radiopeter

I received a comment on the δοντια μου (my teeth) post I did a couple days back from Jealene (Hi Jealene!) and I wanted to dish on living with Invisalign for over a year now.

It has been a long, and honestly fairly easy journey. But I learned a ton along the way. And while it’s not 100% done, I’ve certainly come to know a few tricks that I didn’t know before.

When I first began, I realized that I eat a lot. I eat all the time. Seriously. Like six or seven times a day, albeit small meals here and there, with the occasional large meal now and again. With all the in and outs of my trays, I didn’t want to have tons of food stuck in my teeth, only to rot while I was wearing my trays. You may squirm at hearing that, but imagine having yuck-mouth times ten, and that is what I got when I don’t brush and pop my trays back in right after eating.

SO, I went out and bought a handful of toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste and scattered them everywhere I was. What does that mean? One at each job (I had several jobs when I began), several at home (I’d be brushing my teeth six or seven times a day, so I’d rotate toothbrushes), and I went online and bought a DentaKit to carry with me in my backpack (which I normally have) everywhere I went. I ditched the extra tray holder included, because the foldable cup stored inside the kit can be the tray holder if you need it to. And stow a couple Advil / Tylenol / Alleve / whatever you like in the kit.

The DentaKit was the single most useful thing I bought and I still use it regularly, but I’ve swapped out the travel toothbrush with one I like more. It has a mirror (a godsend for a vain guy like me) and places for floss, a portable cup, a toothbrush, and a small tube of toothpaste. If I’d recommend one single thing for Invisalign wearers, it’s the DentaKit. The convenience of having everything in a handy kit that is smaller than a paperback book is worth the $30.

The other major thing I learned, aside from developing a love for mint-waxed floss, is that the “Retainer Brite” cleaning tablets are pretty much useless. Same with the Polident, Efferdent, etc. I tried them all and nothing works better than a .79 cent (or .59 cent) hard bristled tooth brush from the generic section of your favorite pharmacy/convenience store.

Each morning I pop out my trays, toss ‘em in a glass of water before my shower and scrub them with the hard toothbrush after I brush my teeth. Takes a couple extra minutes in the morning, but the stiffer bristles get all the gunk out of the nooks and crannies nicely. With or without the cleaning tablets, you still have to scrub to get them clean. I even bought a ’sonic cleaner’ (not an ultrasonic…do they make those for Invisalign?) and it did little good. The only thing I found the tablets did for my trays was make them taste a bit minty. Since I use mint mouthwash and mint floss, minty trays were a moot point.

Beyond that, I always kept a folded paper towel in a pocket somewhere in case I was out and wanted to eat something. Pop out the trays, wrap them in the paper towel, put ‘em in your pocket. That way you aren’t tempted to leave them on a table somewhere.

Thursdays are the days I change my trays. I started on a Thursday night and I still stick to a Thursday night schedule (I have a couple lowers left). Thursday mornings I’d put the new trays next to the sink so I wouldn’t forget to change them that night.

As far as pain goes, yeah, it hurts sometimes. Not necessarily a sharp stabbing pain, but it throbs a bit. The morning after some new trays my teeth are a bit sensitive, but it depends on which ones are moving. That is where the stowaway Advil etc. comes in handy in the DentaKit. Sometimes during the first day or so of new trays, my mouth would hurt. It wasn’t a regular thing, and usually one Advil took care of it. But better to be prepared.

When my front teeth were moving around, the first couple days after a new tray I couldn’t even think of apples or carrots. But by the end of the first week, I could return to chomping away on harder stuff with no problems.

Ok, that was a total brain dump on Invisalign stuff. Jealene, I hope that helps some!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 9:27 am and is filed under blogpost, invisalign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.