Getting Attached: My Invisalign Experience #2

I'm back with another Invisalign blog! I'm now on my 3rd aligner tray and about 5 weeks into my treatment. Time flies eh?! It gets easier and easier as the treatment goes on. Yesterday I had to pop into David McConville to get my attachments (or buttons, whatever you want to call them) put on. If you don't know what attachments are and see Invisalign bloggers mention them, they're basically bumps of filling material placed onto the teeth. They click into place on the aligners and help rotate or push teeth back, sort of like elastics on traditional wire braces.

I was a little scared as I've heard horror stories about getting these put on but I reminded myself this is the hardest bit and if I can do this I'll be over the worst of it. David had a quick check to see how my teeth are fitting into the aligners (all good, phew!) and then got started. He put a massive plastic contraption in my mouth to keep my cheeks away from my teeth - wouldn't want skin glued to my teeth!

Next, my teeth were dried with air and any saliva was sucked up. The teeth must be really dry to get the glue to adhere. This was all totally fine. He placed a bit of the adhesive on each tooth which needed an attachment. I must say, the glue tastes GROSS. It's bitter and yucky, so make sure you don't swallow any if you can avoid it! The glue was then rinsed off with some cold water. This was very uncomfortable for me simply because one of my teeth has a large silver filling in it and it was verrrrry sensitive to the cold water. I did a bit of hand clenching at this point!

David piped some filling material into the template aligners - so he knew exactly where to place them - then placed them over my teeth and cured them with a UV light. Top teeth attachments - done!

The process was the exact same on the bottom. Dry, glue, rinse, dry, pipe, cure, done. The last step was to polish the attachments so they weren't all rough in my mouth. This was the most uncomfortable part. It didn't hurt by any means, but the polishing tool made the high pitched whistle of a filling drill and it brought back awful memories of being in the dentist chair! Still, it was done after about 60 seconds and then I was free to go. It took a bit of manipulating and wiggling to put my aligners back on but I did it.

When I got home I was absolutely starving so I attempted to pop the aligners out to eat. I won't lie, after about 10 minutes of trying to pry them off I was getting quite frustrated almost to the point of tears, but I finally did it. David suggested using my nail to pull them off but my nails got filed down the same day so this wasn't possible. In the end I used a dental explorer - I believe that's what they're called - a hook like metal contraption they often use to scrape your teeth at the dentist. It worked a treat! And I didn't pull any teeth out in the process. Success. Update: Day 2. The aligners are much easier to take out now - it doesn't hurt at all.

If you're worried about getting the attachments I hope this provided some solace. It's not pleasant by any means but it's certainly not awful! It's all over in around 30 minutes and then you can think about how great your teeth will look at the end of your treatment. I can't wait to see the changes now I've had 2 teeth out to make space and have the attachments on - stay tuned!