Please recommend an orthodontist in Vancouver, Canada

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#1 Post by **karencoutts** » Sat Aug 09, 2008 12:23 am

I would appreciate your help. My own resources have turned up nothing and I've resorted to trolling the web for possible orthodontists. A search for such recommendations on this board and on the web turned up... almost nothing. Just one forum (Discover Vancouver) with a few orthos mentioned.

One more thing: the orthodontist should have experience with self-ligating braces.

Thanks!

#2 Post by **Alaina** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 12:20 am

Dr. Masoud Haghi in the Lonsdale area.

Nice man and so far i'm very happy with his work.

Oh, and he has nice assistants!

#3 Post by **karencoutts** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 10:54 am

Thank you for your recommendation! I had already given up hope! Hello, fellow Vancouver person.

Your ortho is a 31 minute drive from my home, according to Googlemaps. His website doesn't mention self-ligating braces. Do you know if he does them? May I also ask how much he is charging you for your work? I have quotes ranging from $4500-7100 (includes x-rays and everything else).

I live near the RAV line that runs up Cambie, so maybe the journey wouldn't be too bad after September 2009.

Thanks again!

#4 Post by **Alaina** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 10:17 pm

Unfortunately i don't think he does damon braces but i'm not 100% sure.

As for how much i'm paying (ok i'm not actually paying anything, my parents are

) but it's costing $8500. It may seem high but:

1. My estimated time is 2-2 1/2 years and
2. I have a pretty complicated case (crowding, openbite, 8mm overjet, narrow upper palate and a midline shift)

so depending on your case, it might be a lot lower.

And i feel for you living in downtown. With all the construction over there, it's a bloody nightmare to drive in.

Hope this helps.

#5 Post by **dooles** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 1:01 am

Hiya;

My ortho is Dr Douglas at Ocean Orthodontics (www.vancouverbraces.com) and I have Damon (self-litigating) braces. Very nice people, nice office on Oak Street, just off Broadway. Oh, and the view of downtown Vancouver from their window is spectacular!

Ocean uses high-tech 3-D imaging to take pictures of your teeth and it's very up-to-date, technology-wise. You will probably need a referral from your dentist but I would highly recommend them.

FYI my braces are costing $7200 (probably because of the Damon brackets, which are more costly than conventional brackets) but I only paid an initial $1800 down and then will pay $200 per month after that.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,
dooles

#6 Post by **eggraid101** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 11:29 am

You may also want to look up Dr. Ed Mah, a very nice guy and excellent orthodontist.

#7 Post by **karencoutts** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:36 pm

Thanks for your recommendation. I saw Dr. Douglas already, and he gave me a reasonable quote of $6700. The only problem was that he wants to use bite turbos and elastics. I prefer the method of another ortho who will use neither of those, and will instead start with distalizers followed by only half the time in braces. Dr. Douglas only recommends Damon, and I think he said he will be using Damon 3s.

I have to say Dr. Douglas' office was the most impressive. I couldn't believe the leather memory foam chairs and the in-house 3D imaging. Definitely the superior office, technology wise. If only Dr. Douglas had a similar treatment plan, I would go for his office in an instant.

Maybe I should give his office a call and speak to him about using the same plan. The other thing is that the other Dr. I am thinking of choosing is supposedly the most experienced in Damon.

I agree with you that the staff at Dr. Douglas was very good. Also, the view was wonderful. Darn!

dooles wrote:Hiya;

My ortho is Dr Douglas at Ocean Orthodontics (www.vancouverbraces.com) and I have Damon (self-litigating) braces. Very nice people, nice office on Oak Street, just off Broadway. Oh, and the view of downtown Vancouver from their window is spectacular!

Ocean uses high-tech 3-D imaging to take pictures of your teeth and it's very up-to-date, technology-wise. You will probably need a referral from your dentist but I would highly recommend them.

