Sick of Ortho's assistants!

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#31 Post by **Lin** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 10:56 pm

Hi again, genxsis!

I was so surprised to read about how the ortho assistants treated you... that truly is out of line. Whether a child, teenager, or adult feels pain shouldn't matter... it still hurts! And you are paying them not only for the braces, but for orchestrating how they work and, really, to a great extent, how you experience them. I, for one, know that wax can only fix so much when things are seriously (and I mean seriously) slicing up flesh in there.

So I guess I'm saying I agree with most everybody else... have a private chat with your ortho. I would be interested in knowing what he says if you care to share afterward! Seems to me that mature behavior on his assistants' parts would be in his best interest too.

When my molar bands were slicing up my tongue whenever I ate or spoke, it got so bad I made an emergency appt. with my ortho's office. Only a couple of hours later, an assistant was flattening the cleats for me. What I liked was that she was doing the best that she could, said so, and demonstrated her effort... as she flattened, she would test the sharpness of the cleats with her gloved finger. I thought that was respectful of her since she was obviously trying to gauge how comfortable the results of her efforts would/wouldn't be for me. She also said that she understood how uncomfortable the bands could be, as she had had them once too. If only all assistants were that way!

Good luck in April!

#32 Post by **Brandyleigh35** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 12:59 pm

I agree with Lin totally, my ortho's assistants are very kind.

I do think it makes a huge difference if someone has been through the whole braces experience. All of the people who work for my ortho have been in braces before. In fact since my oldest, my youngest, and now myself have been going there, we have seen three of the desk clerks in braces, as well as our ortho's pics in braces. All of his assistants have had them, and whenever I come in they are truly empathetic to what I'm going through. Like the second day I had mine, I had an archwire that was really poking me. I called and asked if I could come in and they said, yes, no problem. When I got there I said "I hope I'm not being too much of a pain" They were like 'OMG no problem, we all know what it feels like to have pokey archwires! Feel free to call anytime they are bugging you" They also told me that it is pretty common and actually a good sign when the wires get pokey. That the wires actually elongate when the teeth are moving and that if my archwire is poking me then it means my teeth are doing what they are supposed to do and are moving"

Another thing that really sold me on our Ortho was this. My youngest had baby teeth we I could not get them out. The ortho has this gripper thing he used. He grabbed ahold of his tooth (no novacaine or anything) and yank it out painlessly for my son. Although my son was a bit frightened at first he loved that there was no pain and it was so quick. He had had one taken out at the dentist with novacaine and it took forever and was no fun. This way took 10 second and it was done. Also, our ortho pays the kids one dollar for each tooth he takes out (just like the tooth fairy) which my son thought was totally cool! He ended up pulling out 4 of his baby teeth, that needed to be out to begin treatment. Both of my boys really like our ortho, as do I, he is very busy, has lots of patients, but he and everyone in his office are always very friendly and warm. I wouldn't be seeing him if it was any other way.

Brandy

#33 Post by **genxsis** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 2:50 pm

Brandy:

Most of the people working in the office I go to seem to have, or had braces too. Who knows, maybe it a requirement for working there!

They certainly wouldn't be able to have the same empathy for their patients if they didn't have the experience, that's for sure.

Lin:

My ortho asst. bent the cleats down for me right away, so I guess that's one good thing I can say for them. I'm surprised to hear how many people have to go back to the ortho to have that done. Most of the time, people say that they were ground down. I asked about that of my ortho, and they said they don't do that because they may be needed later in the treatment.

#34 Post by **ingyandbert** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 3:22 pm

I just want to add that stopping your treatment early is the worst thing you could do. Just because your teeth look straight after a few months doesn't mean they'd stay that way. More than likely, they would start moving back toward their old configuration and then you'd have gone through all the time and expense just to have crooked teeth again. And how would that affect the assistants? If you said nothing, then not at all. You'd be the only one paying the price.

#35 Post by **privatepilot** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 5:31 pm

Please COMPLAIN to your Ortho. This should not be happening! This is a service you are paying for and have the right to be treated with dignity!!! They show a complete lack of professionalism. My ortho would not stand for it. I have called my ortho crying and they listened and let me cry, while trying to solve my problem---they were very compassionate!!!