Tool to help with invisalign rubber bands?

[cintinative]

My oldest now has a sort of box shape on each side formed by rubber bands. He is having an impossible time with it because the bands are so tight and he can't see.  Does anyone have a tool they recommend for this? TIA!

[aggie96]

My normally-unflappable daughter had an absolute nervous breakdown the first 3 days with her trays and bands. YouTube to the rescue. She watched this video and followed the method (super simple) and never had a problem going forward. The key was to put the bands on the bottom first and place tray on thereby "locking" bands into place. Take a look. https://youtu.be/mRVRtoFzjI4

Another video suggested using a paper towel to grab the band to put on top. This helped with slobber (which was making it hard also) but made it more difficult to see where to attach. So she ended up just dabbing her mouth/tray/band with paper towels as needed to make things less slick and followed the above technique.

I bought the tool from Amazon that helps remove the trays, but she never used it after using paper towels and the video technique.

 

Hope this helps!

[cintinative]

6 minutes ago, aggie96 said:

My normally-unflappable daughter had an absolute nervous breakdown the first 3 days with her trays and bands.

Yep. In tears. I wish we had gone with traditional braces. 

[PinkTulip]

My son uses a toothpick to hook them on. It has been tricky. 

[aggie96]

It gets easier. Very fast. DD LOVES her Invisalign. She's been in them 14 months and gets them off in 2 weeks. It was perfect for a pandemic shut down because they just gave us all the trays to use during lock down. There was a 4wk delay when they started seeing patients again because the orthodontist changed and wanted his own treatment plan which meant new trays for tweaks.

Hang in there. These really have been super easy and convenient. Much more so than brackets and wires. I think compliance can be tricky. So if you have a kiddo that just won't stick to the instructions, then brackets are the way to go. DD was motivated, wants straight teeth in as short a time as possible and did not want brackets. So she has been super compliant.

Hang in there!                     We did buy a cute case for the trays on Amazon instead of the generic one we were given. 🙂

ETA: There are tons of YouTube videos with suggestions. If the one I linked doesn't resonate, find more. 

Edited June 21, 2021 by aggie96

[cintinative]

34 minutes ago, aggie96 said:

 

Hang in there. These really have been super easy and convenient.

Thank you. My son hates them. He's so compliant that he won't take them out to eat snacks between meals. He had bands with the invisalign prior to this, but these bands are tighter and in a different configuration and even harder to put on. He's really frustrated. I hope we can figure it out later. All of us are just a mess today.