A Surprise Finish

Hello again. I know I was supposed to post after I finished Tray 30, but to my surprise, I did not receive my 30th tray. Instead, Dr. Kunik (my orthodontist) decided to go ahead and make new trays at my last appointment. So for the past week I've just been using Tray 28 basically like a retainer. I wear it at night when I sleep and just a few hours during the day if the trays are feeling a little tight. It actually feels weird to not have to wear the trays constantly because I've gotten so used to wearing them. But this freedom will soon come to an end. I have an appointment for September 17 to go in and get my new trays that should finish up my treatment and perfect my smile. I didn't have to use the traditional molds this time. Instead, Dr. Kunik uses the iTero scanner. It is supposed to be more accurate than putty molds, which leads to a really straight smile. The scanner is a like this handheld bar that has a camera on it. The asistant uses it to take several pictures of your teeth from all different angles. The computer than uses these pictures to construct a 3-D model of your teeth and it forms the "mold" in this way. Then, once the assistant sees that the mold looks right and there aren't any missing spots, they send the model straight to Invisalign. This helped cut down shipping time because the orthosontist doesn't have to manually ship out the molds to Invisalign. They just send them over email now. I can't wait to get my new trays, but in the meantime, I will go ahead and do my big, last post. It's a little anitclimactic because I already posted for Tray 28 and I haven't had any other trays to post about, but oh well. I still get to post lots of pictures and let everyone see the before and after. And these pictures give so much proof that Invisalign is not just for simple cases. If you go to the right person, Invisalign can work for pretty much anybody and I feel like my case is proof of that.

Trays

  Top             1                                    10                                    20                                        28

 

Bottom         1                                       10                                   20                                    28 

Top                    1                                                      14                                                    28

 

Bottom              1                                                  14                                                   28



Top                               1                                                                                      28

Bottom                         1                                                                                28

Facial (again)

 

Center

 

  

 

 

 

 

 Left

Right

Top Arch

Lower Arch

 

As you can see, it has been a HUGE transformation and my teeth will only get even straighter.

Tray 28

I am getting more and more excited by the day. I have an appointment on Monday to go in and get my last 2 trays and finally get my attachments removed!It's taken so much time and patience to get through this experience and it's almost over and I just can't wait. I keep thinking that just a little over a year ago I was barely getting my trays and I never thought I would have straight teeth so quickly, but my talented orthodontist made it possible and I couldn't be more grateful to him. I'm finishing up Tray 28 so my next post will be a big one with  LOTS of pictures so be sure to watch out for it. For now I'll post a few pictures from this tray.

Facial

 Center

Top Arch

Bottom Arch

Tray 26

26 trays down and 4 more to go (not counting refinements). I am soooo excited even though my teeth aren't as straight as I would like them to be.I think just finishing this many trays will feel like such an accomplishment. But hopefully they will be straight after I get done with my refinement trays because that was the whole purpose of gettting invisalign. I can see a HUGE difference when looking back at when I first started, and it feels good to not have to constantly worry about smiling too big because my teeth aren't that bad anymore. This tray wasn't very eventful so I'll just post the pictures and as always, if there are any questions, I will be glad to give my answer.

Facial

Center

Top Arch



Bottom Arch

Tray 24

Hello again,

I didn't get a chance to post for Tray 22 because I was trying to enjoy my break before summer classes started, so I was really busy. But I do have some interesting information for this post. At my last check-up, my orthodontist decided I would only go through Tray 30, so I won't get Tray 31. But, this is because he wants to go ahead and get my refinements done before he really tightens everything back up. So after I finish Tray 28, I will go in and get my attachments filed off. Then, after I finish Tray 30, I'll go back in and get "moldings" done again. My orthodontist actually uses the new iTero scanner now because it is supposed to be more precise than the putty moldings. So after this, he'll make a few more changes to my teeth and then, (I'm hoping) the refinement trays will make my teeth look perfect. I'm very glad he decided to do this without me even having to ask because I still felt like my teeth weren't going to turn out just quite right, especially my canines and lateral incisors. They just don't seem to be lined up properly. Of course I recognize that they are much, MUCH straighter than they used to be and I'm very appreciative for the progress, but considering the cost and the fact that refinements are included with the quoted price, I want to be completely satisfied with my teeth and take advantage of everything that I'm offered. I know some people don't want refinements because they just want to be done once the original trays are finished, but I'm too much of a perfectionist. I personally think that if you are not happy with your smile when you finish your trays, you should go ahead and get the refinements because not only are they included in the cost, but they'll get you that much closer to having the smile of your dreams. But then again that's just my own opinion and of course, not everyone will agree. So in the end, just do what will make you happiest. Anyway, I included pictures as always. Nothing too great or exciting so here they are.

Facial

Center

Upper Arch

Lower Arch

Tray 20!

I'm very excited for this post because it means I am finishing up with Tray 20, which also means I am 2/3 of the way finished (almost). I can see a HUGE difference from when I first began using Invisalign and I just can't wait to see how the last leg of my journey will look. My mom keeps telling me how much straighter my teeth look so I know the change is visible. Luckily, the trays do not share that same visibility. After 20 trays and almost  10 months, nobody seems to have noticed I'm wearing them. Very few people know I have them and they only know because I told them. My mom can't even tell whether I have them on or off when I see her, and she knows about them. I think most people who feel like their trays can be seen from a mile away feel that way because they know they have them on. They can feel the trays. But unless someone is specifically looking for trays on your teeth, they won't see them. So if you wonder whether Invisalign really is invisible, my answer is: yes, it is. The only thing that makes me self conscious about the trays is that every now and then I get a SLIGHT lisp. It's probably only something that I notice though. Anyway, I have lots of pictures since it's been another ten trays. As always, don't hesitate to ask questions if you have them and be sure to look back at the Tray 10 post so you can see how much change takes place in just 20 weeks.

 Tray 20 Top and Bottom

 Tray 20 Top

Tray 20 Bottom

Top Trays 1, 10, and 20

Top Trays 1 and 20

Bottom Trays 1, 10, and 20

Bottom Trays 1 and 20

Top Trays 1, 10, and 20

 That's it for this post. I really hope it helps someone in their research. Let me know what y'all think!