Sorry this took so long to update. The end of Dec, when I got off work my right knee was hurting. I got home and went to bed and when I got up I couldn't walk on that knee and I had to crawl up and the stairs and scoot down on my bottom. I got into the doctor and he thought it was my knee cap. Both my knees appear to be pulled inward on both legs but only my right one hurts. He wanted me to do 4 weeks of physical therapy , wear a knee brace and take aleve for 4-6 weeks. To make a long story short, the physical therapy didn't help at all and my knee hurt worse after all this then when I started. I was almost constantly sick to my stomach from the pain. My physical therapist thought that I might have actually torn my medial meniscus. I went back to the PA (would have taken a month to see one of the doctors). He said he still thought it was my knee cap. He gave me a shot of cortisone and told me to see him in a month. I called my chiropractor who said he would order a MRI for me if I wanted. I said please Dr smith may I have an order for a MRI. I went in and the MRI said that I had a very large baker's cyst behind my knee and that it was highly suspicious for a medial meniscus tear. I got into one of the doctors at the orthopod (pod people they are :) ) He thought I had torn the horn of my medial meniscus and referred me to one of the surgeons. The surgeon said that it could be my knee cap or possibly a tear but wouldn't say either way. He said he has been burned before when he's done a scope and thought there was a tear and didn't find one and visa versa. He said we could try a synthetic synovial fluid and if its my knee cap it would lube the joint up and make it feel alot better or he could scope it and if there was a tear snip it out, if its a rough spot clean it up and also (probably ) do a release (that would put me out of commission for a few weeks. ecks). My husband wants me to try the shot first.The nurse said that if its a tear it will be act like a cortisone shot (took a week to work and by the second week felt like it had just about worn off -in other words won't help worth a poop). now I'm just waiting for the insurance to authorize- if they will. kinda a crap shot ey. Can't really afford a scope right now anyway. Not after all the physical therapy charges. ouch. that was $120-166 a VISIT for 4 weeks at 3 times a week! All I can say is thank you God for insurance and my flex/medical savings accounts.

Ok now back to the brace face story......


Here is my retainer. If your a gagger this will really suck for you. It goes way back in my mouth. Took me a while to get use to it. I still have a bit of a hard time talking with it. lisp lisp lisp. I got another of those clip things behind my naughty tooth and they bent the front wire to help push that tooth straighter.
This is my latest wire/clips I choose mint green for saint Patrick's day. It's kinda hard to chew with the bottom brackets on. See how my molars don't touch. Yes I take out the retainer when I eat. Doesn't make any difference on how close my molars are. The wire next to my canines are beginning to get straighter instead of going down on my canine then uuuppp on my molar. Don't know what that bended section is all about. As you can see from the past pic's its new. The past ones have just been a straight wire that is connect to each bracket and held on with a colored clip/ring thing.
My third wire/colored clips I chose was dark and light blue. Every time they change the colored round things they change the wire.

The second colored clips I chose was clear. I liked these. Christine is right they didn't stain at all. Maybe I should have chosen the clear brackets also. oh well

Went to my ortho today. My tops look pretty good but he is going to get me a retainer that I pick up Tuesday that has little springs in the back, on the outside edge of each of those teeth next to the front. Then he is going to sand one of the front on the bottom to make them look more even. If you haven't noticed already he put brackets on the bottom because the invisalign was unable to push back one of the teeth next to my bottom canines and neither canines twisted like they were suppose to. They feel weird, but not too much different than the bottom aligner because that one ballooned out across the bottom front and back. So bad in fact that I got a canker sore in my lip in front of the bottom. The difference is that I can't take them out to eat and my molars don't touch when I try to bite down. My ortho said that will change in about a week when my teeth get use to them. They don't hurt at all.


I went with gold brackets and pink little round things that go around the brackets. I was going to go with clear but the assistant told me that the brackets are bigger and the round parts stain really really bad so they are anything but clear.

The bottom of my top teeth touch the top of the bottom brackets .

Oh my top arch looks so much better. You can see what I mean about the tooth next to the front (left side on the pic) not twisting straight enough. Ortho thinks the spring thing attached to the retainer will be enough to straighten the tooth out a bit more.
Not sure how long I will have to wear the brackets. I go back in three weeks so we will see.

After many tries and going back and forth in my pic files I finally got a progression of my aligners. I missed a couple . oh well . live with it :)

Pre-invisalign

Sorry apparently I didn't take any pictures with aligner 1

2nd aligner

3rd aligner

4th aligner

5th aligner

opps missed 6th aligner

7th aligner

8th aligner.. bubbly um umm

9th aligner

10th aligner (final in express series)
Still need some work done on bottom and a little on top

Well now I'm on my 10th aligner and my bottom teeth just don't want to cooperate. They are straighter but one of the four front teeth (the bottom left on this pic) just doesn't want to move back all the way and the one next to it (closest to the first small molar) on both sides just don't want to be symmetrical. I don't have my next appointment until jan 11th . my ortho said he was going to be thinking between my last appt and the one in January on how he was going to do refinements. I'm now kinda thinking braces don't sound too bad.



My uppers don't look too bad although I hope my ortho can somehow get my stubborn upper tooth on the left next to the front to twist a bit more.



Here is my bottoms with the bad bad aligners in. The bottom left tooth doesn't want to go back and so there is a big gap on the top and it balloons out in the back next to my tongue. My aligners aren't so invisible anymore oh well.



Yes Christine I got my camera for Christmas. One of the guys I work with his wife had him get his own gift and when I asked if she also had him wrap it he said yes she did! LOLOL


First Grade can be pretty tough! :) Just kidding. My daughter aka mini me decided she wanted to put on some makeup. With the missing tooth and the dark brown eyeshadow she looks like she got in a fight. I just had to include this.

