Hey gang! How are things in your world?

If I’m being honest, I hit a bit of a bumpy road during the first few weeks of Invisalign. The hubs is the only one I spoke to about the issue during the first few weeks. Then I finally approached my orthodontist.

I developed severe burning on my tongue. It felt as tho it had been scalded. And accompanied by a strange metallic taste. I thought it could be a number of things.

• Initially, I thought it was from the rough edges of the trays causing the pain/burning sensation.
• Then, I thought it was from soaking my trays in mouthwash. And that the trays absorbed the strong mouthwash, causing the burning.
• My last resort was that I must be having an allergic reaction to the trays. I couldn’t think of anything else.

At any rate, the burning was so incredibly painful, that I thought I would need to stop the Invisalign journey. It was not a pleasant thought, as I truly wanted my bite to be fixed.

When I mentioned the issue to my orthodontist, he immediately replied that I should not be experiencing an allergic reaction. So I dropped it, thinking I was off my rocker. But I knew I would have to resolve the issue myself or give up the Invisalign.

I poked around on the internet to see what could possibly be causing this awful experience. And found something called “Burning Mouth Syndrome”. I began to read up on that and found that one of the causes can be from overly brushing your tongue.

That was the lightbulb moment. I instantly knew that had to be it. I always brushed my tongue when I brush my teeth. However, I was never in the habit of brushing my teeth after every meal and snack. I figured I was brushing and scrubbing my tongue up to 5 times a day! And was literally damaging the nerves/taste buds. Who knew?

I stopped brushing my tongue immediately. And the burning pain and metallic taste completely healed in 2 days.

It’s great having that behind me and on with the program with a better experience. In just a few short days, I will have reached the 2 month mark.

I can already tell the teeth are shifting. It’s a wonderful work in progress and I’m excited to be well on my way.

Shot this image this morning and played with a filter in Photoshop, just for fun. And to share my sheer joy.

Cheers to progress!

Blessings – Debbie