What have I done?

Mar 22, 2004

I was so excited to get my Invisalign that I failed to ask any real probing questions beforehand about comfort, pain or wearability. I bought their marketing - hook, line and sinker - this was going to be a breeze, straightening my teeth, right? What they don’t tell you up front is that there is an adjustment phase to this whole process for both your mouth and your mind. There will be times in the beginning, when the aligners will drive you crazy, and you can’t close your mouth like you used to because there is extra plastic between both sets of jaws which inhibits full molar bite down. Here are some of the things that I encountered during my first full weekend with the aligners, with varying degrees of frustration and intrusion:

1. You must always wash your hands before handling the aligners.
2. Lips stick to plastic aligners over teeth. I am constantly applying lip balm.
3. You can really only drink water while wearing these babies, otherwise, you have to take ‘em off while drinking coffee, tea, soda or anything that is non-water (because they will stain and/or pit the surface, rendering them visible to the naked eye, and thus removing the “invisible” from Invisalign name,) wash them out, brush your teeth after drinking said beverage or eating said food and put them back in your mouth.
4. Your tongue is going to become more sensitive on its already sensitive underside due to it roaming over the foreign objects that have been introduced to your mouth. Expect the underside to be a little ripped up from going over and over the plastic edges. I imagine this will go away over time, but right now my tongue is raw. Who ever heard of developing calluses on your tongue?
5. Tooth soreness. This was documented in the pamphlet I received - but I don't think you can ever really be prepared for what it feels like. No it's not earth shattering pain, but eating a steak is not advised during the first few days of treatment or whenever a new aligner has been introduced.
6. Teeth sucking - undignified habit, but I find that I am doing something similar to my upper jaw aligners - it’s kind of fun, but seems to promote further chapped lips syndrome.
7. The whole "me" centric sort of thing. I seem to be worrying about whether where I eat has a decent bathroom, paper towels, etc so I can perform the whole removal and reinsertion routine in total hygienic methodology.
8. I have a slight sore throat. It’s much better today (Monday) than it was on Friday. Not quite sure where it came from, or if it’s even a side effect of the first few days or what. But it is annoying, on top of all of the other things that go along with this.
9. Sometimes, you just want to rip the aligners out of your mouth because they are driving you right up the wall, but then you rationalize that you are spending boatloads of money to straighten your teeth and you feel guilty for even feeling that way, and then the urge to rip ’em out of your mouth seizes you again - but you are 50 miles from a bathroom (public or not) and so leave them in. I finally discovered that taking them out for 5-10 minutes when this happens, which is usually about once a day - between the hours of 5 and 8 pm seems to work wonders on my mental state, if not physical state. Usually, I’m so freaked that I have taken them out, that the temporary relief is enough and I can put them back in and be fine for the rest of the night. Also, too is the sure knowledge, that they must come out when I eat, so at least 3 times a day, I will have a respite for the aligner hell I have subjugated by self to…

Really, it isn’t horrible, just annoying and things that I will adjust to over time (sooner than later I hope!) No more front tooth split here I come… This is all worth it, right?