Wait, I’m Almost DONE With Invisalign?

[I am a member of the Invisalign Moms Advisory Board and am receiving complimentary Invisalign treatment.]

A few days ago I went to my orthodontist for a regularly-scheduled check up on my Invisalign progress. I was wearing trays #20, meaning I’ve been doing Invisalign for 40 weeks. On the little plastic bags that the trays come in it says “of 31.” As in tray number 20 out of 31. So, I thought I had at least 22 more weeks of new trays to go.

Imagine my surprise when Dr. Hung told me that I was probably only two or three trays from the end! He said that he usually orders more trays than he thinks he’ll need. Huh.

My teeth, at this point, are just about as straight as they’re going to get. The rest of the trays are for fixing my bite – rolling my teeth back or forward as a group so that the top ones hit the bottom ones the right way when I chew. And he said that right now, they’re just about where they should be! Whoo hoo!

Now, he warned me that that doesn’t mean I’m almost done with treatment. Whatever my last trays end up being, I’ll be wearing that set for several months as my teeth completely heal in their new positions. At first I’ll wear the trays for 22 hours a day, just like now, then 18 hours, etc. etc. until eventually, I’m just wearing a retainer at night.

We also talked about my crooked front tooth. What? But Amy, you said your teeth were now straight! Well, they are. Except for that front tooth. That one used to overlap the one next to it really badly. About 15 years ago, to make it look better, a dentist filed it down to appear straight. So, making it straight with Invisalign made it…crooked. Make sense?

Dr. Hung suggested bonding. To show me what he meant, he took a little piece of wax and molded it onto my tooth to make it look straight. Voila!

I agree, that’s the way to go. And I think my other front tooth might need a little evening out as well. This is one of the problems you run into when you wait until you’re 40 to get your teeth straightened: they’ve been wearing away for decades and won’t be “straight” when you straighten them, but Dr. Hung warned me about this right at the beginning. This, at least, seems like an easy fix.

He wants me to get it done sooner rather than later. He said he can cut a hole into my last Invisalign trays to accommodate it.

So, I’m giddy. I’m not quite at the end of my treatment, but I’m at the beginning of the end!!!

I am a member of the Invisalign Moms Advisory Board. I am receiving complimentary Invisalign treatment as part of this program. All opinions are my own and based on my own treatment experience. Full disclosure can be found here: http://shout.lt/ggGP