SmileDirectClub - Part 2 (first progress update!)

Sorry it took so long to put up an update! I've been waiting to see some visible difference in my teeth prior to posting, but in retrospect, I probably should have updated more frequently to let you guys know I'm still here!

So this first photo is a photo I took on the very first day I had my aligners in. The aligners are on my teeth, and you can probably see them now that I've pointed it out, and especially when compared with the next picture, where I don't have my aligners in. I think they're otherwise pretty invisible. I was afraid they were gonna be bulky and conspicuous, but they're really not!

I do have to say, though, that I had a bit of a lisp during my first two weeks of wearing them. I would say it was around the end of the second week that I got used to them being in my mouth, and my tongue learned to avoid the lisp and get used to basically having slightly thicker teeth from the aligners.

As you can see, my bottom teeth have a crowding issue. I'm hoping that by the end of my 13th aligners, this will be eliminated! Again, the number of aligners you get varies from person to person. The average is 12 aligners for a duration of about 6 months, with 2 weeks on each aligner.

As I mentioned in my last post, the first set of aligners were really uncomfortable and even painful. I kept wanting to just take them out and just accept that I'd be doomed with crooked teeth forever. I powered through it, though, and actually, by the third day, I would say they were comfortable, even. It did feel uncomfortable every time I had to take them out and put them back in between meals and such, but it would just take a few seconds for the discomfort to go away.

The second set of aligners (of four that I received with my first package) were actually not as uncomfortable as the first set was when I put them in. It was still uncomfortable, but not as painful, I should say, and the discomfort actually faded within like the first 10 minutes of wearing them (unlike the first set, where I was uncomfortable for pretty much the first 72 hours).

I'm on my seventh set, currently. After about 5-7 days with each set, I was able to take out and put back the aligners very easily with no pain/discomfort. It almost felt like I didn't need to wear them at all after the first week, actually. I'll admit, I haven't been very good about keeping them in for 22 hours a day. Sometimes I'll only have them in for 12 hours a day. I do not recommend this at all! I think your teeth need to be in the aligners for the recommended 22 hours so that they can stay put in that aligner's molds instead of being free to 'roam' back to wherever they used to be. I think if I had been keeping them in for the recommended 22 hours a day every day, my teeth wouldn't be feeling as weird and sensitive as they do now. Don't make the same mistake I did!

The picture below is after I was finished with my fourth set:

I can definitely see the progress. I'll upload a picture after my eighth set!