Here we go . . .

So after several visits to various orthodontists, I finally settled on one. I'm pretty comfortable with him. He has a Doctorate in dentistry from Harvard University and also studied at UCLA. His yelp reviews are stellar and my friend's kids are patients of his and she loves him! He also has great hours for someone who works full time 9-5 hours like me and his prices are incredible compared to the only other orthodontist I considered seeing. I do admit that I think his staff is not as good as the staff of the other orthodontist that I met with, so I guess I am going to have to see how that all plays out. So far I am on the fence and I'll tell you why;

Yesterday, I completed what I guess you can call step 1 of getting braces. I had spacers put in between my back teeth to make room for the brackets they'll glue on when they put my braces on next week. The orthodontist was great at explaining everything, then he turned me over to the assistant. I'm sure there is a more technical name for her; dental assistant? ortho assistant? Anyway, she shoved some rubber spacers between my upper teeth with a smidge of difficulty. Then she started on my lower teeth and was using some serious elbow grease but couldn't get them in.

"Do you have trouble flossing?"

"No"

"Your teeth are very tight"

Ok? Then she decided to switch to metal spacers instead. With the same amount of oomph that she used to get the first set in, she began to try to shove the metal bars between my teeth. At one point her hand slipped a little and she poked me. I think she got more scared than I did and that in itself made me think twice. After a few more minutes, she finally said we were done. I felt one of the metal ones popping up already and asked her about it. She said if it pops up to just push it back down. Ok? The entire appointment from waiting in the waiting room, asking a million questions, taking pictures and getting spacers only took 30 minutes. My teeth didn't hurt, it only felt annoying b/c things were stuck in my teeth but the ortho warned me that I'd hate him by tomorrow when they got sore. By the time I got home from my appointment, one of my metal spacers had already popped off. Yes, the same one I inquired about before I left the office. I'm not sure if this is normal or if my teeth really are tight or what! It's not  huge deal, just enough to put me on alert. I called the office today and the orthodontist (let's call him Dr. S) told me to come in when I can (tomorrow) and he'll personally replace the spacer that popped off, as well as replace the metal ones with more comfortable rubber ones. So, I have been pacified for now and hope that this is a one time glitch in the soon to be year(s) long plan!

And for the record, I don't hate him today as he warned me that I would . . . but boy do i understand why other patients might! For such tiny little pieces of metal/rubber, they sure do produce a lot of discomfort and soreness! I better get used to it! Next week is braces & within 2 months I'll be getting EIGHT teeth extracted! Eight, man! Four wisdom teeth, two of which are impacted & the teeth next to my canine teeth on both top and bottom (4). So, not looking forward to that...but it will all be worth it when I get that megawatt smile!