Invisalign - DAY 22 - Start of Tray #2

I have been a bad boy.

I recently took a trip to Ohio to visit my Grandmother on her 92nd birthday. No, that is not why I am a bad boy. The reason I am a bad boy is that I fell out of my routine with Invisalign.

Thinking about how much time I was visiting family and eating and talking and visiting and talking and eating and eating and eating, I started to add up the time I was without my aligners and it is not good. It is amazing how I am using this blog as a reminder to myself to keep my aligners in. I should have taken my wife's laptop with me so I could have blogged while away and not been in this predicament.

Thinking back about the three days I was either traveling in a plane or on the dirty slush-covered roads, or within the snow-blanketed homes of my family partaking in Donatos Pizza and Donuts and Coca Cola and Cookies and Birthday Cake and French Fries and Hamburgers, I was probably without my aligners on day one for about 6 hours, day two for about 7 hours, and day three for another 6 hours.

Sorry, honey, if you are reading this. My bad. But, we were told there would be days like this.

That said, my wife and I just started on Tray #2 last night. I don't want to say I was in pain, but the fit was definitely tighter than when I put on Tray #1 with the attachments. These aligners were pretty snug, but I think I got used to them within the half hour...or so I thought.

This morning, I awoke and removed the aligners for their daily bath in CVS Brand Polident. Once out, my front bottom teeth had a dull ache to them. So did all of my canine teeth. I did have my new aligners in for about 10 hours overnight, but maybe I should have taken them out during the evening hours at least once to give my teeth a rest from this self-induced torture.

I am now suffering with a very bad headache, probably from the new movement of the teeth into their future positions. I am hoping my teeth find their new location soon as I am running out of Advil.

I have been diligent with my aligners today and, hopefully, will continue to be as diligent as I was before my relapse. I feel like an alcoholic who fell off the wagon, although I'm not sure that is a good analagy since I am not an alcoholic. I am possibly feeling the same guilt, at least I would guess. Maybe I should look for a sponsor.

Pain Level - 7 (for both the dull ache in my teeth and my head)
Dedication Level - 1 (for the lapse)
Irritation Level - 4 (the headache, I'm sure, is the reason everything is irritating me)

Here are my teeth at the end of Tray #1: