So far I can say that my life has changed ~a little~. I’ve noticed I don’t have as much time as I thought I did in the mornings before work now that I can’t mosey along lazily sipping coffee. Now it’s been: take out trays, eat something small quickly so I can take my antibiotic (prescribed just to be safe after my extraction), brush, use mouthwash, use chlorhexydine (an antibiotic mouthwash to promote healing), brush trays, put them back in, use my Munchies for a bit, wait 30 minutes to drink my coffee through a straw with my trays in 🤧 (for clarification, I usually drink my coffee through a straw but it’s the waiting 30 mins after the chlorhexydine that has me annoyed). Lunch has remained pretty much the same: I either microwave my food and let it cool down enough to eat before I take out my trays, or I pop them right out and stuff my face for like 10 minutes and take my pill before brushing them and putting them back in. Before Invisalign I always used to floss, brush, and use mouthwash after lunch anyways because I had to talk to patients so that hasn’t changed much. I also Munchie for a couple minutes or so since I have an hour break to do so. Dinner is much the same as lunch where I wait until the last possible second to take out my trays before I eat and take my amox, then floss, brush, rinse with both mouthwashes, brush my trays and put them back in. Then I Munchie until I’m tired of it. Granted, I’ll be done with the antibiotics Monday night so I can go back to not eating in the mornings 🙏🏻 and will only have to take them out to brush and use mouthwash. I won’t need to use the chlorhexydine once my extraction site is healed, but still all together it’s been an adjustment. Other things I’ve noticed: 1. I’m already eating and snacking less which is pretty cool. 2. I have finally said no to the donuts at work !!!! (they made me feel sick everytime I ate one like an idiot but now I have awesome self control!) 3. I had to buy a new, bigger bag for work to keep all my things in because all of my current things plus the new addition of a bag full of Invisalign necessities (Munchies, case, hand sanitizer, floss, toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash) doesn’t fit in my current bag anymore and I literally can’t leave home without them! 4. I also bought a new soft-bristle bamboo toothbrush to take around with me and now need to buy a travel case for it. 5. I’ve never used so much toothpaste in my life and need to go out today to buy more ! Probably going to get 3 full sized tubes of whitening toothpastes because I’ve heard that the attachments tend to yellow over time? 6. My mouth is SO DRY when I don’t have them in. Like the Sahara. So I ordered a 3-pack of Movemints from Amazon and I’m waiting for them to come in so I can try them and if they work I’m going to tell my doc about them (she had Invisalign when we met and is now done but always used to say dry mouth was her biggest nuisance wearing them and warns our patients of it). 7. My lower jaw does not sit comfortably in my mouth anymore. Like at all. I find myself resting my two front bottom teeth edges right along the edges of my top front teeth while the trays are in because the added bulk of the aligners means that when I try to sit my lower teeth behind my front teeth (like natural) they sit just a tad too far back to be comfortable. I have this constant feeling of tension like I just want to stretch my jaw muscles?? The pic shows how far apart my teeth rest with the aligners in. 8. My teeth feel completely alien without my aligners in. Like sharp and pointy and thin and I’m shocked at how quickly I adjusted to the feeling of them with the aligners on. All in all, not a bad first week.
