I've finished year 12 and I'm 17.
Back in 2010, it was really obvious I needed braces. My teeth were disgusting, canines were protruding out of my gums.
We went to a private ortho and damn, you need to be a millionaire to afford this stuff.
They reviewed my teeth, charged $100 and told me to come back a month later.
Came back, got moulds and xrays done, charged $300 and shuffled away again.
Came back, got seperators put on and DAMN these are annoyingly painful, charged $250, come back in a month.
Come back, get told I need to get an expander because my upper arch is tiny (in which it really was), charged $100, shuffled away.
Come back, no expander had arrived but I get told I need my two upper bicuspids extracted, charged $100, shuffled away.
Getting quite silly, hey?
Come back, get my expander put on. Charged.... $2000, shuffled away.
Come back after 3 months to get my expander ripped off, charged $200.
Then they're like "alright, braces. $6000."
my mum was like "nooo way no no no I can't do this anymore, I have no more money to do this".
I can not explain how upset I was. I was so hearbroken. After all this pain and money, everything was going to go to waste!
So I was determined to get braces, any way I could!!
Start of 2012, I pestered my mum so much, "call around, see if we can get braces for cheaper".
We ended up finding out about the Government dental system. I had to do so much to make this happen. This was not easy!
We went to the hospital dentist and got my teeth reviewed for "dental urgency", there's a catagory of 1,2,3 or 4 with one being 'not serious' and 4 being 'extremely urgent'. I was a 4, the worst case which NEEDS attention. If I was a 1,2 or 3, I instantly would have got rejected, even having a 4 was hard enough to get approved.
I had to get moulds taken of my teeth and have them sent to perth for reviewing to see if I'd get accepted or not.
We had to get into contact with so many people, it was so confusing and my mum kept being slack about it so I had to keep pushing her, and pushing her and if she was like "I can't do it now, remind me tomorrow", I'd be like "MUM, DO IT NOW, YOU WILL SAY THE SAME TOMORROW AND NOTHING WILL EVER GET DONE ABOUT MY TEETH". She listened
After talking to about, 30 different people and waiting 3 months, we finally get a letter saying we have been accepted and... placed onto a waiting list ): a waiting list... This waiting list was for 9 months. End of 9 months, we get told we have to wait another 6 months because they're behind in treating people and more people need to be seen before me. End of 6 months, get told we need to wait 4 months! Then I started having gum pain, my teeth were rotting because of how crowded they were and how hard they were to clean! We call them and they say "If you can give us the money for the treatment, in cash, we will do you straight away".
YESYESYES!
I save all my work money $1300 and we went to perth on the 26th of June.
(keep in mind it's a 4 hour trip one way, a 4 back again. 8 hours. I live in Geraldton)
Go there, not knowing what kind of braces I'll get.
Walk in the room, wait around for 20 minutes as the main guy was busy with another patient.
He comes over, reviews my teeth, says I need two upper bicuspids removed.
*Literally crap myself mentally, but hold it together because I've tried so hard to get this*
My mum says "were the braces going to get put on today?" and he says "Oh, we were reviewing the teeth today, why's that? where were you from?"
"geraldton".
He became my hero when he said "To save you the trip, we'll put braces on today!"
They needed an xray of one side of my face though, so we went and got that done and came back 2 hours later.
They procceded to clean my teeth and attach my braces, still not knowing what kind of braces they were. Literally, 5-6 people standing around watching my braces get put on, all students, I felt famous. hahaha. (This orthodontist is a school of orthodontristy, if you were wondering)
After 1 hours, they sit me up and I'm like "Woooooooooah, are you going to put elastics on my brackets or what?!" in my head. Turns out they're like Damon braces, but mine are called "Speed braces".
No pain after getting them put on but a student was telling me that "you'll feel some pain and discomfort", but it was just like "I FEEL NO PAIN RIGHT NOW! I'M INVINCIBLE!" I felt it about.. 2 hours later ): They gave me a little bag with dental things in it which are really helpful.
Instantly, the next morning, I could see CHANGE! It was incredible. my bottom row was almost completely straight by the 3rd day and they were up, down, overlapping, all over the place beforehand.
Eating was so difficult for me for the next 2-3 weeks because my teeth hurt and were so sentitive. I was also sick so that didn't help.
on the 10th of July, I had to get my bicuspids extracted. Oh the fun.
I got sedation tablets to calm me and I have a MASSIVLY HUGE needle phobia (it's like a life and death situation with me, I compare it to getting shot or stabbed, I don't want it!). I didn't get put under, I was awake.
These tablets did something good because I was laughing when they were pulling out my teeth. LAUGHING!
WHO the hell laughs when having these things done?! People crying during these things hahaha.
The pain that came a day later, oh my.
Lasted 2 weeks and had to end up getting panadine forte and antibiotics which helped sooo much.
All my teeth decided it was a good time to get moving so they did, and they helped hurt me.
They're healing nicely now and I have my second ortho appointment on the 14th this month!
No idea what's going to happen but it's worth it!
If there's any mothers or fathers out there that have kids with extremely bad teeth and don't have a good enough job to pay for braces, please enquire about the public dental system. It'll save you so so much. It all depends on your income and wether you're employed or not. My mother was unemployed at the time due to medical reasons.
My braces cost $1300, $650 for each row. No joke.
My total treatment cost is $4000, which includes my retainer.
Crazy yeah? But this had been the hardest things to get in my life. Having to pester and push my mother to call people, leaving me crying my eyes out at night because I'm thinking theres no hope to get braces, but I kept pushing on, I was determinded and was like 'there's the path, take it, you gotta clear the path or you can't move ahead".
And this has been the best thing in my life that I've forcefully made happen. A private ortho makes you pay, and pay, and pay. Work hard and you'll pay less.
I hope this has given some people hope if they're finding it really hard to get braces.
I'll keep you updated and post some pictures of my teeth on here, once I find out how to (:
so I can't have a full sandwich of lettuce, cucumber, tomato, cheese and ham. I can only have like, lettuce, cucumber and ham so I can actually chew it.