Treatment 4 Begins Tomorrow!

Tomorrow my new journey begins. I will be getting clear braces for my top teeth and invisalign trays for my bottom teeth. I've never had braces before, so I'm kind of nervous. Everyone I've asked told me they are going to be painful and stuff is going to get stuck in them, a lot. I may have gone a little overboard getting prepared for that.

Stuff I bought in fear of having dirty braces

It's been a long time since I've had a reason to post. I had to clean up my blog like woah. So far I've redone the navigation, made updates to show my new treatment info, and posted my new 'before' to track my progress. Looking forward to sharing the dirty deets here.
SPOILER ALERT: I'm going to be in pain and will likely post about it.

My Treatment Overview

Since I started Invisalign I've had three sets of trays created. Below are the details of each, including alterations to the teeth completed to assist the treatment. In summary, my first treatment had almost a year of trays, attachments and teeth shaving. As I went through the plan the dentist changed the amount of teeth shaving based on my comments and the actual results. After my first treatment, I got my attachments removed. My second treatment was cut short because the trays were starting to fit sideways on top. I'm currently working through my third set of trays.

Treatment 1 - Start July 2012

Treatment length: 24 trays (48 weeks)
Attachments: Added to 11 specific front teeth after 6 weeks (or first 3 trays)
Teeth Alterations: Interproximal reduction (shaving of the tooth enamel to create space between the teeth)

• Teeth Shaving at 13-18 weeks of treatment (or after 7ish trays)
• 7 reductions on the top teeth of .5 millimeters
• 7 reductions on the bottom teeth of .2 millimeters

The video below shows the expected transition start-to finish and attachment locations (in red). The arrows point to where the teeth shaving (interproximal reduction) will occur.

Treatment 2 - Start July 2013

Treatment length: 15 trays (30 weeks)
Attachments: Removed! I wanted them off after my first treatment. My dentist worked the removal into my treatment plan for round 2. Basically it just takes longer
Teeth Alterations: None. The teeth shaving expected on the top teeth in Treatment 1 was changed after it seemed that the amount completed on the bottom was too much.

Terminated after 10 trays: My trays were starting to fit sideways. I thought it was just because I was slacking on wearing them, turns out the trays were fabricated in a wacky way due to the mold of my teeth.

Treatment 3 - Start August 2014

Treatment length: 17 trays (32 weeks)
Attachments: Nope
Teeth Alterations: None. 

These fit great.