FYI my braces are costing $7200 (probably because of the Damon brackets, which are more costly than conventional brackets) but I only paid an initial $1800 down and then will pay $200 per month after that.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,
dooles

#8 Post by **karencoutts** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 11:03 pm

eggraid101 wrote:You may also want to look up Dr. Ed Mah, a very nice guy and excellent orthodontist.

I'm curious how you'd know any orthos in Vancouver when you live in the U.S.!

Thanks for the recommendation. Unfortunately, I'm too green to want to commute to Burnaby for some orthodontic work. I should be able to cycle to the ortho within 20-30 minutes. Burnaby is just a little too far.

Also, his website only mentions Invisalign...

Best regards!

#9 Post by **dooles** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:20 pm

Hi Karen;

I can see why you'd want to avoid the bite turbosâ€”I have them and it's the one thing I reeeeeally dislike about having these things (I've had them for a month and it's only now I feel like I can talk mostly without lisping! I want them OFF. Ortho says I don't have to have them on for tooo long (sure as hell hope not!). I haven't had to go through the elastics thing yet (yuck).

I'm curious as to what distalizers are; I've never heard of them, even after all my research! Dr. Douglas quoted me three years in braces (I am going to need surgery down the line to expose an impacted canine and bring it down) but intuitively I don't think I'll need to be in them that long. My teeth are moving pretty darn fast already.

Let me know if you contact Dr. Douglas again, I'd like to know what he says about the treatment suggested by the other ortho! It can't hurt for me to get another opinion!

Cheers,
dooles

karencoutts wrote:Thanks for your recommendation. I saw Dr. Douglas already, and he gave me a reasonable quote of $6700. The only problem was that he wants to use bite turbos and elastics. I prefer the method of another ortho who will use neither of those, and will instead start with distalizers followed by only half the time in braces. Dr. Douglas only recommends Damon, and I think he said he will be using Damon 3s.

I have to say Dr. Douglas' office was the most impressive. I couldn't believe the leather memory foam chairs and the in-house 3D imaging. Definitely the superior office, technology wise. If only Dr. Douglas had a similar treatment plan, I would go for his office in an instant.

Maybe I should give his office a call and speak to him about using the same plan. The other thing is that the other Dr. I am thinking of choosing is supposedly the most experienced in Damon.

I agree with you that the staff at Dr. Douglas was very good. Also, the view was wonderful. Darn!

dooles wrote:Hiya;

My ortho is Dr Douglas at Ocean Orthodontics (www.vancouverbraces.com) and I have Damon (self-litigating) braces. Very nice people, nice office on Oak Street, just off Broadway. Oh, and the view of downtown Vancouver from their window is spectacular!

Ocean uses high-tech 3-D imaging to take pictures of your teeth and it's very up-to-date, technology-wise. You will probably need a referral from your dentist but I would highly recommend them.

FYI my braces are costing $7200 (probably because of the Damon brackets, which are more costly than conventional brackets) but I only paid an initial $1800 down and then will pay $200 per month after that.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,
dooles

#10 Post by **karencoutts** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 4:54 pm

I'm curious as to what distalizers are; I've never heard of them, even after all my research! Dr. Douglas quoted me three years in braces (I am going to need surgery down the line to expose an impacted canine and bring it down) but intuitively I don't think I'll need to be in them that long. My teeth are moving pretty darn fast already.

Let me know if you contact Dr. Douglas again, I'd like to know what he says about the treatment suggested by the other ortho! It can't hurt for me to get another opinion!

Hi there, Dooles,

I finally remembered to call Dr. Douglas. I was impressed that I could speak to him on the phone fairly quickly. This is what he had to say...

I told him about the other ortho's plan for distalizers followed by Damons for only 12 months. He said that distalizers apply forces that are, darn, can't remember the exact word he used to describe it, but he said it was unpredictable because you would not be able to predict what such forces might do to the teeth. He said it would be better to start with bite turbos and full braces on the top to keep the teeth more in place. Bite turbos, he said, have only been in use for 5 years and not many dentists use them. He thinks they're great because they allow the top and bottom to be braced at the same time, shortening the time for treatment. Now he says the treatment is likely 18 months, and not the 20-24 months I was originally quoted, if I wear the elastics religiously.

