My Smile Direct aligners came this week. I sent my impressions in early December and the whole series arrived.

My plan is scheduled currently to be completed in 5-1/2 months. They used to ship out the aligners when you were supposed to switch them out, but there were issues with people not getting them in time and whatnot, so now all the aligners arrive at once, dated and packed separately.

There is a check-in for your account and you are given reminders for the dates to change your aligner sets. After 90 days, the dentist reviews your progress to make sure it is on track.

I will be wearing 15 different sets of aligners. There is also a 3-D model in my account online of how my teeth will be changing over treatment, which is neat to see. I wish I could share that here, but I don’t know how to copy it to have it here (and not sure they would approve of it anyway).

My kit came with the aligners, a case for them and some tools:

The ball is actually a lip balm. The chewies look like a piece of chalk, but they are a firm rubber thing that you bite down on to help set the aligners in place if you need to. I have not needed to use the remover tool. I suppose if you have a nice manicure, you might want to use the tool to prevent polish chipping.

Each set is packed in its own little baggie.

They are a very thin plastic that has been 3-D printed.

The trays snap on over your molars. They went in pretty easily. The aligners are to be worn at all times except while eating. No drinking anything but cool water with the aligners in. No coffee or tea. Hot liquids could deform the trays – not to mention staining the trays, which would look pretty bad LOL. I also got a free tooth whitening kit, which I forgot to get a picture of. I’ll do that next update.

Here is another reminder picture of my teeth with particular attention to my bottom ones:

This is wearing the aligners:

You can barely see them. I have a bit of a lisp, which is getting a little better the more I wear them. My teeth have felt a tiny bit achy and I did pinch my tongue after a really big yawn, but nothing really bad as far as discomfort goes so far.

I will try to share an update each week when I change to the next tray set.