I've been searching for someone to talk to about this, and this site is pretty much THE place for Adults with braces. I've asked a few close friends, but I didn't quite get a straight answer, since I think this is a sensitive topic.
I'm over 30 and have had crooked teeth all my life. Parents couldn't afford braces. I've always not liked them - my one front tooth slightly crosses over the other (like Jay Rockefeller, D-VA, google him), and my bottom row is crowded, but what I think people see is that front tooth. Lately, my discontent with my teeth has grown to a complete obsession and source of great depression.
As I'm sure some of you have experienced, when I smile, I hate what I see. Worse, I wonder now if everyone who sees me and my teeth is secretly creeped out or not wanting to talk to me as a result.
So, get braces! Well, as I'm sure this board helps people with, that's a difficult decision for an Adult. But even before I get into those issues, I have to find the $200+/month to afford them. It's so expensive.
In order to afford it, I'd have to quit the live theater stuff I do completely, get a second job to go with my 9-5 assistant job - basically put my life on hold for at least the duration of treatment, if not longer. Such a huge sacrifice!
But on the other hand, this hopelessness feeling loops back into how I hate how my teeth look, back into the no-hope scenario.
I've gotten 2 orthodontic evals in the past year. One is about 8K, lingual back-of-teeth for the top, lingual back-of-teeth for bottom, but with a 6-month window where it'd have to be in-front. The other was only 6.5K, but it'd be metal top and bottom.
Putting aside my dilemma of treatment and being able to afford it, can anyone help me struggle through this phase? This phase of not being able to fix it, at the earliest being 2 years, and possibly never? Before you got your braces, how did you cope? Or did you not, braces having helped restore lost self-esteem, confidence and hope?
I don't mean to be dramatic in Post #1, but my straight-teeth friends don't get it or are being nice to me and I'm at a critical stage of hopelessness, so I'm hoping someone out there in this particular part of the internet found a way to get through this?
Thank you for your time and any advice you can give me.
Wanting/needing braces, but can't afford them, losing hope..
Moderator: bbsadmin
I know how you feel , I went through a similar thing.
when i spoke to my friends they were like your teeth arent so bad , you dont need braces but i had the same problem as you, my two front teeth crossed over so when i talked i thought that was all people could focus on and it made me afraid to speak.
so like you i started to think about braces, here in the uk at the time i had never seen an adult in braces but i found out searching web it was possible.
This was the worst time in my life , i rang up every dentists and ortho that was within 10 miles , 9/10 of the repleys i got just wanted to make me cry. such as "your to old " , "nobody does braces for adults" or we have a 14 month waiting list !!!!!
At this point i felt like i was never going to get braces and that i would just have to somehow live with crooked teeth , i was really really depressed .
but while i was going through all this i was saving all the money i could , then i moved area and started my search all over again ,i got lucky, this ortho could see me within just 2 weeks and it was going to cost £2000 . so in the end i got braces and now im in retainers.
never give up hope , save all the money you can and keep ringing all the dentists and orthos that you can get to , the responces and cost change so much from place to place. I went a whole year going through what your going through now , im so glad i didnt give up x
when i spoke to my friends they were like your teeth arent so bad , you dont need braces but i had the same problem as you, my two front teeth crossed over so when i talked i thought that was all people could focus on and it made me afraid to speak.
so like you i started to think about braces, here in the uk at the time i had never seen an adult in braces but i found out searching web it was possible.
This was the worst time in my life , i rang up every dentists and ortho that was within 10 miles , 9/10 of the repleys i got just wanted to make me cry. such as "your to old " , "nobody does braces for adults" or we have a 14 month waiting list !!!!!
At this point i felt like i was never going to get braces and that i would just have to somehow live with crooked teeth , i was really really depressed .
but while i was going through all this i was saving all the money i could , then i moved area and started my search all over again ,i got lucky, this ortho could see me within just 2 weeks and it was going to cost £2000 . so in the end i got braces and now im in retainers.
never give up hope , save all the money you can and keep ringing all the dentists and orthos that you can get to , the responces and cost change so much from place to place. I went a whole year going through what your going through now , im so glad i didnt give up x
I was like that. Not with braces though....maybe becuase I am only 22. I dunno. But when it comes to my srugery......people are like "How can you do that to yourselsf you look fine the way youare."
