About two months ago I started the process of researching Invisalign braces in order to straighten my teeth, a task left undone in my teenage years because of the relative aesthetic acceptability of my teeth. They were never horrendous, just a bit crooked, the bottom and rarely visible half of my jaw being much moreso than my top teeth, the crookedness of which you probably wouldn’t even notice unless you were specifically interested. I won’t go into details of my research and decision process here; if readers are interested I can blog about that later.

This week I received my first set of aligners (Invisalign straightens the teeth gradually via several sets of clear aligners each worn for two weeks at a time), and so it occurred to me that for the first time in this already seemingly extensive process, I actually had a real product to review. Invisalign blogs abound on the internet, and while I don’t feel the need to contribute further duplicate information to the blogosphere, everyone’s experience is different, and I read many a blog entry as I was researching Invisalign and found them helpful. Starting a completely separate blog for Invisalign seems like overkill, and since I already have a blog in which most of my entries review a product or service, it seemed only logical to include commentary on my Invisalign experience here. After all, Invisalign is probably the most expensive purchase I’ve made in my adult life, second only to my car (unless you count my Bachelor’s Degree).

I went to my orthodontist, King Orthodontics downtown (those who know me know that I wouldn’t be caught dead in that bastion of suburb-o-phobia Wexford unless compelled there for my job, which unfortunately happens sometimes), on Tuesday this week to get my first two sets of aligners. I will wear each one for two weeks.

I wasn’t sure whether I would actually keep the aligners in all day Tuesday. Research online and my orthodontist himself advises putting a new set of aligners in before going to sleep at night and taking some Advil so to sleep through the initial pain of tooth movement. Each new set of aligners moves the teeth incrementally during the first couple days and then allows them to set up in their new positions for the rest of the two weeks, before they are moved again.

I had prepared for this day vigilantly, not only by doing research, but also using my custom teeth whitening trays (obtained from a do-it-yourself kit on Amazon) to “practice” by wearing them for a few hours at a time. The custom teeth whitening trays certainly weren’t ideal, and I knew that they were only an approximate preview of the Invisalign. The teeth whitening trays, despite being custom, aren’t as well fitted or trimmed, aren’t as tight, are much softer and gummier, not being made of the same material… but it was the only way I had to “test out” wearing something like an aligner before making the decision to go forward with Invisalign.

My first impression upon putting in the first real Invisalign tray was that they were much more comfortable than I expected. They are light and don’t take up as much space in my mouth as the teeth trays. The edges along my gums are well-trimmed and don’t rub my lips at all. The teeth trays made my lips dry when I spoke, but the Invisalign trays don’t seem to have any but the most minor effect on the dryness of my lips or mouth, which I was worried about, as that is a common side effect. I may have a bit of a lisp, but honestly, I think I’m probably the only one who can hear it. My co-workers forgot that I was getting my braces that day until I took the aligners out at lunch.

So, based on the initial comfort of the aligners, I decided to keep them in for the rest of the day. There was certainly a feeling of pressure, as the aligners did fit tightly and were indeed moving my teeth (as I found out at dinner), but no pain, so I kept them in.

It was all well and good until after lunch. The aligners must be taken out for meals so that they don’t get unnecessarily dirty and, well, because it’s just more pleasant to eat with your bare teeth than with plastic coated ones. It’s recommend that only clear beverages be consumed white the aligners are in. This means water, cold or hot and, I’m assuming… vodka? I imagine clear sodas like Sprite or tonic would be okay, too, but I wouldn’t want to go too long after that before cleaning my teeth and my aligners. The aligners are tight but not water-tight. Saliva and water gets into the aligners (up close you can see bubbles between the plastic and the teeth), and I wouldn’t want to leave a sugary beverage to sit in my aligners for too long.

