Thinking of straightening your teeth? Metro Dental Staff Member Tammy Kuzara shares her experience, and lets you know what to expect.
If you haven’t already read the original post, you can find it here.
It’s been over a month since I started the Invisalign process. It’s going great!
I had a hard time not playing with the composite attachments in my mouth for a week or so even with my trays in, but now I hardly notice them. My lower lip looks a little more pouted than before, which I actually don’t mind. The staff at Metropolitan Dental Care got really creative to minimize the appearance of the gap from the missing tooth. The Dental Assistant put some composite material in my lower tray where my missing tooth is, so the gap isn’t noticeable at all, as long as I’m wearing my trays. It’s kind of like I’m wearing a flipper for a short time until my teeth move enough to close the space. It was very weird the first few times I had to take the tray out to eat, and was reminded I was missing my tooth. I can definitely say I have been a very compliant patient, because I don’t want to go around without my tray and have a gap in my front teeth!
Every two weeks, when I put in a new tray, it definitely feels tight, and I can feel them doing their job. But my teeth have gotten used to being moved and they don’t hurt anymore. I will be starting on my 4th set of trays here soon, and I am totally used to wearing them and taking care of them. I will admit, when it is about time to change my trays I will drink my coffee with them in my mouth. I figure: What’s a little staining if I’m going to change them out in a couple of days?
Funny Story:
Last weekend a group of us went to a friend’s house for brunch. We ate and drank, and then I brushed and flossed and put my trays back in. After awhile we decided to eat a little more. So I took my trays out again and set them on a paper towel on the counter. After I put them back in I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror, and my fake composite tooth had popped out of my tray! I wasn’t going straight home and didn’t want to walk around with a visible missing tooth. All my friends that were there started looking around the place for a very small tooth. After we had no luck I decided to find something white I could put in there that could be a substitute until I could make it to the office to put the composite back in. (Remember some of us had a few drinks). We thought a piece of white gum would be a good idea. It had almost the same consistency as composite material, right?. So I was trying to put this piece of gum in the tray and when we were just about to super-glue it in there, someone standing by the counter looked down and there was my tooth, right in front of our faces.
Aside from that little incident, wearing the trays is really easy, and low maintenance, and my teeth are already visibly straighter. I’m really excited to see these changes happening!