Other people might see you as "fine" But you dont. And it depresses you. Then you start thinking....maybe they are lying to you becuase they are your friends.
But anyways, Don't worry about other people. Other people are not going to make you happy about your teeth. You are. You need to do what you need to do to make yourself love yourself again.
I have been trying to get this surgery since I was 16. That's 6 years! It takes a while. You have to wait till the conditions are right. Do what you gotta do.
I hope things go the way you want them too. Good luck, and keep me posted.
Jackie.
Other people might see you as "fine" But you dont. And it depresses you. Then you start thinking....maybe they are lying to you becuase they are your friends.
But anyways, Don't worry about other people. Other people are not going to make you happy about your teeth. You are. You need to do what you need to do to make yourself love yourself again.
I have been trying to get this surgery since I was 16. That's 6 years! It takes a while. You have to wait till the conditions are right. Do what you gotta do.
I hope things go the way you want them too. Good luck, and keep me posted.
Jackie.
You may want to consider going to a dental school for treatment (maybe the local university?) I have a few friends who have done this over the years and their results have been very comparable to those of people who went to some of the most expensive orthos in town. The one drawback is you might not see the Dr. quite as much and spend more time with the assistants but trust that the Dr. in charge isn't going to neglect your care.
Also, I know you mentioned lingual which are often a bit more expensive but of course much less noticeable. This might be something you wrestle with. If you're embarrassed of your teeth, perhaps being embarrassed of the braces on them for a few more months or years might be worth it for the end result.
I can sympathize with your situation and encourage you to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE for the benefit of your teeth, health, and self-confidence.
Also, I know you mentioned lingual which are often a bit more expensive but of course much less noticeable. This might be something you wrestle with. If you're embarrassed of your teeth, perhaps being embarrassed of the braces on them for a few more months or years might be worth it for the end result.
I can sympathize with your situation and encourage you to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE for the benefit of your teeth, health, and self-confidence.
In regards to the monthly payments of braces... I'm not sure if this would be something you could use, but I took out a loan for my braces. There is a specific type of loan that is for "healthcare finance for orthodontics" which is what I did. I just applied on the phone and it took about 10 minutes to go through all the motions, get approved, and have my loan. This helps with monthly payments because with an orthodontist, they usually divide your total cost by your treatment time and expect all fees paid by the end of treatment. So if you have braces for say, 2 years, then you have to pay it all within that timeframe which makes monthly payments quite high.
In my case, I would have had to pay over $6000 within an 8 month timeframe, verrrrrry expensive monthly payments... so I took out a loan for the total amount. The lender paid my orthodontist up front so he is happy. Then I could choose my loan term, up to 84 months (7 years), and depending on your credit, you can get a very low interest rate. Mine is 1.99% I believe because my credit is good. This means I am not paying very much extra to have the loan and the loan makes it very affordable on a monthly basis.
Here is the website for the place I got my loan:
http://www.capitalonehealthcarefinance. ... hodontics/
There are probably other places that do healthcare loans too, but I do not know any specifically.
I can definitely relate to going through the period where you do not have braces yet and you know that even if you got them today, it would still be years before they were off and your teeth were straight. It seems so daunting and it's a shame that orthodontics takes so long to work. I keep thinking that in this day and age, they should have already come up with SOMETHING that works in months and not years, but alas. It is what it is. There was nothing that really helped me get through that period of time; I remained self conscious and was careful never to let teeth show in pictures if I could help it. I did a little whitening with crest white strips which obviously didn't make me any less self conscious about my crooked teeth, but did help self confidence a bit in my overall smile. I just kept looking forward to the day when I would be out of high school, out of college, and in a job where I would actually be making my own money finally. I knew I'd never be able to afford treatment before college was done. Within a year after college, I started going to consultations and noticed a pamphlet about that healthcare financing that I mentioned at the beginning of the post, and after checking into it, found that I could actually afford it now and there was no reason to keep waiting. I am still in braces now (I'm almost 24) and I'm still self conscious of my smile, even though my teeth are much straighter, I still don't like having the braces on. But I keep looking toward the future and remembering all the progress I've made so far. I know I will get there in the end, and any sacrifices I've made have all been worth it.
