I (Dr Jason Chan) have started self-treatment with Invisalign! I will be keeping a log here of my treatment with some pictures for you to observe as I go through all the hurdles with Invisalign treatment. This is a new experience for me and should be fun and rewarding!

What I did: Today, I have started by doing some IPR (Interproximal reduction – removing small amounts of tooth structure at the areas where they contact; this gives us more room to move the teeth) on a few of my teeth, adding composite attachments (small pieces of tooth color filling material that allow the aligners to hold onto the teeth better), and finally fitted the first set of aligners in.

So what am I feeling: My initial feelings were that the aligners felt really tight. This is pretty normal as with each set of aligners, they will be placing slight pressure on certain teeth to move the teeth. My speech was slightly changed because of the aligners sitting on the tongue side (lingual) side of my front teeth. My tongue will eventually get used to this and I think my speech will be back to normal soon. Having to remove the aligners when I eat or drink (anything but water), is a little annoying, but not much trouble. These aligners are by far more comfortable than the metal braces I had before that were always scratching my lips. All of the things that I’ve been feeling have been expected. Now I can sympathize with patients when they go through it!

These are the small tooth-colored filling materials that are added to your teeth to help the aligners move your teeth.

Here i am, doing my own IPR (polishing the sides of my teeth down tenths of millimeters) to make more space for the teeth to fit together.