15th Trays & some concerns

OK, again, not too much movement with these trays. I'm actually REALLY happy now that I'm getting refinement trays. I know initially I had wanted to be completely done with this by April 30th, but if that had been the case and we stuck to it, I would have wound up with not completely straight teeth.

One detail that concerns me is that my crossbite tooth isn't snug by the front of the trays. I'm not sure if Invisalign purposely did it this way for some strange reason, but it appears that the back of the tooth isn't getting moved much further, but there's quite a gap between my crossbite tooth and the front of the tray in that area. I'd think that, either the tray should have formed itself more closely to the tooth, or Invisalign should have been pushing the back of the tooth more towards the front so that it would be more snug towards the front.

In addition, when the trays are taken out for me to eat, etc., my bite is still very off. It feels like my bottom center teeth are too close to my upper front teeth, and as a result, my molars aren't able to line up with each other. My jaw aches a bit when my trays are out because it feels like I've developed a slight overbite.

On my right side, my bottom molars have some distinguishable spaces between them. All the rest of my teeth are pretty tight, but there are 3 molars where the floss is able to super easily glide in between them with hardly any tightness.

A sneak peek at my 16th trays shows that there's really not much more movement to be expected by my crossbite tooth nor my bottom center teeth. Upon careful examination, it looks like my crossbite tooth may need to get twisted a bit AND pushed out further, and my right center tooth may need some twisting as well. Thank goodness I'm keeping this blog so I can really come with a laundry list of concerns and requests for my ortho when I see him next.

I can't believe that tomorrow night, I'll be putting on my last set of active trays. My last set!! I clearly remember the start of this whole process, and 16 trays seemed like such a long time away. The time has now arrived.

Oh, on another note...my gumline by my crossbite tooth has started to detach from the tooth. I hope this will clear the way for it to recede as well, because my smile is still visibly more lopsided because of this. You can't actually see that it's detaching, but when I use a dental pick to get at any tartar, I'm able to easily stick it underneath my gums and almost even lift a corner of it up a bit. Sorry for the gross visual. Hey, it's a blog about TEETH, so it's not like you were expecting prettiness, were you? :)

Anyway, here are pictures of what my teeth look like right now.

Center smiling:


Mouth agape:


Lower (still not as straight as I thought they would be by the end of my second to last set of trays):


Upper:


Crossbite side (I hate how my tooth looks like an ugly jagged little rock AND is angled out so severely!):


Opposite of crossbite side (look how much prettier this bicuspid is compare to the problematic one!):


Crossbite side looking up from below (see how it's mostly just the tip that's over the bottom teeth?):


Opposite of crossbite side looking up from below (notice how much this bicuspid is over the bottom teeth - check out that gap compared to the picture before!):


Looking up from below so you can see how the 2 biscuspids differ in position. Also, check out my center line. Yikes! It used to be perfect. Now, where my 2 front teeth meet does NOT line up with where my 2 center bottom teeth meet. In fact, both upper and lower center lines appear to be slightly angled in opposite directions as well. NOT good....


You can really see a difference between the way the 2 bicuspids are positioned in this picture:


Wanted to show you what my teeth look like with my trays in now that they're straighter. Do you see, however, that my crossbite tooth isn't touching the bottom of the mold like the rest of my teeth are?


With trays in, mouth agape:


Looking down from above. You can really see here how there's a significant gap in front of my crossbite tooth compared to the rest of my teeth.


And a normal smile with the trays in:

14th Trays & a whitening conversation

My teeth haven't really felt like they've moved much more with these trays. No bleeding at all, either.

The crossbite tooth has moved more definitively across the bottom teeth, but I'm still not liking the angle it's taking. I know I have 2 more trays to go, but I'm apprehensive that I'm going to require a button after all during my refinement trays. That would stink!! The buttons are much more easily noticed when you have your trays off, and sometimes, I'd take out my trays if I had to do a presentation or meet someone new and important. Wouldn't be able to do that then, would I?

OK, I have to take a deep breath and slow down. I'm way ahead of myself and don't even know what's going to happen here, so I'll just relax until then and make notes of what exactly I want to accomplish with my teeth and just go over them with the ortho when I see him again.

I did take a sneak peek at tray 16, though, when I went to put in tray 15. I wanted to see how much of the upper part of my crossbite tooth (by the root) would be moved in the final tray. As it turns out - not much. Looks like Invisalign calculated teeth movement more on my bite than on the rest of my tooth, so I'll have to make sure the roots are moved more forward as well.

Speaking of bite, my bite is still off. I've noticed, however, that as the 2 weeks progress, the bite gets better. So the major movement happens within the first couple days of a new trays, but the tiny movements that affect bite more so happen gradually throughout the course of the tray.

I also saw my regular dentist, Dr. Bocian, halfway through my 14th trays. He was surprised to see how much they had moved, but wanted to make sure that I'm just as diligent about my trays usage during the retainment period, and reminded me that this period will, in actuality, last for the rest of my life. He was also concerned a bit about gingivitis, and saw a bit of it along my gumline. It's a very tough thing to avoid since that is exactly where the trays rest by my crossbite area, which explains the gum bleeding. I just need to take extra care in brushing, flossing, rinsing with mouthwash, etc., to prevent this from getting any worse.

I also talked to him about whitening my teeth afterwards, using Zoom! I always wanted to do it, and it would be perfect timing before my brother's wedding. However, he actually suggested that I try in-home whitening, which uses the same stuff they use in the office. He said that most people opt for in-office because it's fast, and they tire of the whitening at night with trays in for 3 weeks straight. Being that I'll be wearing form-fitting trays anyway, it wouldn't be something I'd have to get used to. In addition, in-home is half the cost of in-office, and insurance doesn't pay for any of it. When I asked him how much in-home was compared to in-office, I was shocked at the answer!! I had no idea that in-office was about $600!!!!! He said in-home would be a little over $300.

He told me to check with Invisalign (not the ortho) to make sure this hydrogen peroxide mixture would be OK to use on the trays without any damage to them. I believe they are. His only other concern was that the trays cover a tiny bit of my gums in some areas. This could get irritated from the whitening solution. He was, however, willing to let me test out the solution for a few days before we commit to the whole thing. He also told me that the in-home would last just as long and would get my teeth just as white as the in-office. I love Dr. Bocian!

Here are the pics!

Center smile showing top and bottom:


Center, agape:


Lower:


Upper:


Crossbite tooth (looking up from bottom):


Opposite side of crossbite tooth (looking up from bottom) - you can see it's seated in front more than the crossbite tooth still:


Side view of crossbite tooth - yes, my bite is still not flush on this side, but it's getting better: