Invisalign - Home Stretch

I am very happy to report that I am on the home straight with my Invisalign treatment. It’s been a bit of an up and down journey, but it looks like I am nearly there, though ‘there’ is perhaps not quite what I had envisioned…

After 5 trays in the new set I was called in for my regular bimonthly check up. I had imagined that since we were making progress after the winter hiatus that I would use all the trays sent through by Invisalign to achieve the results that we first discussed a year ago. However, looking at the projected ClinCheck movie my dentist decided not to proceed with the rest of the trays as the computer had planned for my teeth to start tilting inwards. Given my teeth are already small (as I keep being told) this wouldn’t make for a very attractive look. Therefore my dentist decided to halt my treatment once more. I have to confess that I did feel a bit down heartened by this as it seemed that what I had hoped for and what was discussed was once again not what was planned by the computer model.

My main concern was that there was still a little overlap in my front two teeth, which was the main reason I had decided to do Invisalign in the first place. While it was true that my teeth now looked more aligned and some of the smaller spaces between teeth were evened out my main area of focus had not really been addressed. Fortunately my dentist agreed with me and decided to take matters into his own hands to try and get the tooth that was slightly in front to start moving back. He used the last set of trays I had been wearing and manually put in little ‘bobbles’ with pliers (which are specially designed for manual adjustments). He put one at the front to help the tooth move backwards and some at the back to make the other tooth move forwards. He also added a few to the back alongside a few other teeth to make the tray more snug (as it had already loosened up during 2 weeks of wear) so it can exert a little more pressure on the front tooth.

Jump forward to 3 weeks later and I had more bobbles added to the front to encourage the tooth to fall into place. While these ‘bobbles’ were quite visible by this point I really didn’t care too much as it seemed that we had exhausted every other option to get the tooth to align.

Another 2 weeks later and with a slightly mangled tray I returned feeling a bit anxious as not much had changed. I have to reiterate that what we are talking about is a miniscule amount of overlap, but having gone through almost a year of wearing these trays I really did want them to look perfect. I guess looking at other people’s before and after changes had not been particularly helpful as the dramatic difference was obvious. With me looking at photos didn’t show very much change at all, particularly from the front. However, when looking at my movie the results seemed much more obvious.

To assess my teeth more carefully my dentist used a camera to look from below and noticed that one of my teeth was actually thicker than the other (he actually used the term bulbous, but I prefer not to think of that lol). He explained that this was the reason we were struggling to get them perfectly in parallel when looking from the side. Though the teeth were in good alignment one looked like it was slightly further forward because it was thicker. He did give me the option of shaving down a little enamel, but given my teeth are so sensitive I didn’t want to go ahead with that and perhaps compromise the health and strength of my teeth for my vanity. Invisalign is one thing as it causes absolutely no damage, but sanding my teeth was a step too far for me!

(please excuse the scary photo!)

It’s a little frustrating that this problem wasn’t noticed earlier as it would have meant that I had more realistic expectations of the final appearance of my teeth, but I can hardly blame anyone for the fact that one of my teeth is thicker than the other. When I went to the optician a few years ago he also told me that one of my eyes is bigger than the other so it seems to be a common theme ;). Luckily no one has ever noticed… and I’m not sure why I’m declaring it on the internet, but as usual I keep no secrets from you guys ;p.

Now being on the home stretch, with my next appointment scheduled in a few weeks to remove my attachments and be free of trays (in the daytime at least), I am feeling happy overall with the Invisalign experience. It hasn’t been perfect, but nothing in nature is and I hope that it helps you guys in seeing an uncompromisingly truthful account of every inch of my progress. It is of course tricky to compare from memory so looking through my movie has been really helpful and proves to me that my teeth definitely look much more aligned, evenly spaced and generally a lot neater. I absolutely can’t wait to see the finished result! I will update you all in a few weeks :).