My Invisalign Journey - so it becomes real...

Just over a week ago I got my Invisalign aligners and attachments fitted. I can honestly say it feels like the world's longest week and I just want to move on to my second aligners (that's happening today)!

I've had a realization today, on my blog I can waffle away as much as I like, nobody is being forced into reading it so I can type as much as I like or as little (it'll more than likely be a lot, not a little). I absolutely love when someone gets in touch with me to say that I've helped them in some way, it's a great feeling knowing you're helping someone. We are all put on this planet to make a difference, I choose to make a good difference (admittedly sometimes I probably don't make a good difference, I'm only human not a robot)!

So I'm hoping I can help some people understand the Invisalign process a little more (I'm no expert, neither do I work for Invisalign so some of the stuff I say might be a little wrong so don't expect me to be a fountain of Invisalign knowledge). I'm just a girl experiencing and sharing her journey.

Before heading in to the dentist

19th December 2015, 9.30am
It's time for the journey to really begin. I'm getting the attachments and first aligners fitted, mixture of emotions...excited, nervous and scared all mixed into one big ball. It all feels very real now. Now I've sat down to write this though the appointment feels like a blur, it feels so long ago.

One of the things I was dreading about braces was the part where the dentist uses some kind of mouth opening tool to keep your mouth wide open and lips off your teeth. At first it was pretty uncomfortable, I'm sure no mouth is meant to open that wide. But after a few minutes I got used to it.

Once the dreaded part was over, it was time for a disco in my mouth (so many colours and sounds going off)! I got my teeth cleaned, shaved/filed, prepped ready for my tooth coloured attachments to be fitted (even though my dentist joked that he'd used the green colour attachments, could you imagine?!) I don't even want to begin to imagine...

Attachments fitted, it was then time for the aligners. I can remember looking at myself in the mirror afterwards and just staring at these great big things on my teeth. But after a couple of days they didn't feel so big.

After leaving the dentists, wearing my first Invisalign aligners.

Luckily I got them fitted on a Saturday morning so I didn't have work for a couple of days so I had a few days to get used to them, not only the look of them but the removing and reinserting of them. My dentist made sure I could take them out whilst I was there, he shared a few tips with me (I kind of forgot them, maybe I should write stuff down more)! I remember taking them out for lunch and it taking a good 10/15 minutes, I was so worried I wouldn't be able to get them out or I'd snap them. So far so good though, I haven't snapped them and I'm very capable of taking them out. Practice makes perfect springs to mind now.

The motto of the weekend was 'no pain, no gain' because my teeth were so sore. Every time I took my aligners out and put them back in it was painful, but it's ok...the pain can easily be eased with ice cream. Not only does it taste great but it also numbs gums, on to a winner here.

Today I'm moving on to my second set of aligners, hopefully the weeks after this will fly by.