Cherry blossom festival

This past weekend, my girlfriends and I decided to have a quick (as in less than 24 hours spent in one city) trip to DC. The draw? Well it's the first weekend of Cherry Blossom Festival of course! Check out the obligatory touristy shots and cherry blossom pics below :)





Mental health day

On Friday, February 18th, I took a well-deserved mental health day off from work and explored the streets of NYC - one of my favorite activities, which I rarely get to do these days. One of my very good friends, Tonka (yes, like the truck), whom I met within my first year of living in Manhattan, will be leaving in March to go back to her homeland in Bulgaria, so I invited her to join me for a day of nothingness. The picture below was taken in 2009 at one of my favorite places, the Delicatessen, in SoHo

                                                    

We did a little window shopping, ate a lot of food, reminisced about our crazy party days, revelled over our even crazier dating lives, and of the uncertainty and excitement of what's to come for the two of us. We grabbed lunch at this great tapas y mas restaurant north of Union Square and stumbled into this absolutely stunning furniture decor place that made my eyes melt! All in all, I had one of those fantastic days, which made me appreciate NYC for all of its charm and biting personality :)

This couch screams no kids, no food, no animals, and no sex!!

I love pink, but this, this is excessive.

Oh, so it snowed!

I am a month overdue in posting some snow pics, but here are a few snapshots while I was out and about in my 'hood

A long overdue invisalign update

I now remember why I quit the blogging business. It's because I got lazy, or side-tracked with life, and I forget to indulge in surprisingly therapeutic non-sense such as blogging. Back to business though - invisalign - pros, cons, my experiences so far, and all that good stuff:

Pros:

• "invisible" - The retainers are indeed relatively undetectable to the naked eye. If anything, you look like you've got super shiny teeth. Since I work in a super professional office setting, I thought it only appropriate to walk around asking if they can "see" my retainers, to which I got a resounding "no", but they could have been scared by me;
• Flexible - It's very easy to remove (especially if you're out in the dating world and you don't feel like being romanced with a mouthful of plastic.. seriously, very unappealing, even if it is "invisible"). I pop them in and out of my mouth very easily and brush and floss before putting them back in. They say to keep them on 20 out of 24 hours, which is suprisingly hard to do (maybe because I'm a slow eater) becuase you also have to factor in cleaning time, which easily consumes 10-15 minutes;
• Virtually painless - My mouth is a little sore when putting on a fresh pair of retainers, but certainly nothing losing my teeth over (ha ha!), seriously though, I just take some aspirin beforehand, and it's less uncomfortable;
• Mother of pearl - After four weeks, my teeth look considerably whiter after brushing and flossing four times a day; and
• Accessory bag - I'm a nerd and I got a cute accessory pouch where I put my retainer case, toothpaste, toothbrush, floss, and chapstick. Yes, this isn't a "pro" per se, but it is a "perk", so it only felt fitting to put it in this category.

Cons:

• High-maintenance - These babies are not for those who are bad at up keeping anything (blogs excluded). It is a little tedious to brush/floss your teeth, and then brush the retainers after every meal or snack, but this is a necessary evil;
• Lisp - I do not really consider this a con, but I did have a slight list when I wore my first set of retainers. I am on my second set and I have not had any issues;
• Attachments - Beware of the crazy attachments. Attachments are these tooth-colored "nubs" that are cemented on to your teeth, which helps to adjust and move your teeth during the treatment process (see pink looking things in 3-D images below). When you put on the retainer, there's a slight bump wherever the attachments are located; and
• Visits - I guess this would be the case for traditional braces, but in my case, it's a little out of the way to see my orthodontist every two weeks to receive my next set or trays. My orthodontist is having to shave off parts of my teeth for spacing, so that may be the case in the early stage.

In a nutshell
Right now, I have gone through two sets of trays (four weeks total treatment thus far), and I can honestly say that I have seen a slight shift in my teeth; even my bite feels a little bit different. One of the best perks about this procedure is that I can actually see the results by simply removing my retainer, and while five months for this treatment sounds long (at least in my mind, I do have a countdown in my calendar), I definitely think this is a worthwhile investment.
I added some 3-D images of before and after pics, so you definitely see the anticipted difference.

Before front
Ugh, I can't believe I'm posting this, but this is the BEFORE image. You can see how one tooth is crooked on the far left, there's spacing in the middle, and most importantly, there's an 10 mm over jet!!

After front
I can't tell if there is a huge difference in the front view. You tell me. I definitely notice that the spacing in my middle teeth has closed up a bit, and the tooth that was protruding on the far left is pushed back. Oh yes, and you can see where all of my attachments are placed (in pink).

Before side
Here is where you will notice a considerable difference. My upper teeth has a severe over jet (by 10 mm!!)

After side
After the treatment is over, my severe over jet, flare, whatever they call it will be considerably fixed!

To straighter teeth in 2011!

So what's on my mind?

invisalign

When I was 18, I got braces on both my upper and bottom teeth. My bottom teeth were crooked with some crowding issues; whereas my upper teeth had a severe over jet. My orthodontist also described it as flaring out. I didn't like that description.

One and a half painful and dare I say, socially awkward years later, I finally got the smile I always wanted - wooh hoo right?! Wrong-o! Fast forward to present day - 10 years later and the over jet on my upper teeth resurfaced and my bottom teeth is slightly crooked.

**Children (and adults), please learn from the error of my ways - wear your retainers! One day you'll wake up, try to put on your retainer after months of negligence, and then immediately flip out when it won't fit in your mouth. I actually thought my mouth grew .. stupid right?!

I've watched enough Youtube videos to see what all the invisalign fuss is about, and while I do not like the prospect of having attachments, or a bunch of plastic in my mouth, it's certainly better than having "metal mouth". So bring it on aligners!

Tomorrow, I'm going to my orthodontist to pick up my first set of trays (out of ten, so it's a five month treatment), so do keep a look out for somewhat regular invisalign updates! I'll try to post some older pics of the good ole' straight teeth days so you guys can see the difference..