Refinement - 1st Trays - just the beginning

5 weeks after my last ortho visit, my Refinement Trays came in. I called to make an appointment, slightly nervous because I had a few business trips that required meeting new accounts and public speaking with training coming up. I had an inkling that I'd be getting buttons attached to my teeth, and wanted to see if I could hold off on getting the trays until after my trips.

I asked the girl on the phone if my teeth would be getting any modifications (buttons, IPR, etc.). She said, yes, 2 buttons. I literally groaned a big "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" into the phone, to her dismay. Plus, I was at the office, and behaviour like that could really attract some negative attention. Luckily for me, I already have the reputation for being very vocal about my feelings, so my whine was pretty much ignored by the rest of the nearby cubicle inhabitants within earshot.

Next question for her: how many trays did I have? 7. That meant 14 weeks. I quickly counted to see how close that would be to my brother's wedding, and saw that would put me just a few weeks right beforehand, so knew I couldn't hold off on getting them later since I planned on whitening them and possibly getting the one tooth bonded, too. Darnnit!!

I came in Friday, 6/8/07 to get my buttons put on and my 4 sets of refinement trays. Looking at my chart, the buttons were going on my 2 canines. At least they weren't going on my bicuspids, so they were a little less obvious on the canine teeth. Good! However, the buttons for refinement trays are square, not round or oval, so they're more obvious than other buttons I would have had during my initial phase. I should really stop complaining because I didn't have any buttons during my initial phase.

They put a "cheek spreader" into my mouth for self-titled reasons, which kept my teeth as dry as possible for the application. There was a separate tray just to put on the buttons. It was pretty cool. It was the same mold as my 1st set of refinement trays, but was super thin. The goop for the buttons was spread onto my teeth, the special tray was put in, and the goop was cured with a special blue light to have it shaped and hardened by the trays. The curing time was 30 seconds. Then, the trays came out, and I was allowed to rinse out my mouth with water and Listerine, b/c the goop tastes really terrible (almost like battery acid). Next, the ortho came over and filed away all the excess button goop.

Next, I tried on my 1st set of refinement trays. Holy COW they were hard to get in (because of the buttons)!! It took the ortho a while to get them in, too! My bottom ones didn't have any buttons, but they were really snug as well. I guess I was really used to not having snug trays for too long, b/c I forgot how tight these can be. The bottom trays almost felt like they were the tightest trays I had had to date, which is weird.

The top trays? OUCH! I was given instructions on how to take them out with the buttons, and went over to the mirror to practice taking them out and putting them back in before I was allowed to go home. I felt like a complete idiot. Getting them off was easier than I thought it would be, but it still felt like I was pulling out my teeth a bit. Putting them back in felt nearly impossible! It was like they weren't fitting or something, which I knew was not the case.

In the end, I wound up lining them up in the center first, and then pushing them on from the right rear and working my way around, all the while keeping slight pressure on the center so that it wouldn't move while I pushed around my mouth. I think I was initially afraid of pushing so hard to get the trays on my teeth b/c I thought they weren't going to fit, but I needed to realize that I just needed to use this amount of force for these trays now in order to get them on. Once I realized that, it wasn't a big problem.

I was forewarned that the buttons may come off, and if that was the case, to call the ortho to have them put back on.

Can I tell you? I'm in so much pain. So much more so than any of the other trays I've ever had. These buttons make these trays SO tight, and my teeth are incredibly sore and tender. With some other trays, I had this for the 1st day or so. It's now nearing the end of Day 2 with these trays and my teeth are still sore. It ruined my appetite, and even disturbed my night of sleep. I don't even have to be doing anything, and my teeth hurt. I know!!

Granted, most of my other trays have been introduced to my teeth at night, so that I was able to take 2 Advil and have them get used to the tightness for 7-8 hours while I slept away any pain. I think the fact that I started out with these trays in the morning and couldn't sleep away any pain (I did take 2 Advil) definitely exacerbated the problem. By the time I went to bed last night, the pain was very much on the forefront of my mind, and I wasn't able to sleep away and forget any pain I was feeling.

Like the other trays, the edges were mostly smooth, but the molding by my left rear molar doesn't cover my molar completely, and the edges there are a bit rough and have been making that part of my tongue a bit sensitive. I thought it was a different part of the tray, and filed away at that part, and didn't realize it was the most rear part until pretty much right now. I'll be taking care of that shortly.

These trays definitely fit MUCH better than my 16th trays did, though. I guess it makes alot of sense that they do, since the 16th trays were made based on a estimate of where my teeth would be, and not really where they currently are. This Refinement Tray 1 was made more on where my teeth currently are. So remember that gap on the trays above my crossbite tooth? Gone. The trays fit all my teeth like a glove now. Unfortunately, it still currently feels like the same glove OJ Simpson tried on in court ;)

I've been dreading taking them out to eat. It hurts so friggin badly!! However, now that it's after midnight on Saturday, and I've taken out my trays to eat dinner and have put them back in, I can say that the pain is starting to lessen now. Finally!