Catch Up and Almost Breaking a Tray

What I've Missed

Happy 2013! I just shoved on my first new trays of the year. With the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays I've missed a few posts so I wanted to make a quick update while trays were on my mind. My last progress post included pictures of my teeth on 10/30/2012.

Here are the posts I've missed since then:

• 11/13/12 Progress after tray 10
• 11/27/12 Progress after tray 11
• 12/12/12 Progress after tray 12 - no picures sorry
• 12/26/12 Progress after tray 13 - no picures sorry
• 1/9/13 Progress after tray 14

On 12/12 I had interproximal reduction (teeth shaving) done for my bottom teeth.  The dentist decided  to wait for a few more trays before doing the top so I have to go back after to have the top areas reduced. I'm going to do a full post detailing the interproximal reduction experience, so stay tuned for details.

Tray Shenanigans

Today's trays were the hardest to get on yet.  I wasn't sure if I was going to get the top tray on without breaking it part of it. The edge over the right K9 tooth folded down a bit while I was trying to get it on...unsuccessfully. I used some tweezers to fix it before trying again. Maybe I just had a bad angle or something, but I did get the tray on about 30 seconds later. They're about as tight as usual. Nothing too out of the ordinary, save for my trimus (lockjaw) on the right jaw seems to have eased up a bit instead of being worse. We'll see if it lasts. The jaw definitely feels different, but I can't yet figure out in what way or if its going to be more or less painful than before. Wish me luck!

Progress Weeks 17-18

Images After: Tray 9

Remaining Trays: 15

Lockjaw: Consistent. No pain
Headaches: None
Pain: Only sore first day of new tray

Wear: 16-20 hours a day
Brushing: Not as much as I should during the day at work
Flossing: Every night

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Right View 

Left View

Progress Weeks 15-16

Below are pictures after tray 8, I'm currently on tray 10 so I'll also be posting pictures after tray 9 soon.
No changes to my tray-wearing experience. It's actually become pretty predictable, so I figured it would be good to just have a standard checklist that gets posted with each picture set to make posts easier and more consistent for me.

Images After: Tray 8
Remaining Trays: 16

Lockjaw: Consistent. No pain
Headaches: None
Pain: Only sore first day of new tray

Wear: 18-20 hours a day
Brushing: Not as much as I should during the day at work
Flossing: Every night

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Left View

Right View

Progress Weeks 13-14

Tray seven is done, 17 to go! Below are pictures after tray 7. I was in a rush had just eaten. I didn't have time to brush so some of the pictures show just how super stained your teeth are after food and drink. Insane right? I've decided to try to add side shots to the set because this seems to be where things are doing the most movement right now.

The lockjaw and craziness of not really having a matched bite has become more "normal" for me. I think my teeth have gotten used to moving around all loosey goosey so I don't really have as much pain after a new trays. It's kinda of sore after I take of the trays for sure, but no major headaches or tension like I had when I first started Invisalign. Kind of hard to believe that I'll been wearing my trays for almost 4 months now. I'll be moving into tray 9 in just a few days. Kind of exciting to be coming up on the halfway mark (tray 12) before I know it! :)

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Right View

Left View

Doing pretty good. I haven't been wearing my trays as much as I should - more like 18-20 hours rather than 20-22 but it hasn't been an issue. Things are moving around well, pain isn't constant in any way. I floss every night and have a brushing routine that isn't psycho. Things are good and it's more "routine" now. Not gonna lie though, I'm ready to have these things off. June 2013 can't come soon enough!

Progress Weeks 11-12

Here are my pictures after tray six, with 18 remaining trays.All attachments are still on, though I did get worried one day when I popped my tray on and something came loose. It was food. HA! Where did that come from? : O

Maybe I'm crazy but I feel like my teeth are looking MORE crooked on the bottom than before. I keep inspecting the trays, to make sure things are matching up and they are but who knows LOL. The lockjaw and popping is constant now, can be painful. When I was on tray 6 it was definitely the worst it'd been. I started taking the soma (muscle relaxer) which helped more than I thought it would. I'm behind on these post so I'm trying to get caught up.

Front View

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Bottom View

Slacked on wearing my trays enough during tray 6. Hadn't been wearing my trays as much as I should - more like 16-20 hours instead of 20-22. OUCH. I still floss every night and the next tray went on without issue due to me being good about wearing it the few days before the switch! I blame snacking and delicious non-clear liquids. :)

Progress Weeks 9-10

Tray five is done, 19 to go! All attachments are still on and holding strong after my second tray with them on.

Below are pictures after tray 5. The headaches have been reduced a little, in favor of more teeth pain than anything. I do have jaw tension and my lockjaw has become pretty much constant. I filled the prescription for muscle relaxers when I started tray 7. I'm kind of behind on posting so I'll get these posted ASAP since it's almost time for post-tray 6 pictures!

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Starting to slack. Haven't been wearing my trays as much as I should - more like 18-20 hours rather than 20-22. I'm still flossing every night though! Not wearing the trays as much as I should, I'm sure it having a direct affect on me having more constant lock jaw. I think its that combined with the fact that the movement is more aggressive now that the attachments are on. :(

Progress Weeks 7-8

Tray four is done. It was the first tray with attachments and I can say with pride that none of them have come off yet. Hopefully the glue holds for the rest of the treatment. :) Only 20 trays to go! Apparently people still can't see my trays. I like it.

Below are pictures after tray 4. No new developments; the headaches and tension are around consistently  for the first 4 days of the tray. The lockjaw chooses to be better/worse at random, but sticks around day in and day out. It's not affecting my health or life so I let it be. I did get a prescription for muscle relaxers just in case, but I haven't needed to fill it yet. We'll see.

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Still on a roll. Consistent wear (hitting my 20-22 hours every day) and flossing every night. Routine is good - time consuming but definitely worth it.

Progress Weeks 5-6

Tray three is done, this week I got my attachments and new trays! Three down, 21 to go. Below are the pictures while I was wearing tray 3. I had to wear the tray a couple extra days due to the timing of my attachment appointment. Nothing new with tray 3, it was about the same as tray 2 from start to finish with headaches, tension, and jaw getting locked when I first started wearing it, but significant reduction after 3-5 days.

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Still on a roll, no slip ups. I've consistently worn my trays for between 20-22 hours every day and have flossed every night. Getting into a good routine and being less psycho about brushing every time after I eat something small or drink something sugary during the day. Just making sure not to leave anything sitting for more than a few hours really.

Progress Weeks 3-4

Tray two is done and I'm halfway though tray 3! Two down, 22 to go. Below are the pictures after tray two, posting them a little late, but equal intervals from the last progress post. I'm starting to see like one or two teeth moving, but other than that not any major differences. I can definitely feel a difference.

Tray two has been somewhat annoying with headaches and lockjaw. Based on my progress so far into tray 3, I'm expecting things to get more annoying/painful. It's not killer - maybe an average 4 on a pain scale of 1 to 10 when it hurts - but the headaches are inconvenient. Sometimes they try to rage on me when I'm tired or trying to work.

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

No painkillers for you! The dentist is being totally lame about giving me the pain medication I need. Taking 4 advil at a time (800 mg) does very little and any less does nothing. Not really keen on taking that much advil all the time. It's bad for your workout progress and for your tummy.

My previous dentist gave me vicodin and muscle relaxers for some jaw pain which helped tremendously. They want me to come in to talk to the dentist, because if I look him in the eyes and say the same thing, that will be more effective. I'm going in next week for my attachments so I figured I could suffer until then rather then go to the dentist 20 times each month. My dentist's office and I talk almost every week. They're always messing something administrative up, but damnit I like the dentists.

I've been a pretty good girl.
I've worn my trays for between 20-22 hours every day and have flossed almost every night. :) I've been a little more lax about drinking non-water things with the trays in. I keep my trays clean though so it hasn't been an issue. Yay progress.

Progress Weeks 1-2

Tray one is done! 1 down, 23 to go. Below are the pictures after tray one, I don't see much of a difference. Tray one gave me little to no pain. No one has noticed my trays so far. Very cool.

Front View

Top View

Bottom View 

Tray 2 is in! On Monday evening I put in tray two. It's been pretty painful for the last few days. I've had a headache going since Tuesday. Poppin' lots of advil which is helping some, not a ton. The top tray is giving me the most pain, but surprisingly comes off pretty easily. The bottom tray is less painful, but is nearly impossible to get off. Makes no sense!

Today is day 3 of my second tray set and it feels like my teeth are all over the place every time I put the trays back in. It seems to take at least 20-45 mins before I feel like my teeth are lined up inside the trays again. Definitely encourages me to keep them on for longer.

I've been a good girl!
I've worn my trays for between 20-22 hours every day. I've also been flossing almost every night. :)