Invisible Tourist: Fitting My First Aligners

Monday 24 July 2006

Fitting My First Aligners

I have come back to Budapest in the middle of a heatwave. The flat I have rented for the weekend just off Ráday Utca is roasting hot and does not have air conditioning or even an electric fan. I insist they provide a fan which arrives on the first evening. By closing the shutters during the day and opening them at night, I can make the flat habitable. I go for a swim at the Alfred Hajos swimming pool on Margit Island in the middle of the Danube, but the beautiful outdoor pool is being used the shoot the movie "Children of Glory" so I have to swim indoors.

At Dr H's surgery, he fits the first set of aligners. They snap very tightly around my teeth and, since each tooth is having forces applied to it, they create a fairly strange sensation. Slightly painful - a bit like being punched softly in the mouth - but the feeling does fades. He takes the aligners off to fix the elastic attachments. When we fix the elastic bands which apply the force for the first time, one of the attachments pings off and has to be reattached. While my teeth are getting used to this rough treatment, I am allowed to wear the aligners only ten hours a day and we leave the other attachments for the next session.

By Monday, the weather has turned ultra hot and humid, to the point that it is making me feel really quite ill so I decide to phone for a taxi and leave for the airport early after lunch. This turns out to be a good idea because as I drive out of town a biblical storm breaks flooding the roads and the metro, and making taxis very hard to come by.

On the plane home, I learn a useful lesson about aligners. I take them out to eat dinner. When the plane lands, I realise one is missing. I frantically search my hand luggage and the area around my seat until I get told I have to leave the plane. I am thinking how I am going to explain this to Dr H and get as far as the train platform when I realise I am also missing my laptop, which I have left on the plane while unpacking my hand luggage. I go back to the terminal and ask, rather without hope, if the laptop was handed in. It was, and half an hour later it is given to me along with a sick-bag containing the aligner. A small miracle, but a lesson to be a lot more careful with aligners, especially if they are the only set you have.

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Invisalign Do"s and Don"ts

Don't eat with the aligners in Eating with alingers in is possible but not pleasant. I never realised before how much of "tasting" is actually experiencing the texture of food through the teeth, and wearing aligners removes this sense. Plus food will get stuck under the aligners and they will become really dirty really quickly. Don't drink with aligners in Drinking dark fluids with the aligners in will result visible pockets of coloured fluid inside the aligners. Somehow, the space between the teeth and alingers seems to fill with concentrated saliva which largely prevents that happening. But drinking with aligners will get the aligners dirty more quickly. . . . . . . . . . . . . Don't ever chew gum with alingers You will be amazed how quickly fragments of gum get stuck behind the alingers. They are highly visible and are a real pain to remove. . . . . . . . . . . . . Smoking There doesn't seem to be a problem with smoking with aligners apart from the oral pleasure being reduced, just as in eating. Invisalign warn that heavy smoking may discolour the aligners which seems very likely but I can't comment on that. . . . . . . . . After Eating and Drinking To get the best results, it is important that you put the aligners back in as soon as possible after eating and drinking. Ideally you will want to brush and perhaps floss, but we know that's not always realistic. Vigorously chewing gum and pushing the gum around the teeth can be pretty effective at cleaning before replacing the aligners, so always try to carry chewing gum. Putting the Alingers in My prefered method is to push the aligners on with my fingers starting from the front teeth and then to bite my jaws together to push them fully over the teeth. If you find it difficult to get the alingers on, try running them under warm water to soften them slightly. . . . . . . . . Removing the Aligners My prefered method is to use both index fingers to loosen the aligner from the back teeth and then the side teeth. I think it's a good sign if the alingers are difficult to get off - if they come off too easily, you may be straying from the treatment plan and you may be headed for trouble. There are special tools like plastic hooks to remove aligners. I use a metal crochet needle but I am very careful to avoid damaging the tooth enamel with it. . . . . . . . . Changing to a New Set of Aligners A new of aligners can be quite uncomfortable and there is a strong temptation to take them out several times a day. I have a pet theory that taking aligners in and out weakens them. I avoid this problem by wearing a new set of aligners at night and the old set during the day for the first three days. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . When to Change Aligners Officially every 2.5 weeks. You will feel when an old set is no longer applying much force and when it is time to change to a new set. Sometimes that happens sooner, sometimes later. A word of warning - I went away with friends (who don't know I wear alingers) over New Year's Eve and decided not to wear the aligners for 48 hours. I was amazed how much my teeth relapsed in that short time - it put the treatment back by at least a week - so it is really not recommended. . . . . . . . . . Cleaning A dirty film will build up on the inside and outside of the aligners. Cleaning with a toothbrush is possible but it is difficult to get the insides clean. Ultrasonic appliance cleaners with cleaning tablets are inexpensive and get the aligners really clean. I am experimenting to see if ordinary denture cleaning tablets will work as well as the proprietary tablets.

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Monday 24 July 2006

Fitting My First Aligners

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Invisalign Do"s and Don"ts