People told me they never really noticed my teeth werent straight, but to me it was VERY VERY noticeable. I couldn't tell if they were being truthful, or just being polite... I was always aware of it and trying to hide it any way I could. I knew I had to do something about it, even if others say it wasnt a big deal, it was a big deal to me and I already feel 100 times better about my smile than I used to. I hope you can find a way to get the braces if that is what you really want, and I think if you do, you will start feeling better about your smile when you start seeing the progress the braces are making. Hang in there and I wish you the best of luck with everything!
In my case, I would have had to pay over $6000 within an 8 month timeframe, verrrrrry expensive monthly payments... so I took out a loan for the total amount. The lender paid my orthodontist up front so he is happy. Then I could choose my loan term, up to 84 months (7 years), and depending on your credit, you can get a very low interest rate. Mine is 1.99% I believe because my credit is good. This means I am not paying very much extra to have the loan and the loan makes it very affordable on a monthly basis.
Here is the website for the place I got my loan:
http://www.capitalonehealthcarefinance. ... hodontics/
There are probably other places that do healthcare loans too, but I do not know any specifically.
I can definitely relate to going through the period where you do not have braces yet and you know that even if you got them today, it would still be years before they were off and your teeth were straight. It seems so daunting and it's a shame that orthodontics takes so long to work. I keep thinking that in this day and age, they should have already come up with SOMETHING that works in months and not years, but alas. It is what it is. There was nothing that really helped me get through that period of time; I remained self conscious and was careful never to let teeth show in pictures if I could help it. I did a little whitening with crest white strips which obviously didn't make me any less self conscious about my crooked teeth, but did help self confidence a bit in my overall smile. I just kept looking forward to the day when I would be out of high school, out of college, and in a job where I would actually be making my own money finally. I knew I'd never be able to afford treatment before college was done. Within a year after college, I started going to consultations and noticed a pamphlet about that healthcare financing that I mentioned at the beginning of the post, and after checking into it, found that I could actually afford it now and there was no reason to keep waiting. I am still in braces now (I'm almost 24) and I'm still self conscious of my smile, even though my teeth are much straighter, I still don't like having the braces on. But I keep looking toward the future and remembering all the progress I've made so far. I know I will get there in the end, and any sacrifices I've made have all been worth it.
People told me they never really noticed my teeth werent straight, but to me it was VERY VERY noticeable. I couldn't tell if they were being truthful, or just being polite... I was always aware of it and trying to hide it any way I could. I knew I had to do something about it, even if others say it wasnt a big deal, it was a big deal to me and I already feel 100 times better about my smile than I used to. I hope you can find a way to get the braces if that is what you really want, and I think if you do, you will start feeling better about your smile when you start seeing the progress the braces are making. Hang in there and I wish you the best of luck with everything!
Many people use the internet for free, I've been using my neighbor's unprotected wireless for 6 months, hehe!200/month=10/day
An hours work each day minimum.
You obviously have internet access. How much does that cost you per day?
I see the point that you're trying to make Class II, that deciding to get braces requires a shifting of priorities, but 200/month is nothing to sneeze at.
To the original poster: If you're in the US, check if your workplace has an FSA program (flexible spending account for healthcare costs). Also, if you end up spending a certain percentage of your income on health care costs (I think it's 7.5%) you can deduct that on your taxes... you can also deduct for toothpaste, toothbrushes, all tooth-related expenses, even if they're over the counter. That may help a little bit.
I hope that with this and the other advice in this thread, you can find a way to make it affordable.
Let us know what ends up happening!
I know how you feel. I am 25 and have lived with an overbite and a large gap (I can stick my pinky finger in between my two fron teeth). I have been made fun of even by stupid adults joking around!