Teeth must be cleaned before reinsertion of the aligners after a meal, as thoroughly as possible with brush and floss (I use some sort of mouth rinse, too, either Listerine or hydrogen peroxide). It was at this point the pain became noticeable. When I first put my aligners back in after lunch, they hurt. Not terrible soul-rending pain, not even equivalent to a bad headache, but sore, definitely sore. They had only been out for a half hour, but those teeth-slippery critters-had endeavored to make their way back to where they’d been in the morning. The pain was the least of my worries when I signed up, and it’s still nothing I can’t handle. The soreness is mild, just persistent.

It was good I had an hour or so before my next lesson. I took some Advil, of course. I also found drinking hot water to be soothing. Before Invisalign, I drank hot tea throughout the day at work. No matter what time of year, it’s always cold at work. In the summer, the air conditioning is cranked up, in the winter, the heat is kept minimal so that people dancing won’t get too overheated. When I’m not dancing, myself, I’m always freezing, and so I drink hot beverages. When I knew I’d be getting Invisalign, I figured I could get rid of my tea bags and started in with hot water alone. I was worried, of course, that hot water might damage my Invisalign, but the patient consultant at my orthodontist’s office assured me that hot water is okay to drink. As it turns out, the hot water is also soothing to my teeth when they’re sensitive (which is good, being that it’s one of the only things I can drink with the aligners in).

The other thing that helps is the aligner chewies my orthodontist provided in my starting pack. This was the one aspect of Invisalign I hadn’t heard about before my orthodontist office gave them too me. They aren’t actually made by Invisalign, and some people may go through their whole treatment without using them, but they supposedly help aid in tooth movement by making sure the retainer is seated on the teeth as well as it possibly can be. It is a rubbery plastic cylinder that you chew on with the aligners in. When my teeth are sore, it does hurt to chew them, but once the aligner is better seated, the soreness abates a bit. I suspect it might also help stimulate blood flow to the teeth and gums, perhaps similar to a teething child, after all, no other chewing (eating, gum, gnashing of teeth) is really happening when the aligners are in. I’ve since Googled the chewies and found that some people online constantly forget to use them, but I’ve found that my aligners don’t feel quite snug until I bite down on the chewie for a bit. I only use one chewie at a time; two is too much for my mouth.

The longer I had my aligner in, the less my teeth hurt (perhaps that was also the Advil kicking in), but by the end of that first day, the aligners had begun to wear on me at bit. Not in the sense that I couldn’t stand then and wanted them out (in fact, I was kind of dreading having to put then back in after dinner, considering the soreness I had earlier), just more of an “itch,” a feeling that it would be kind of nice to have them out for awhile, sort of like reaching the end of the day when you’ve been wearing an effective strapless bra (sorry non-cross-dressing men, you’ll have to think up your own analogy). Certainly a lot better than my “trial runs” with the teeth trays; I could only really stand them for a couple hours at a time.

I got home, made myself some dinner and resisted taking the aligners out until the last possible moment. Now my teeth were sore in a different way. I noticed it with my first bite of food. I had to chew my food gingerly, working at it softly or else I would get a sharp sting of soreness. It was really no matter, just had to eat my food slowly (good for me, because usually as soon as I stop eating I fall asleep), and the further along I got in dinner, the less they hurt. The other thing I noticed is that I would have to be careful about closing my teeth completely. My teeth weren’t in the same place anymore. Some teeth would collide, top to bottom, in an unexpected way if I closed my jaw without thinking.

Shortly after dinner I did the whole cleaning regimen and popped the aligners back in. I was worried about sleeping through the night, but the aligners actually got more comfortable as I slept. They were probably the most comfortable they had been in twenty four hours when I woke up in the morning.

They’ve been generally better since, though sometimes still a little sore (nothing requiring even Advil). I can tell I’m slowly growing accustomed to them, though when I’m not talking, drinking or using the chewie, my jaw muscles get a little tense. I suspect that this resting tension will stop as my mouth comes to realize that these aligners are the new status quo of my teeth, at least for the next year and a half.

Unfortunately my Invisalign transition is not over, even when I become accustomed to wearing the trays. In another four weeks I get my attachments, small nodes of glass that will be placed on certain of my teeth to aid in rotation. Until then, I persist with tray one!