September Whine

September is not the end of summer. We still have plenty of heat (like in the triple digits with lots of humidity).  But it has lots of re-starts - back to school, back to the diet, back to work after vacation and Labor Day, back to my art classes, back to tutoring, etc.

And back to Invisalign:
About ten years ago, I wore Invisaligners to straighten my teeth which had begun to look like Orc teeth.

When the "Lord of the Rings" movie came out, I thought, "Dang, I don't want to look like an Orc." It was about that time the the Invisalign clear braces came out. I jumped at the chance to straighten my teeth and not look like one of the bad guys. After a year and a half of wearing Invisaligns, I was tired of them, but they did a good job. Or so I thought. You wear your last set of Invisaligners as retainers at night - forever - which I have done.  But what no one told me was that you need to replace those retainers every few years, which I have not done. So, ten years later my teeth are becoming crowded again - the floss just does not flow well. When I mentioned this to my new dentist, he suggested I wear the Invisaligners and make my teeth perfect. Dang it! I already did that !  He compared my teeth to an Italian archway - If the stones are all set perfectly, the archway will last forever. If one stone gets out of whack, all the stones will turn and crumble down.

This made me crazy mad (like an Orc). I wore my aligners for over a year, my teeth were suppose to be perfectly aligned, I wore my retainers, so why do I have to do it all again?  Why do I have to pay for it all again?  Whine! Sling my arms around in a jerky motion for emphasis! I love my dentist, but he didn't seem to understand my frustration.

Still, I decided to do it all again. Dang it. Last week I got my first two sets of aligners. Things have changed since I used them last. Last time, I had four smooth little button thangies on my teeth to hold the aligners in place and move my teeth. Now, I have thirteen (13!) They are sharp and rub the inside of my lips. They are rough and food sticks to them. They hurt even more when they are off. They are way-hard to get on and off. The aligners pull my teeth in all sorts of directions. They hurt like hell. Whine!

On the bright side: It has been a week and they are a bit better. I still hate them. My dentist told me I needed to work on my whining. His wife is, my good friend, is the Queen of Whine, so he was not impressed with my whining. Since the aligners are so difficult to get on and off, I don't snack much - that is a good thang. And one of these days, my teeth will be perfect- like an Italian archway.