May 10th, 2010 - Can't stop thinking.
Finally, I felt like I had waited an eternity (I hadn't). I got to my appointment which was at 3:30pm, half an hour early. So I decided to loiter at my work place for 15 or so minutes before heading to my dentist. I work right across the street from my dentist.
Once there I had to wait in the waiting room for a few minutes while my dentist finished with her previous patient, after which I was brought to one of their examination rooms. While I waited I couldn't help myself but snoop around. I was curious to know how many aligners I had and what they looked like. I found out I had 20 aligners for the top and bottom. I thought that was kinda funny, since most blogs and sites I've read from other Invisalign wearers don't usually have the same amount of aligners for both the top and bottom.
Anyway, when my dentist finally came in (through no fault of her own, her previous patient wouldn't stop asking questions!), the first step was to attach the attachments. She first made sure that the aligners fit correctly without the attachments. Let me tell you that when she put the top aligner in, OMG! My front teeth were screaming! And when she took it out, I thought my front teeth were going to be ripped out of my skull (they didn't though). I won't go into detail about the procedure but just to tell you that it wasn't bad. I've included a youtube video of the procedure:
I've basically went through the same procedure as this patient has. The only difference in my situation is I got them right off from the start.
9 attachments in total, top left: 2, top right: 2, bottom left: 3, and bottom right: 2.
Once the attachments were put in, the next step was learning how to remove and put back my aligners. I was told to start with the bottom, working from the back to the front. I couldn't get a grip on the aligners to pull them out, so eventually my dentist suggested I wear gloves like the ones she was wearing. And with that, it was much better. To remove the top aligners, I had to follow the same procedure. It was so much easier to remove the top trays then it was for the bottoms. Then I had to put them back in, the bottom ones were easy. The top ones were much tighter and they didn't fully fit properly like the bottoms did. So I did this a few times, to make sure I could do it at home. Then I was on my way home. My dentist made sure to give me some extra gloves, cotton chewies (helps to push the aligners in place), and my red and blue aligner cases.
My next appointment for tray #2 is May 28th at 11am.
When I got home, I took them out to eat supper. When I went to put them back in after brushing my teeth, I noticed I had lost 3 out of 9 attachments (already).I was a little disappointed, but I wasn't all that much surprised since I had read about that happening. I have a cleaning appointment Tuesday so I hope she will be able to reattach them then.
*EDIT:
Turns out I only lost 1 attachment, she purposely only put one on each side of my top teeth instead of 2. Opps! So I am only missing one on my lower left side. She also told me that she might not even put the missing ones in again, depending on my progress.
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