Thanks for the post Slambam.
Wanted to give an update.
Well I thought this was going to be easy. But... this is kind of turning into a disaster. First of all... I'm almost 6 months complete with wearing this "appliance" that my dentist likes to call it. It's sort of like a retainer but he claims he can make it move individual teeth.
Here's my issues right now. He's trying to twist the front tooth and center it with the other front tooth. It's slightly crooked... people have told me that it's not even noticeable... but whatever. So while he's trying to twist the tooth into place... he needs some sort of leverage from another area... right? So 2 teeth on the other side of my mouth (the 2 teeth just past your front tooth) are now bent inward. I'm so fukking pissed. In my last appointment... I told the dentist... didn't I clearly tell you back in August... I didn't want any other teeth shifting to fix the front tooth. He assured me... no other teeth would move. Why doesn't a damn dentist admit when it's not working! When I clearly point out an area of concern... he says... there is no issue. Then he said... I want you to know... when we are all through with this... you're going to need some "bonding" done with the front teeth. And what does this mean??? It tells me that he can't center it! He wants to sand down the bottom of the top front teeth so they are perfectly straight. What I don't understand... when I had ortho done in high school... my dentist never sanded anything down. Everything looked perfectly fine.
So far.... I've paid $600 down for the retainer/appliance. $75 for each month after that... $150 for 2 months. For some reason... I haven't been charged since then... back in September. I know it's a computer error.... but I'm not saying anything. I probably owe about $300 more now... but I'm not paying anymore until I see results.
I went to another dentist for a 2nd opinion about a week ago... had one of those teeth cleaning specials for $69 with all the X-rays included etc. They claim I have 5 cavities. 1 of which needs to be filled immediately. Oddly enough... it's all the far back ones... left, right, top left, top right. Weird. Regardless... this dentist isn't even an Ortho specialist... but she claims she could fix the problem with SUPER FAST INVISALIGN (which is the 10 tray version) for $3,000. It's just a "hot shot" dentistry office. Don't understand why one dentist office claims I have zero cavities and one dentist office claims I have 5? Weird.
So... I don't know what I want to do? Also, wearing this retainer has caused me about 3 sore throats. Yep, it's hard to keep these things clean. It's been one real pain in the ass. I guess the lesson is... don't ever throw away your retainer.
Also, my dentist had to adjust my appliance/retainer once already... said he had to attach something to it? He had a top mouth piece for me to snap in until the retainer came back. This piece looked just like Invisalign. He told me it wasn't though. Man that thing was tight. When I snapped it in... I was scared pulling it out of my mouth. Had to pry it off with my fingernails. I might just use that damn piece at night time for awhile if I decide to quit going to this guy?
What a complete waste of time. I hate when a dentist tells you... everything is fine.. blah blah blah... no the sh#$ isn't fine. What the hell are they examining when they look at your teeth??? They can't see cosmetic issues??? WTF?