11th Trays

The 11th trays hurt a bit. My teeth were sore in the beginning, but I'm starting to realize that I'm just feeling it more now because most of the movement is now happening in the front, whereas all my other trays had my back teeth moving, which weren't as exposed to tearing action as much during eating as my front teeth are. Now that my back teeth have shifted to make room for my front teeth to do their moves, I'm experiencing all the joys of moving teeth on my incisors and canines instead of my bicuspids and molars. Yayyyyyyy.................

Interestingly enough, these were also the first trays where I developed a slight sore in the back of my mouth. One of the edges of the upper trays by the rear left side of my mouth was a bit sharp and rough around the edges. I didn't really notice it until the end of the 1st full day of wearing them, and simply filed down that trouble spot with the nail file part of a pair of nail clippers. 2 seconds later, they were totally fine. I'm so glad these trays are so low maintenance, and don't need anything fancy to keep them clean, or to fix them if they need some adjusting.

What was especially exciting was the fact that, with both trays in, I could actually feel that my crossbite tooth was crossing over to the front side! With my jaw closed, I ran my finger from top to bottom of that crossbite area. It was SO exciting to feel the crossbite tooth as the slightest protrusion instead of being flush with my bottom tooth. YEAH!!! Without the trays in, the tooth wasn't exactly in front of the bottom tooth, but I knew it was inching its way over there. If I moved my lower jaw back drastically, I was actually able to get my crossbite tooth to go in front of the lower tooth, even for the tiniest bit. I don't think I've felt that ever since I was a kid and still had my baby teeth!

What was also kinda cool was something my mom said to me. We had gone over to her house for the Lunar New Year on Sunday, 2/18/07, for dinner, and when I smiled, she commented that she could hardly tell I was wearing them. What I noticed was that, the straighter my teeth got, the more invisible the Invisalign trays became! I guess it was just easier to fit, without weird gaps of plastic, since they were straighter now. For instance, by my crossbite area, the plastic had to suddenly go inward to conform to the position of my teeth, making that area more visible than other areas of my teeth, where the fit was as tight as a glove. She was so glad that things were working out so well with this treatment!

I only had these trays in for 12 days instead of the standard 14. It's not too bad. I know my ortho would hate to hear about that, but most of the movement has already occurred, and the latter part of the trays time is more to allow the bone to grow back after the teeth have moved. 2 days isn't going to make a huge difference, especially since I won't be cutting any more tray wearing times for future trays after Tray 12!

Anyway, here's what my teeth looked like after Tray 11:

Center smile:


Center, mouth agape:


Lower:


Upper:


Crossbite side: