I had terrible teeth growing up, chock full of cavities and these massive buck teeth jutting out of my upper jaw. It mostly stemmed from that time in grade school when the kid down the street kicked out my two front teeth (this is 100% true)
Fortunately they were my baby teeth. Unfortunately they weren't even remotely loose. So my big adult front teeth had full range of my jaw to grow in since there wasn't anything restricting them from pushing all my other weakling baby teeth out of the way
And thus began my lifelong orthodontic journey. I had braces for a few years in high school and despite the pain and agony, they came out pretty nice. But somehow in the blip of other life events, I never got a retainer and in the 10+ years since then, my teeth have almost completely reverted back to their buck tooth glory days. One tooth in particular seems to be going out of its way to tuck itself behind its neighbor and I've lost track of how many procedures I've gotten to fix the inevitable cavities that gravitate in that area
Anytime I've complained about my teeth, most people's reactions are to politely say 'oh your teeth look fine'. But they don't see my dental bills. And I know what angles hide my freak tooth from public view.
So, after years of wishing and hoping, I finally was able to afford orthodontic work (thanks to actually decent dental insurance). And like most vain adults, I decided on Invisalign. So back in November - about 7 months ago - my dentist referred me to his orthodontist buddy. What I wish I had known back then was how frustrating this whole process would be. And I haven't even gotten the first tray yet (did I mention it's been SEVEN months)
Every stage of this process has been one surprise after another, with hefty price tags to go along with it. "Oh no, that cheaper price we gave you is for some other thing that you're not doing, you're getting this thing which is more expensive" ....so why did you tell me that price in the first place?!??? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!!!!...
So I finally do the scan, get a call that it's ready, show up and find out they haven't even started MAKING the trays yet!! So why am I here!??!! Oh, because you want to charge more money but won't tell me exactly how much the total cost is gonna me. Great, because I can totally afford to 'wing it' for a few extra thousand dollars. Yeah, no.
It could just be that this particular office is just not very good at explaining the process and doesn't know how to set expectations. Although I would imagine I'm not the only person in the world who doesn't spent every hour of the day becoming an expert on dental procedures. I just want to show up, know what's going to happen, get my teeth fixed, and know exactly how much it's going to cost me. Is that too much to ask?
Eventually they are going to give me the damn trays so I can get this started already, and then I'll be able to give feedback on the actual invisaligns. And by eventually I mean they better have them ready next week because I'm traveling for almost three weeks and was expecting to have already started the first set by now.
But at this rate, I have no idea what to expect. I do expect I'm going to have to 'pull some teeth' to find out.
Pun obviously intended
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