Update- Week one #invisalign

Hi. Ok so I've had my braces in a week now and I have to be honest it's been a rather testing week! I hadn't really heard anything about how painful invisalign could be and whilst I expected some discomfort, I wasn't prepared.

I think days 2-5 were possibly the worst. I'd go so far as to saying that I was in agony. I didn't know what to do with myself at times, although I didn't cry so that says something!

Although the dull aching of my teeth wasn't pleasant (ibuprofen helped there), my main issue was mouth sores. I developed a HUGE ulcer on the bottom right of my mouth under my lip/cheek area. The brace/tray seemed extremely sharp there and as I had been talking on day 1 it had literally scratched away at the flesh. I had to ask friends and google to see if this was normal. Apparently it is. I also read about using a nail file to soften the edges, so I had a little go at doing this but I hardly noticed a difference. The damage had already been done!

 

I found my Aloe Gelly became my best friend as it helped to soothe and numb the parts of my mouth that had developed ulcers and cuts, including my tongue which had took quite a battering too! Then I bought the Bongela Complete to cover the large ulcer on the bottom right of my mouth. Wow did this sting!!! The first time I applied it I actually shouted in pain and my Mum came to see what was the matter...assuming I was being murdered haha! However I have to say, it's helped immensely since!

Around day 4 I did start to wonder what the hell I had done and that I'd paid over £4000 for sheer pain! I did wonder if I had known how much it hurt whether I'd have gone ahead with them.

However, over the last 2 days they have started to feel somewhat comfier and I did wake up yesterday and check I still had them in! Definite improvement. When I woke up on day 2 the pressure of them really surprised me and I couldn't wait to have breakfast so that I could take them off. Also to point out the pain on the first few days when eating. My teeth felt extremely delicate and I found it hard to chew.

After wearing them now for 8 days, I'm getting there I think. There still is however the issue of my speech. I find it really difficult to speak properly. I have a definite lisp and find some words, particularly S's hard to say. I am very conscious of it and I have to tell anyone I speak to that I've recently had Invisalign!

Also for important parts of my work, like for someone's business launch I do find I have to remove them. Talking through the products and their benefits for 30 minutes in front of a room of strangers just isn't feasible at the minute to do with them in. My speech is THAT bad! However I'm hoping this improves!!

For now I'm happy that the soreness and pain is dying down and I can already see slight movement in my teeth which makes me confident that it'll all be worth it in the end!

As for the maintenance, it's not been too bad. My life now consists of eat, drink, brush, repeat but I can manage! I keep a foldaway toothbrush, toothgel, dental floss and my invisalign case with me at all times! 

So far my only complaint is the fact I can't drink anything but water with them in! I'm really not a plain water fan so this is difficult for me. I have to ensure I have a 'nice' drink whilst I have them out to eat or otherwise take my braces out in aid of a juice or something, which to be honest is more hassle than it's worth. I may just learn to enjoy plain water yet!

Anyhow, that's my initial experience. I will provide updates along the way! Here's to week 2! :)

Acne cure! My Roaccutane experience.

Hello. Ok so this wasn't an easy thing for me to post. Did I want to show everyone how horrid my skin was?...No. 

BUT I did want to show how the medication drug, Roacctune, got rid of my awful skin and transformed my life. So regardless of how embarrassed I feel about showing the most unflattering selfies ever, I am doing it in the hope that this post might help others currently suffering with spots or acne. 

I'm going to keep the write-up of this short and sweet as I have talked at length about my background and my findings of this drug over on my YouTube channel. If you wish to check that out then please do so here. 

If not, long story short, I was put on the prescription-only drug, Roaccutane (Isotretinoin). The drug is specifically for suffers of acne and other severe skin problems and does come with a warning of a fair few side effects. 

I failed to mention in my video about the dangers regarding depression. The drug has been linked to causing depression and in some cases suicide, however I don't believe any firm evidence of this has ever been recognised. 

I would say that I was possibly more depressed and feeling low when my skin was at its worse, rather than whilst taking this medication. But if you suffer with depression and anxiety etc then this may be something to consider and discuss with your doctor prior to taking the drug. 

Not surprisingly, I only ever took 2 photographs of my bare face whilst I was suffering with a form of cystic acne. These photographs show how sore and irritated my skin was and from this point on it only continued to develop and get worse. I didn't take a picture of my skin at its most extreme point but you can grasp the idea.

Everyday I would wake up to new yellow-headed monstrosities that would be sore and painful. They would explode, oozing out grossness, if I didn't pop them first! So my daily task was to squeeze out the liquid before going about soothing the essentially open wound. Then I would set on with job of concealing my face so the world wouldn't have to see the horrible sight I saw every day! 

It would take me roughly 20 minutes to conceal, foundation and powder my face. Luckily I got quite good at it and if I told people how bad my skin was they would say "no you're skin is fine, doesn't look bad at all". Little did they know. 

And ahhh the itching! Boy did it itch. It would drive me up the wall some days and I couldn't often scratch it anyway in fear of my makeup coming off!

And so along came... ROACCUTANE. 

Again, check out my video for more detail about my experience with the drug, but wow it worked well. 

I was taking Roaccutane for 6 months in total and having now been off the drug for 6 months, here is my skin today in the picture above. I must say I'm not a fan of these no-makeup-selfies but I wanted to show you what my skin was like today without any products. 

I'm so impressed with how the drug simply got rid of my itchy painful skin and I only encountered 3 side effects along the way. The latter 2 of which I loved!

1) Extremely dry lips. This is the most common side effect of Roacctune but very easy to manage with a good lip balm. I found the cherry Carmex worked a treat. 

2) Drier skin. I used a nice body moisturiser as normal and found no real issues. As for my face, I loved getting rid of my usually very oily skin. Again I just used a good moisturiser. 

3) Drier hair. Again not an issue. I could last up to 5 days without needing to wash my hair! It was brilliant. 

Main effect: GOODBYE ACNE. Winner. 

I hope you find this useful. Please don't hesitate to ask me any questions you might have about the medication or general skin related issues. 

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