He said my Class II wasn't really a full Class II, but only half. He thinks it would be easily corrected...

He also said that distalizers aren't normally used on non-growing patients (i.e. adults!). I think he was suggesting that the other ortho is not up-to-date through his mention of the bite turbos being in use only for the last 5 years. So NOW, I will post and ask others about bite turbos. How horrible are they really? Are they really only in use for the last 5 years?

Maybe you can join in on the thread, since you have them. It will be called Bite Turbos.

Thanks again for writing in. I hope things go well for you. I really am torn as to what to do now. The other ortho, hell, let's give him a name, Dr. Suzuki, is supposedly the most experienced in Damon (9 years), and he actually instructs others on the Damon system. He said he was the first to use the system in BC. He did say that he has never used distalizers before, since he's never had a unilateral Class II in a case that would really suit the use of distalizers. SO, now I have to figure out who is telling me the wrong thing...

Help!!!

#11 Post by **dooles** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:23 pm

So NOW, I will post and ask others about bite turbos. How horrible are they really? Are they really only in use for the last 5 years?

Maybe you can join in on the thread, since you have them. It will be called Bite Turbos.

Hiya Karen;

I'll cc this in your new topic discussion, thanks for starting it!

The bite turbos I have are metal and pretty much look like square-edged snake fangs (thankfully not visible to anyone but me). I thought they were going to dig two holes in my tongue the first week I had them. They still bother me somewhat and, of course, cause the lisping I mentioned earlier (this is getting better).

I hadn't expected to get them but when they put my brackets on I was biting down on a bracket on my back right molar so that's basically why I needed the turbos. *grumbles*

I have to say I wasn't aware that they had been in use for only five years! I personally don't like them as I worry about the wear to the enamel on my lower teeth and how my bite will be affected. Eating took some getting used to. Still, if I didn't have them I'd be chewing the brackets off my teeth! It is something that I will be asking Dr. Douglas about when I go in early September for my first adjustment!

As far as choosing your ortho, go with your gut! Try not to let anyone talk you into what sounds too good to be true or too easy. Braces do suck for a reason, and that's why we're all here in solidarity through the discomfort and endless thoughts of "when will it end????"

BUT, we have all seen the awesome results in other people, so it's worth it!!

In my case, I delayed my first appointment by a month and almost chickened out. And after grilling Dr Douglas with questions, soon it was like, it's now or NEVER. As much as I've wanted these things for years, It took me this long to commit because I knew my life was going to change, big time. Now that I have them, though, I am SO glad.

I'm sure you'll make a good choice when you finally decide on an ortho, you are just doing due diligence and that's always a good thing!

Cheers,
Dooles

#12 Post by **karencoutts** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 9:26 am

Meryaten wrote:I have to say this: I do find it very positive that the ortho was willing to take time to chat to you on the phone himself.

Yes, I was impressed by the phone chat thing, but...

On my consultation visits, Dr. Douglas had a bit of an assembly line thing going. First, Assistant A greets me. Second, Assistant B takes my x-rays and photographs. Next, Assistant C discusses various options for braces, how braces work. Finally, the man we've all been waiting for, the exalted Ortho comes in and discusses my case and timelines and treatment options. Then, Assistant C further discusses care of teeth and answers any other questions I have. It's been a while and I may not remember the exact order of questions, but you get the picture.

As for Dr. Suzuki: Assistant A greets me, then I get to meet the exalted Ortho RIGHT AWAY! Boy, did I feel important! He spends a long time giving me his background, talks about my diagnosis, then proceeds to discuss several treatment options. He was a bit promotional when discussing his background, but I liked it and he sold me on his experience.

So, I don't know who is really "better." As to gut feeling, I think Dr. Suzuki can be trusted and maybe he actually knows what he's doing. I'm sure both orthos as competent. It's more a question of who is *more* competent. The price differential is around $400 as well (more for Dr. Suzuki).