Consultation Visit

I went to the orthodontist for my free consultation visit. They took pictures, then X rays, then the doctor did an exam. I have all my wisdom teeth, and was extremely nervous that he would tell me that I would have to have them and possibly others pulled to make room. GREAT NEWS! He said I could keep them! This was a huge load off, because I have heard so many horror stories about how awful having teeth pulled is that I wasn't sure I would go through with this whole thing if that's what needed to be done. Turns out, my wisdom teeth are just fine. There was plenty of room for them, they are healthy, and they are NOT the source of my crowding issues. Huzzah! The ortho said I have what's called a "full complement" of teeth, meaning all 32 are present and fine. He said this is actually pretty rare. Instead of pulling any teeth, he will make room by filing a tiny bit off in between all of them using some kind of special tool.

Now to discuss the problems I do have. He said I have a tendency for an underbite. Apparently, your top teeth are supposed to close slightly over your bottom teeth. Mine match up pretty evenly, or even sometimes the bottom close over the top a little. He said the actual fix for this would be to break my jaw and reset it back a bit, but that it wasn't bad enough for him to recommend that course of treatment. But what does concern him about this is the possibility of the bottom teeth to fall forward while making room on the bottom and making the underbite even more pronounced. Because of this delicate situation, he recommended Invisalign.

I had no interest in Invisalign mainly because everything I ever read about it said that it was considerably more expensive than traditional braces. Turns out this is not true at all. The Invisalign treatment was less than 100 dollars more than the old fashioned way. But most importantly, they are much more precise, which is why he nudged me that way. With Invisalign, computer models can dial in exactly where my teeth need to go, whereas with traditional braces they still kind of just adjust them manually, using their best guess and eye-balling it. I asked about speech issues, because my job requires me to make presentations across the desk from my clients. He said that 2 out of 10 people using Invisalign have speech issues, but that they're not severe and I would get used to it. He offered to make me a retainer to wear for awhile to see how much it bothers me, but I declined.

He said the whole process would take every bit of two years to complete. However, they have a way to speed it up if I wanted to, called Acceledent. It's a device that gently vibrates your teeth and jaw and somehow makes it easier for the teeth to move through the bone. You just place it in your mouth for 20 minutes a day, and it cuts the time in HALF.  Shave off a whole year? Yes please. I went for it.

Then they took me back and made molds of my teeth to send to Invisalign. First they did a lower, then an upper, each taking 4 minutes to set up. Then they took one of my bite, which only took a few seconds to set. She had to do this one twice, as the first one got messed up. Some gunk got in my beard, as well as of lodged in my teeth. Overall, no big whoop. Now we wait 2-4 weeks for the molds to get sent to California where they are fed into the computer, and it makes the trays.

So it's Invisalign with Acceledent. Not at all what I was expecting to sign up for, but I am excited!