Just put in my 8th aligner last night before I went to sleep. Woke up and oh my goodness. My teeth hurt oh oh oh. It doesnt help that I keep pushing my top teeth against my bottom teeth. Doesn't hurt until I release the pressure. I'm trying to push against that "bubbly" gap on to of the bottom tooth that sticks out a bit. My tops don't really hurt that bad. It is just kinda sore on the second tooth on the top (my other "offender") It also has a bit of a gap on the bottom but not as bad as the bottom. Oh man do I have a tiny blond goatee?? Or is something stuck under my lip. oh my how embarassing. nahh could be black , now that would be embarassing.

I hear how some people get drooly. I really haven't been. Actually my mouth has been pretty darn dry and my lips keep on sticking to the aligners. Like plastic vacuum lip suctioners. I'm really not baring my teeth at you, just unsticking my lips. I think I have like 20 mint lip balms around the house because my lips get so dry. babble babble babble. I think I'm babbling again.

I asked my husband for a new dig camera for Christ-X (yes I'm a rebel and I would rather take the mas out of Christmas then Christ). I even circled the add and added a coupon hee hee. It's ok if he doesn't get it, its only an object, but I would really love it. hee hee. It's a sony cybershot. Any comments on that model? I looked on amazon and everyone who commented on it liked it.

Here is a pic of my first aligner (top ones) and my 7th aligner (bottom). Quite a difference in the two.




The picture above is my before invisalign and the one on the right is after I had aligner #7 in for about a week. Looks like my front teeth are quite a bit straighter and my jaw doesn't look as narrow. The owie spot on the bottom back of this aligner has stopped digging into my check thank goodness but now I have a gap on the top of the tooth that still sticks out a bit and when I push down on it with my top teeth the aligner pops off the first molar button. Got better just before I changed to the next aligner.




Wow can't seem to get these two pictures to separate. They must like each other ALOT. Anyway, the one on the left is my before and the one on the right is after I had in the 7th aligner in for about a week. My upper like my bottom is starting to get more of a wider U shape to it. Like the bottom I have a top tooth (the offending one is the one with the dot filling in it) that just doesn't want to turn easily. Found out that all the metal in my mouth wasn't caused by poor brushing or eating habits as child. Apparently my molars didn't want to form correctly and so I had small holes in them when they popped out of the gums. The dentist told my mom he had to treat them as cavities and fill them or else they would turn into cavities. This wasn't a huge shock to me about the not fully formed teeth as I have another part of me that didn't want to fuse together and form one whole part. Lets just say I'm lucky to have a couple of rug rats running around and breaking things around the house.
Sorry it took me so long to update this. I was kinda shocked when I looked and realized it had been over a month. sorry guys

Put in my 5th aligner Sunday (yesterday) and boy does my mouth hurt. This one is one of the most owwiest aligner. In the pictures below I don't have the aligners in either of them. The one on the left is my before invisalign and the one on the right is 24hours after putting in my 5th.
Now I'm on number 5 out of 10 aligners!! yeahh!
My bottoms are starting to straighten out. The bottom aligner hurts right now. Its really pushing that tooth on the bottom left back and its really tender. When I first put it in it had a big gap on the top of the tooth. I just chewed on an aligner chewie and now its fits a little better. Pedro really was having a bad day at the factory when he cut this one. My tongue hurts. Along the side on the bottom its still trying to cut up my tongue even after I clipped the part that sticks out a bit between the back two molars. I really dislike the taste of blood. yuck yuck yuck ewwww. It totally grosses me out to see when people suck on there cuts. shudder



Below are pictures of my top teeth. Again both are without aligners on. The one on the left is before invisalign and the one on the right is 24hours after putting in my 5th aligner. My twisted tooth on the left next to my front tooth is starting to twist straighter and the two teeth next to those teeth are starting to move more inward. I really feel the pressure on that second tooth on the right as its pushing that tooth inward and it really really hurts after I put the aligner back in. It should be better in the next day or so.

Me at work at 0500 after drinking a 4 shot keith richards mocha and off to do morning blood draws.



Good morning! My name is Penny and I'm from the lab! Your doctor has ordered some blood tests so I will be drawing some blood from you!
First what is your name and your date of birth?! Oh I see you are intubated and are on milk of amnesia! Dont worry you wont remember any of this!







Now lets see what kind of veins you have!
Why are you shaking your head violently? Are you a head injury? Should I ask the nurse to change your restraints to leather? I think they are more comfortable.







What the heck! Why oh why did they put your IV's on both your hands?! Now where am I suppose to draw? Oh I know, look at that big vein in the middle of your head!
Oh hi my nurse friend! oh he has a central line you can get the blood from. oh... okay. Darn I always wanted to draw from a forehead vein and look at that fatty.

Just got my video clip for my invisalign where you get to see a little movie on your teeth before and as they move. Real cool, only I don't know how or if I can post it. I do have an end photo that was emailed to me. Here it t'is.

Just started my 4th aligner. My twisted tooth just doesnt really want to move. I got some aligner chewies from
http://www.jawproducts.com
They are wonderful. After chewing on them for a little while that tooth started to move a little . yeahhh




Here I am with the bottom #4 aligner in. I took my before picture into the bathroom and compared now to then and they are starting to look a little straigher. happy happy






My ortho gave me a strawberry (?) flavored aligner chewie. Didnt think it tasted so good. Think I will stick with my unflavored one and just soak it in mouth wash.
Also got an aligner ultrasonic from the jawproducts place. Only 20.00



Here is a slide view of the chewie. Love the things. Only costs 1.75 for 3 and like 65 cents to ship. Got two packages. They are addictive, chew chew chew
Like gum only...unflavored :)