Tray 13

I had my dentist appointment today and also got a cleaning. I may be in the minority but I love to have my teeth professionally cleaned! I got a great report - no cavities. She didn't have to scrape as much as normal - a sign I have been pretty diligent (but not perfect) with my hygiene routine. The dental hygienist is pretty awesome I have to say. She is one of the most thorough and nice to boot. Her only concern was my----drum roll---- DIET COKE habit. Ya. So I promised myself I would stop drinking the diet soda with my aligners in as she mentioned some staining - I have enough trouble with my teeth being more yellow wearing these things - maybe my teeth are very porous?? Driving me crazy though... I haven't whitened in a long time so I am going to this weekend and suck up the sensitivity. I've noticed that the teeth with the attachments are the real culprits. HMMM! I also got a new prescription for the Colgate Prevident. She wants me to use it before bed and not rinse my mouth, but I am worried about it staining the aligners (it's blue.) Why do manufacturers feel the need to add "food" coloring (usually chemically)  to everything? I am good with clear! or White! or whatever natural color comes out! :) My next cleaning is scheduled for March 7th next year, which will be 1 day before my full year with Invisalign (got them March 8th this year.) I will look forward to seeing those xrays and seeing the changes!

On the cool message board I frequent (not a huge poster but I sure do like to read about other's experiences and watch for progress pictures!), Braces Review Board (check it out if you haven't already) there is a debate ongoing right now about what causes the aligners to yellow/stain. A few people are really awesome about only drinking water, so there is the thought it may be the denture cleaners being used. I never really noticed much staining when I was only drinking water and using Retainer Bright - but I started using Polident recently, which also coincided with my return to diet coke (I keep mentioning the diet coke because it was a HUGE deal for me to quit that habit last year - now I can't remember what made me drink one again a few months ago but I eventually said to heck with it, I'm drinking my diet coke. It's akin to having stopped/restarted smoking...UGH!!) So, all that to say is I am going to try and experiment cleaning my aligners over the next 6 sets using various methods. I will try a different one each week, and then compare. I will only drink water with my aligners in for the entire experiment. I always brush my aligners at the very least 1 x a day, but usually twice a day (morning and before bed.) I will keep that commitment during the entire experiment because the thought of NOT brushing them at all gives me the heebie jeebies. Too many crevices for germs and crud to hide in. (shivers)

Tray 14 - Polident 3 minute (although I usually leave them in there longer than 3 mins....)
Tray 15 - Retainer Bright
Tray 16 - Half water / half mouthwash
Tray 17 - Basic brushing the aligner using only water each time I remove them (not sure about this method but I've seen it recommended by ortho's - If I get wind of any odor or do not feel "clean" I am going to abandon this method and chalk it up to "oh hell no" sorry...LOL)
Tray 18 - Soaking in water and a dab of bleach (wow this is actually recommended by a dentist- at least they will be more sanitized than the Tray 17 method)
Tray 19 - Brushing with water and dish washing liquid each time I remove them. That should be fun when I am off site working (I work off site every Thursday for my job)

Okay - then I can compare and report. I will take photos on the last day of each aligner so we can compare for ourselves.

I feel like I am really starting to see some results, especially on my uppers. Uppers only had 19 trays as compared to the 28 for my lowers. 6 trays left on the top. Can't believe it!

At my last appointment I discovered that they didn't order passive trays and the coordinator came to talk to me about them today. They had their Invisalign rep come in to see them and they spoke with him/her about it. (They didn't know about passive aligners prior to my mentioning them - they do now. She said they have a few other patients in the same scenario.) So what we think we will do instead of worry with the passive aligners, is to just move into my 1st refinement at that time. Which is fine with me. I am hoping my uppers won't need too much more work at the end of this round. I still have that one tooth that will get a crown as well. I asked if it made sense to have the crown done before refinements or wait. She said we would get with the dentist on my next visit to really figure out how we want to handle it. That works for me. I can handle wearing my trays for a few extra weeks as compared to the 4-1/2 months I was looking at with the uppers. I wish the cleaning debate had come up earlier now that I think about it. What if method 6 sucks and I have to spend 3-4 weeks wearing a yellow aligner?? LOL

Finally, here are my progress pictures!