The wait...

One week of waiting, another three or so to go until I should get the invisalign trays. They say it takes about a month to get the trays, but there is some chance that they will come early but one new knows. I can't wait till I can see the plan online and go over it so I know exactly what to expect and how much progress this process will bring...

Its all a waiting game.

Picture for blog

Ok, well for those of you who are interested, above are the pictures from last thursday showing the current state of my teeth. Unfortunately its been a long time coming and I am sure could get worse but I am looking forward to getting better...

On another related note however, I talked to a few people about invisalign. I keep hearing the same things but one thing I did find out today was that my orthodotist doesn't put on the invisalign attachments or buttons until the 2nd or 3rd tray, so I will have a little bit of time to adjust without them. The thing I keep hearing about the attachments is that it makes it harder to take the trays out or put them back in.

Thats all for now...I will add more later...

Thoughts / Anticipation

Invisalign is something that I have been thinking about for a long time but I am not sure if I ever really expected to do it for real. Well since I had my first appoint last Thursday I have been doing a lot of thinking and a lot of reading about what I should expect. I have to say if even half of what I read is right then it will be a huge change in my daily habits.

Gone is the day of snacking all day long, drinking coke as a form of food while busy at work, and having to find time to brush each day. From everything I can determine from reading as well as what the orthodontist told me I will need to wear the trays for at least 20 hours a day and while wearing them I won't be able to eat or drink liquids other than clear liquids.

It still all seems like a dream to me and I don't know what exactly to expect. I answered up so quickly that I was past the point of no return before I even realized it, now I have no choice but to go through with it. I trust that it will be worth it in my head but I am still a little unsure.

Here's hoping for the best.

Starting

Well I have been thinking for a while that I needed to do something about my teeth, especially since they keep getting worse. A year or so ago I talked to the dentist on base about invisalign but he said that my case was too severe that it would never work. A few weeks ago I looking into it further and set up an appointment to talk to a specialist near my house. Well yesterday was the day of the appointment.

Well I didn't tell Angie because I didn't want her to really dig too deep if it was something that wasn't going to work. With that said I set my appointment for 8:30am. Well of course I had trouble finding the place so I was running late but they didn't seem to mind at all and just had me fill out the paperwork when I got there.

Once done with the paperwork they took me on a tour of their office and then I sat down with the doctor and we talked about what might be possible. They took some pictures and we talked a bit but basically he said that while invisalign would not be a 100% solution in my case it would get my teeth 90% there. With that done I went into another room and talked further about the options and was told that it would cost $4,800 for the entire treatment, everything included. Well after some talking their said that if I wanted to we could start the process with the molds today.

After calling Angie and talking with her a little bit about it we decided to go ahead and do it. We filled out some more paperwork and then I was ready for the molding process. The first thing we had to do was take some x-rays...well actually about 18 of them, so I sat there while they jammed that tray in my mouth a bunch of times and took a bunch of x-rays. The next task was the pictures, which they started out simply enough except that they have you hold these tongs which pull back your lips in every possible direction so that they can get pictures of all your teeth. The frontal and side pictures were every enough, the inside views though was a little strange. They get those pictures by pushing a mirror in your mouth and taking a picture of what is shown on the mirror. With those complete it was time for the molding. The molding process basically involves large trays which they fill with a synthetic material and then insert your teeth into and hold until it sets, which didn't seem too long but I guess was a minute or two. The process was repeated for both top and bottom sets of teeth.

That complete I was allowed to clean up and be on my way. It will take about a month for Invisalign to configure the trays and mail them out, and be ready for the first tray to be put in. Total time they are estimating is about 14 months, which will place at at next July or so.