Saturday, July 18, 2009

First Aligners

So I finally have my first aligners on. They actually arrived 4 weeks ago. I was so busy the past couple weeks, I didn't have time to get them fitted until today. The process was quite long. Almost 2 hrs! The ortho first started with with IPR on my lower teeth which took longer than anticipated due to a wonky tooth. The process overall was painless although he did hit the gum a couple times which caused a little bleeding. The next step was attaching 12 attachments. The only complaint was how dried my lips got during the procedure.

I was then given the aligners and tried putting them on myself. I thought it would be easier, but it wasn't. Both the lower and upper trays were really tight. It's been 2 hrs since I first placed them in and I can already feel soreness in the front lowers and back uppers. I was expecting sharp edges that would irritate my gums, but luckily I haven't experienced that so far. I was given only 2 sets and I have an appointment scheduled in 1 month because I'm expecting 1 more round of IPR.

Overall, I left the office with a great deal of knowledge regarding my expected teeth movement, general cleaning of aligners, and had all my questions answered. I've read other blogs and noticed all the goodies that people received with their first trays. All I got was the red/blue cases and some aligner chewies. I took some pictures and I will have it uploaded soon.