I am the luckiest person alive, this will be the third time in my life to have had braces. The first ime when I was young and my mother was trying to get off cheap, she talked the dentist who she worked for to apply braces. He had ortho training but was a dentist by trade. He did a half-assed job.
The second time was when I was 40 years old that cost me about $3200.00 and he also did a half assed job of it. He took them off too soon and no matter how religious I was wearing the retainers, when the retainer brroke it took a month to get a new one and by that time they went awry again.
Now I am 52 and I finally found someone who will give me the results I am looking for, to the tune of $4000.00.
I get the metal braces installed on the 7th of Feb 07. The ortho tried to talk me into invisalign but I wanted the plain old metal mouth. He thinks 12 to 14 months but I know I can stretch it out to possibly 2 years. Wish I could figure out how to keep them permenantly. If you know a way let me know.
Third time is the charm
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I actually am looking forward to having them again. Kind of like mouth jewelry. I think some people look good in braces. I like the way they make your teeth feel tight and eventually loose. The only reason they wire them together is to keep them from falling out! It is amazing how loose they get, and the retainers are supposed to keep them in place till they set to their new positions. I have talked this ortho into bonded retainers this time. They should do better for me. My sentence should be about 14 or 15 months, but will probably be closer to 2 yrs. They are doing some special things this time. They are moving my top uppers out to make room for the lower fronts, but by doing so will make spaces where #'s 4 and 7 are, then they are going to vaneer those two teeth to maintain the space, so they don't close up on the bottom ones. With all this work, it should take a while. All total I have probably spent 20K in my mouth the past 15 years. It's only money, can't take it with you. Kep the commiserations coming, I enjoy reading from fellow sufferers.