My mom could not afford them so there was nothing that could be done. (Adults never ask a kid why they dont get braces!! I hated that!!
I learned to be content with the way I looked. I stopped covering my smile ect. and for the most part it did not bother me. I mean I have my times when I really dont like the way I look, but it does not happen that often.
I am married, and I have a child. My husband has a pretty good job now (married while we were in college). I am in school so I dont work and even though money is better $6000 is alot.
I decided to check out the dental school which I have gone to in the past for emergency fillings/root canals before my husband was out of school and we had no insurance. I always felt the students did a great job and sometimes a better job in that they take their time, dont hurt you, and use the latest stuff.
I saw that they had an ortho department and made an appointment about 4-5 years ago but never did go because we could not even afford that. Well my gap seems to be getting bigger and I really want to improve my smile now so I looked into it again and went for a consultation. They accepted me as a patient and I am just starting my journey.
Total cost of the entire treatment 3600. I pay a little up front then $100 per month for the entire duration of treatment. Not bad at all. I am a little nervous about it but I am sure it will be fine. For me its either this or wait two years until I am out of school and can really afford to pay more. I rather just do it now. I am actually very excited to get them on and try out colors (though my husband thinks I should try to stick with clear, lol) I think anything that is going to help my smile is a blessing!!
My mom could not afford them so there was nothing that could be done. (Adults never ask a kid why they dont get braces!! I hated that!!
I learned to be content with the way I looked. I stopped covering my smile ect. and for the most part it did not bother me. I mean I have my times when I really dont like the way I look, but it does not happen that often.
I am married, and I have a child. My husband has a pretty good job now (married while we were in college). I am in school so I dont work and even though money is better $6000 is alot.
I decided to check out the dental school which I have gone to in the past for emergency fillings/root canals before my husband was out of school and we had no insurance. I always felt the students did a great job and sometimes a better job in that they take their time, dont hurt you, and use the latest stuff.
I saw that they had an ortho department and made an appointment about 4-5 years ago but never did go because we could not even afford that. Well my gap seems to be getting bigger and I really want to improve my smile now so I looked into it again and went for a consultation. They accepted me as a patient and I am just starting my journey.
Total cost of the entire treatment 3600. I pay a little up front then $100 per month for the entire duration of treatment. Not bad at all. I am a little nervous about it but I am sure it will be fine. For me its either this or wait two years until I am out of school and can really afford to pay more. I rather just do it now. I am actually very excited to get them on and try out colors (though my husband thinks I should try to stick with clear, lol) I think anything that is going to help my smile is a blessing!!
You'd only really need to work a second job 1 night a week to make up $200/month. Do something like waitressing or bartending at a busy place where you'd get plenty of tips. I don't think that 1 night is going to put everything else in your life on hold, so if it means a lot to you to get braces then thats not that bad a sacrifice.
I most strenuously disagree.allisun wrote:Many people use the internet for free, I've been using my neighbor's unprotected wireless for 6 months, hehe!200/month=10/day
An hours work each day minimum.
You obviously have internet access. How much does that cost you per day?
1. No one uses the internet for free unless they are stealing it. Like you
Just be aware that all your internet traffic can be intercepted by your neighbour, including your "private" informations.2. If you can afford a computer in order to steal your neighbour's internet access you can afford the miserable sum of 10 dollars per day. Unless of course if you stole the computer as well.
In that case, feel free to steal 10 dollars a day from somewhere as well. 
3. 10 dollars a day = $1.25/hour in an 8 hour shift. If you cannot even bother to volunteer to work at a real job for that amount. Don't even bother to dream about getting braces.
4. 10 dollars per day. What do you spend on food. Breakfast, lunch and dinner? $1.00? Nothing? Steal ketchup sachets from McDonalds and suck on that?
5. 10 dollars a day. Go and mow someone's lawn. Or mow two people's lawn at 5 dollars each. Or go shovel snow from one persons drive way for 10 dollars, or two people's at 5 dollars per pop.
200 dollars per month is nothing.
