Invisalign - DAY 64

I thought this day would never come. Today is the day we have our first followup with our Orthodontist and get the next three trays (5 thru 7).

I am kind of worried because on the weekends I am getting into the habit of taking my aligners out when I wake up and having them out for a while.

After taking 10 minutes to roll out of bed, I throw the aligners in the CVS Generic Polident solution, take a shower, spray the Flonase, get my contacts in, apply the underarm deodorant in my pits and product in my hair (hopefully, I don't mess those two up), SonicCare my teeth and take off for Starbucks, leaving my aligners in the solution to soak some more, even though they only need five minutes. Trust me, coming from my mouth, 5 minutes is not going to cut it.

By the time I get back home, Frappaccino fully inhaled, that's when I put the aligners back in, 2 hours after taking them out. I mean, why put them in before leaving the bathroom only to take them out 30 minutes later to have breakfast? Yeah, I know; it's 30 extra minutes, but what a pain.

Also, yesterday my wife and I had lunch with a couple of her ILM friends out at Octopus, a great sushi restaurant in Burbank. Since we were eating, out came the aligners. After eating and talking and eating and talking, three hours had passed and I still had to head home and brush before putting them back in. FIVE HOURS and I hadn't even had dinner yet?!?!?!

To top it off, with all the talking at lunch my attachment on my canine tooth started rubbing the inside of my cheek and now I have one of those tiny sores that looks like a pimple but feels like a cattle brand.

I think the Ortho purposely makes the attachments "pointy" so you will keep your aligners in and not tear your mouth apart. Well, Dr. Azani, lesson learned, my friend...lesson learned.

Until breakfast on Saturday.

Pain Level - 0
Dedication Level - 4
Irritation Level - 5 (just for the small cattle brand)

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: