Tray 15 and Beginning of Tray 16

Tray 15 was pretty mild and it even felt loose the last week of wear reminiscent of the first few trays. With wind whistling through making it difficult to speak at times!  I seemed to have a dry mouth more than usual, which makes your braces dry out and stick to your lips when you talk. “Talk” about embarrassing…LOL!  I drink a lot of water too… upwards of 100 ounces a day.

 

For the staining experiment, I used retainer bright just like I did in the beginning of my treatment. I drank only water while wearing my braces. The results are quite clear that Retainer Bright is superior to the Polident 3 minute as far as retainer cleaning goes. Although, I am sure it is great for dentures! J  I am tempted to throw in the towel on the staining experiment and just stick with the tried and true method using retainer bright. I’ve got a ways to go yet in my treatment.

Tray 13 - Polident 3 minute. Drinking Diet Coke & Crystal Light while wearing braces



Tray 14 - Polident 3 minute drinking only water



Tray 15 - Retainer Bright drinking only water - as you can see there is barely a difference between the new set and this set!



Tray 16 - brand new out of package

Completed Mudder and braces happily back in!

 

Last Saturday my husband and I, along with his cousin and wife, did the Tough Mudder which is a 12 mile obstacle course mud run. We signed up long ago back in January 2013, and have been anticipating this event for about 10 months now (and training!) It was an absolute blast and we will all be joining again next year for our second event! I was torn over wearing my braces and getting mud and gunk stuck in there for the duration, or leaving my braces off and not having to think about having bacteria thriving in between my teeth and the braces! Happily making its ways around my teeth and gums! HEEBIE JEEBIEs! So I decided to not wear the braces and extend my treatment for a day or two if needed. Normally I switch my braces out every other Thursday, and of course last Thursday was THAT day. So I just kept the set on for an extra 2 days. I didn’t want to switch into a new set, and then have them off for an extended period of time the day after putting them in. The mud run ended up taking about 5 hours to complete! 5! I have never had my braces out that long before, and when it was done, all I could think about was going and brushing my teeth and getting them back in pronto! I am glad didn’t wear them because I had mud in my mouth more than once. YUK. LOL But worth it… it was so fun to complete the event! My braces were snug but I didn’t have to wrestle them back in, so I was comfortable switching to the new set after dinner Saturday evening.

Beginning Tray 16

This tray is more aggressive. My front teeth are sore as are some of the molars on my top right side. When I first put in the tray they were really super tight and it took me a minute to get them over the attachments on my uppers. Once I got them in I used a chewy until the felt seated properly.  It’s going well so far. Here are my updated photos. This time I did with and without the braces in.

Pre                     No trays             Tray 16

 

The straighter my teeth get the more I can see all of the jagged edges and chips. Yikes! Not a pretty site! I am looking forward to having some filing done later on.

I’ve noticed with trays 15/16 that my crossbite has been corrected (hard to tell straight on) but my bite is off at the moment. My molars aren’t touching now but my wisdom teeth touch, so chewing hasn’t been a problem. I may have had the bite issue for a few trays and didn’t really notice it since I have been able to chew with no issues.

 Left side with corrected crossbite

 

Right side

 

 

Only have just over 7 weeks before I go in to get impressions done for refinements. I need to talk to the dentist this Friday when I go get my last 3 sets of trays (for my uppers – I still technically have 12 for my lowers.) I want to make sure they are going to remove the attachments (3-4 weeks attachment free!! YES!) I’m wondering if they should go ahead and put the crown on that front tooth, so that it can be accounted for during the remaining treatment. I am also getting the bridges so it would be easy to just cut off the back of the final lower tray to make sure my front teeth stay where they are supposed to then they can take new impressions for my Invisalign Vivera retainers after the bridges are placed. Way too complicated! LOL.