It's one of many excuses to put ourselves off from having braces, which affected your health for the rest of your life and is worth every single penny that you earn, make, borrow or even steal
Just don't use it as an excuse not to have it done.
Well, for money matters, in my particular situation, that $200/month is impossible right now. It's using that capitolone loan service - my credit isn't too good and that's a 60 month loan. And I do appreciate all the feedback, but I lost my job in October, then finally got a new one a few weeks ago, but it's at a paycut. So, the 40 + hour / week job is not even going to cover my rent, my internet, car payment, car insurance, and all my other debt. So even $200/month on top of that wil require a second job, and trust me when I say, even a second, crummy job is hard to find. I have multiple friends who can't even land a job at Macy's or Borders! But, again, I'm not even at that stage yet, since it's so out of reach. I think I just need to save, struggle through it, and maybe I'll be in a better financial place in 6 months.
Thanks!
Thanks!
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smilesunset
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Fri Jan 30, 2009 9:13 am
Magoogs, I am very new around here and just got my braces, but I have a great deal of empathy for your situation. I'm happy you came here to talk about it and I hope you can find some support.
I have exactly the same protruding front tooth as you have (I googled the senator from VA!) but I also have a tiny little peg tooth next door to the sticking-out one and my bottom row is a complete mess. I have been hugely self-conscious about my teeth for most of my life. (I'm over 30 too). I have been thinking about braces for more than 10 years and kept saying: soon, soon, next year, after my holidays, after I get a new job, blah blah blah. It's so easy to get yourself in a state about it and it's a vicious cycle -- you feel down and hopeless and maybe even that you don't deserve to improve your teeth so you put it off and put it off....
Please, please don't get depressed about it. You can do something. It may take time, but concentrate on the positive and you will get there. Your friends are not lying to you, they really really don't notice. I have practically bent my friends and family over barrels to get them to admit they hate my teeth and they won't! My Other Half told me my smile was one of the most attractive things about me when we first met! Try to just smile and not hide away and get obsessed and depressed.
Forgive me, but I don't think this is really an issue about money. I feel you may have been discouraged by certain comments and I want you to know your situation is not terrible, it's not worth losing your confidence over and you will find a way to fix your teeth. Work on your self-esteem and the rest will follow.
I have exactly the same protruding front tooth as you have (I googled the senator from VA!) but I also have a tiny little peg tooth next door to the sticking-out one and my bottom row is a complete mess. I have been hugely self-conscious about my teeth for most of my life. (I'm over 30 too). I have been thinking about braces for more than 10 years and kept saying: soon, soon, next year, after my holidays, after I get a new job, blah blah blah. It's so easy to get yourself in a state about it and it's a vicious cycle -- you feel down and hopeless and maybe even that you don't deserve to improve your teeth so you put it off and put it off....
Please, please don't get depressed about it. You can do something. It may take time, but concentrate on the positive and you will get there. Your friends are not lying to you, they really really don't notice. I have practically bent my friends and family over barrels to get them to admit they hate my teeth and they won't! My Other Half told me my smile was one of the most attractive things about me when we first met! Try to just smile and not hide away and get obsessed and depressed.
Forgive me, but I don't think this is really an issue about money. I feel you may have been discouraged by certain comments and I want you to know your situation is not terrible, it's not worth losing your confidence over and you will find a way to fix your teeth. Work on your self-esteem and the rest will follow.
I was also one to say i couldn't get braces because of cost. I am 26 now, and have no more money then i had all those years i said i couldn't make it work, yet i took the plunge and here i am making it work.
Many orthodontists give you in house financing at 0%. You make a down payment(in my case is was a grand), then make equal monthly payments. I don't know if your bad credit will affect you availability for this. I wouldn't think so because if you miss a payment then the ortho always has the advantage of saying that he will do no more work on you until you are caught up on payments.
Many orthodontists give you in house financing at 0%. You make a down payment(in my case is was a grand), then make equal monthly payments. I don't know if your bad credit will affect you availability for this. I wouldn't think so because if you miss a payment then the ortho always has the advantage of saying that he will do no more work on you until you are caught up on payments.