I’m not sure these reviews 100% fit the theme of this blog, but let’s be honest, this blog is pretty random. At the beginning of this year (2025), I decided to attempt to fix the appearance of my teeth using AlignerCo’s teeth aligner system. Since then, I’ve been documenting my progress in case anyone interested in trying AlignerCo stumbles on my little corner of the internet. I’ll link to some of my past AlignerCo posts. For anyone who’s curious, here’s an updated look at my AlignerCo timeline so far…
- January 7th: Purchased AlignerCo’s ‘SmileAdvantage’ plan
- January 13th: Received my impression kit
- January 15th: Completed trial impression, emailed photos to AlignerCo
- January 21st: Completed the rest of my impressions (after receiving confirmation that my trial impressions were acceptable), emailed photos to AlignerCo
- January 23rd: Mailed my original set of impressions back to AlignerCo
- January 25th: AlignerCo confirmed receipt of my impressions
- February 13th: AlignerCo contacted me for photos of my teeth (although I had already uploaded them via the app)
- February 18th: Received and approved my 3D smile projection
- February 21st: AlignerCo notified me that my original impressions were “slightly compromised”, so they were sending me a trial set of aligners to check the fit
- March 20th: Received trail aligners and sent photos wearing them to AlignerCo
- March 22nd: AlignerCo responded back that the trail aligners did not fit properly and I’d have to redo my impressions
- March 30th: I received new impression material
- April 8th: I emailed photos of my new impressions
- April 9th: Received confirmation that my impressions looked ‘workable’, and to send them in
- April 10th: I mailed back my 2nd set of impressions
- April 18th: Received confirmation that they had my new impressions in their lab
- April 23rd: Received an email stating that my aligners were being produced and would ship in around 3 weeks
- May 13th: Received a tracking number for my aligners
- May 16th: My entire set of 15 top and bottom aligners, plus a complimentary teeth whitening kit, and one set of retainers arrived
- May 18th: Started wearing set one of my aligners!
- May 28th: Started aligner set two.
- June 7th: Started aligner set three.
- June 18th: Started aligner set four.
- June 30th: Started aligner set five.
Aligners #1
As I mentioned in my timeline, I put in my first aligner on May 18th. They seemed to fit well, tight, but the aligners snapped right in over my teeth. I emailed AlignerCo photos, thinking that’s what I was supposed to do each time I switch trays, but they didn’t seem interested in viewing the photos, and didn’t comment on the fit at all. I think, going forward, I’ll most likely only contact them if I have any specific questions or problems.
My first set of trays fit really tightly. So tightly, in fact, that for the first two days of wearing them I had to use the little hook tool AlignerCo provided to pry the trays out. After two days they didn’t feel quite as tight anymore and I was able to remove them without the special tool. Although they were tight, the pain level was pretty minimal. A bit of soreness, especially over the first two days, but it wasn’t bad at all.
The rest of the 10 days went pretty uneventfully. Because these were my first trays, I do feel like I had to get used to them. There was one day when my tongue got a bit cut up from playing with the trays constantly, and I noticed that they seem to make my lips feel really dry. Nothing a little ChapStick doesn’t solve, though. I mentioned in my impressions post (link above) that I tend to gag really easily and the trays did make me gag a bit during the first week, but it wasn’t constant and did decrease the longer I wore the trays.
I assume, for a lot of people, the first set of trays is probably the hardest. Not because they hurt especially bad, but because you have to get used to having these giant slabs of plastic sitting in your mouth.
Aligners #2
I started aligner set #2 around midnight on the morning of May 28th. Like set 1, #2 went in pretty easily. I felt like this set didn’t hurt as much as my first, and I didn’t end up needing the hook tool to remove them, even on the first day of wearing them. They did feel tight, don’t get me wrong, so I could tell they were doing something. But overall, they were more comfortable than my first set of trays. A big part of that was probably due to the fact that, after 10 days of wearing my first set of aligners, I’d gotten pretty used to wearing them.
Aligners #3
I have to admit…I had wrote out my experience with aligner set three while I was still wearing them, but then somehow my update to this post was deleted/lost. So now I’m here rewriting it after that fact, while I’m actually wearing set five.
I don’t remember any significant issues. My aligner set three was pretty status quo.
Aligners #4
When I first put in aligner set four, I noticed that there was some space near the bottom of my right lateral incisor that wasn’t there in my previous three aligners. Still, I was able to fit the aligner over my teeth so I wore it normally.
I added a few extra days to this aligner set because we had a house guest the day I was scheduled to switch to aligner set 5 and I just didn’t feel like dealing with teeth pain while entertaining.
By the end of the 12 days of wearing this set, the spacing I was concerned about seemed to have gone away. So the troublesome tooth did seem to eventually move into place, it just took a bit longer from what I can tell.
Aligners #5
My first full day of wearing aligner set 5 was on June 30th. Again, like with set 4, I was a bit concerned about how the set initially fit over my right lateral incisor. I had that same spacing with this set. I used the ‘chewies’, aka mini pool noodles, that AlignerCo sends help seat the aligners. I do think chewing on them a bit helped.
My last day of wearing aligner set 5 was July 9th. By then, once again the spacing that was present when I first started this set was gone. Researching online, this spacing when you switch aligners seems somewhat normal. It goes away over time as your teeth adjust and move into place. I don’t know why I didn’t start to experience this until my 4th set of aligners. My best guess is that my first couple of sets didn’t move my teeth as much as subsequent sets.
Pics Or It Didn’t Happen!?
I apologize that I didn’t include many photos in this update. I meant to update with photos for each aligner set…but life happened. I guess it’s a good thing that I have gotten quite used to wearing my aligners, and besides switching trays every ten days, wearing them daily has just become my new normal.
Which means that yes, the trays did (thankfully!) stop making me gag!
I did snap some new photos of my progress after tray 5. I thought it might be interesting to compare my current photos to ones I took right before I started treatment, to see if I can notice any change. Please excuse my nasty looking teeth. My newer photos were taken with the flash on my camera, which, apparently, shows all the gross staining on my teeth that isn’t so noticeable in real life or in photos without flash.
To start, here’s a screenshot of what my smile projection says my teeth are supposed to look like with tray 5…
Still pretty janky, especially with the spacing, which I suppose is to be expected since I’m only a third of the way through my 15 set aligner treatment. But for some real life photos, here’s a couple different views of my ‘befores’ and ‘afters’. I think you’ll be able to tell the difference, the before photos will be first and are the ones without flash. Here’s the front view…
And one side…
The other side…
Do They Actually Look Worse?
Why yes, in the photos I think they do. I mean…not significantly worse. I’ll keep telling myself that.
I think the aligners are shifting my teeth spacing around a bit, which I’m hoping, fingers crossed, is kind of a ‘they’ll get worse before they get better’ type of situation. In my opinion they look….okay…in real life. Not significantly different than how they looked before. If I’m honest, I think wearing the aligners makes some of my spacing issues look less noticeable while I’m wearing them, which is kind of nice. But I doubt anyone else really cares enough to notice either way.
My Thoughts/Tips So Far
The aligners are not as painful, or annoying, as I thought they would be. I got used to wearing them relatively quickly and, like I already mentioned, this is coming from someone who gagged when I was wearing them at first. When I switch to a new tray my teeth get a bit sore. But it isn’t torture, and the soreness goes away within just a day or two.
I haven’t spoken with Aligner Co at all since I started wearing my first set of trays. The complete lack of communication seems a bit sketchy. I’m hoping that if I had any issues come up they’d be responsive. Luckily, so far, I haven’t felt the need to reach out to them.
I’ve been switching my trays each time late at night, right before I go to bed. This way, I feel like I sleep through some of the initial pain/discomfort, and I can wear the new sets for quite a few hours before I have to worry about prying them out to eat and drink. This has been working well for me and is something I will continue.
If you’re going to try wearing teeth straightening aligners yourself, make sure you have plenty of lip balm. Wearing the aligners seriously dries out my lips. But, on the plus side, I’m drinking more water (it’s the only liquid you can drink with your aligners in) and am brushing my teeth a ton! My fiancé even mentioned the other day that I look like I lost a bit of weight. I credit the aligner diet!
More Updates To Come
I don’t want these Aligner Co updates to get super long so I’m going to post this one and start another post that will cover my progress in trays 6 – 10.
It’s kind of crazy, the other day I was calculating how much longer I’m supposed to be in treatment aligners. I have 10 trays left, and I have to wear each set for 10 days each. That’s only just over three months left in treatment aligners. Considering, I suppose, that everything goes well and I don’t need to request any refinements.
If you’re interested in following my progress and are reading this around the time it’s posted, early July 2025, stay tuned for my next update, which should go up in around two months. If you’re reading this in the future (Hello future person!), then lucky you, you can probably already find the rest of my updates. Maybe click here to see them? What’s the future like? Hopefully I still have teeth…and darn nice looking ones too!
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