overcrowding. Shavings are only about 1mm wide but the gap soon closes. This can hurt a little bit if the gums are caught.

Cleaning your teeth is a massive must when you have Invisalign. I cleaned mine religiously and flossed too. You don't want bits of food and plague in/on your teeth and then put your braces in. This will lead to tooth decay and it will ruin your life! You just have to be proactive and not lazy. This means after every time you eat too. So take a little toothbrush/toothpaste and floss out wherever you go. Sometimes I used to wait until I got home before I cleaned my teeth and put my braces back in. I had Invisalign whilst I was at uni, I went out drinking a lot so I didn't always use to wear them 22 hours a day, but they turned out good in the end!

I finished my bottoms really quickly, 18 weeks, since I only had 9 trays. So then I went down to only wearing the bottom tray at night. However because I wore it every night for 48 weeks the trays became far too loose and then my teeth started to slip a little. No to worry this will be fixed in the refinement stage. Now my top ones took 66 weeks to complete (33 trays). But my upper left two is a little out by a couple of degrees so this will be fixed in refinements too.

Here's my results to far:

BEFORE

AFTER

For refinements you get molds taken and sent to America for your braces to be created. I got a phone call today to say that they had arrived, but I would need to see my orthodontist before I could get them because I need more filling done. So this is where I am up to now.

I will update you guys in a couple of months hopefully with my fully completed Invisalign treatment.

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