Metal Mouth Message Board

Today, I received my Invisalign aligners. The assistant put on my "buttons" (9 of them) AND the orthodontist came over and shaved 8 of my bottom teeth. That kinda freaked me out because he said I had "smaller" teeth. Based on all the post and YouTube videos I watched, I thought the buttons and shaving would b done at different times. But NOPE. Everything on the same day. In general it didn't really hurt. It started to get sore about 3 hours afterwards. I just had dinner and am about to put them back in. However, I had a cup of ice cream super quick, to make up for the fact that I'm going back in these plastic contraptions! I wonder what tomorrow will look like! So far I have 20 aligners. The orthodontist thinks it could take up to 1.5 years. But based on aligner count, I hope not.

Confession: I'm still typing because I'm procrastinating to brush. Awg! More to come...Next appointment at aligner 6.

copperpenny wrote:Today, I received my Invisalign aligners. The assistant put on my "buttons" (9 of them) AND the orthodontist came over and shaved 8 of my bottom teeth. That kinda freaked me out because he said I had "smaller" teeth. Based on all the post and YouTube videos I watched, I thought the buttons and shaving would b done at different times. But NOPE. Everything on the same day. In general it didn't really hurt. It started to get sore about 3 hours afterwards. I just had dinner and am about to put them back in. However, I had a cup of ice cream super quick, to make up for the fact that I'm going back in these plastic contraptions! I wonder what tomorrow will look like! So far I have 20 aligners. The orthodontist thinks it could take up to 1.5 years. But based on aligner count, I hope not.

Confession: I'm still typing because I'm procrastinating to brush. Awg! More to come...Next appointment at aligner 6.

It really depends on the ortho who's treating you and for what. Many like to do one set (or more) without attachments to get you used to the aligners. Mine was supposed to work that way but there was a big mixup with the first aligner that came with attachments on it and my template which came for attachments for set 2. So I ended up jumping in with 21 attachments to start. I didn't have any IPR and don't have any planned. The first day or two really really freaking hurts. I won't lie on that. Most orthos/docs know the initial number of aligners isn't necessarily the total time and either plan for a mid-course correction or some refinements at the end, hence the longer time window.

I had my first aligners and attachments put on at different times - probably just the preference of the orthodontist. Congrats on starting!

For those who had aligners before the attachments, how bad were the first few days with attachments? (i.e. do you think getting adjusted to aligners first helped?)

Same here. I didn't have to have my teeth shaved and pretty sure I'm not going to do that, but I did have 20 attachments put on all of my front teeth top and bottom. Only my last molars don't have attachments. The first couple times taking them out was difficult... Then I learned of Listerine reach flosser and it helps me so much. I'm about to start tray 2 of 30. Good luck!