The Decision

I’ve done it.

Okay, I haven’t done anything yet.

But I did decide.

Which is one step closer to doing!

I won’t rehash my desire for straight teeth, since I largely covered it in the post I reblogged from the original site. That is largely a dance blog (feel free to go over and check it out, if you’re so inclined!) and I didn’t want to gross out or bore dancers with long diatribes about my teeth, but I did want to continue to chronicle my adventures in orthodontia as a 30-something, since I found similar blogs to be helpful during my decision-making process. I hope others will find it informative and (at least occasionally!) entertaining.

I can’t say what it was that put me over the edge from contemplating orthodontia to actively doing something about it. There was no one pivotal moment, no dramatic scene that made me say, “That’s it, I need straight teeth!” Hell, I don’t need straight teeth. The ones I have are fine. But I’ve reached that hazy point of “ready” where I just want to do it. Now. Because I can.

One of the general dentists in the office I go to for regular care offers Invisalign. I started my journey there with a consult figuring it had the advantage of convenience, plus they already know my dental history. It was a good visit and I felt comfortable going ahead with it there.

So why didn’t I? Mostly because I’m cheap and the dentist said she was going to be doing a special on May 1st, where anyone who started that day would get $500 off the price and free teeth whitening, so I figured I’d wait for that. But this was in February. With a little over two months before I could get the ball rolling there I decided it couldn’t hurt to at least meet with an orthodontist and see what his take on it all would be seeing as his career revolves around straightening teeth and the general dentist’s does not.

I picked the orthodontist off the Invisalign website based on the fact that he’s got the highest level of recognition the company offers and is located about 15 minutes from my house. Oh, and bonus, he uses the iTero scanner for doing impressions instead of the old-school way with the goo and trays. I’m sure people make the old-school way sound way more traumatic than it is, because trauma makes for good stories, but the iTero supposedly offers a better impression than the goo/tray thing, so if it’s less annoying AND gives better results, I’m for it.

First impression (ha!) upon walking through the door… gosh, I feel a bit OLD here. Okay, it wasn’t that bad, but any orthodontist’s office is going to likely be kid-friendly. The past decade or so I’ve been going to a stuffy adult practice lodged squarely in the middle of city high-rise office buildings. They offer stacks of ancient Sports Illustrated. After I checked in here I watched three kids come in with their parents and run straight over to the video game console in the pediatric waiting room. Damn. I’ve been missing out all these years!

Got called back, chatted with the coordinator for a bit, then met the orthodontist… wearing some bright-ass red sneakers. Woah. Okay, foot fashion aside (and I bet his young male patients probably think he is the coolest for wearing those), I felt confident in him immediately. Professional, but a good sense of humor (sorry, if I’m going to have to interact with someone for the next 12-24 months, we’ve got to be able to joke). He immediately asked what it was I was hoping to get out of this. Gotta love patient-centered-ness!

The exam was quick, but thorough. He yelled out a couple things to his assistant and made some comments about my general oral health and answered some questions I thought were too stupid to ask (like, will the force of correction break the portion of my front tooth that is already crazed from when my French horn mouthpiece attacked it… the answer: probably not). Basically said I have nice teeth (yeah, buddy!) and we should be able to do this. His timeframe was not quite as lickety-split as the dentist’s, though, nor was it 100% Invisalign all the way.

He felt I was a candidate for Invisalign, but that it would work better if we initially dealt with some bite issues in the back, otherwise we’ll end up with straight teeth that don’t necessarily meet the way they’re supposed to. In order to do this he recommends I start with a thingy (obviously, NOT the technical term… sorry, I’m a nurse, not a dental hygienist, so my knowledge of teeth pretty much ends at “brush, floss, and get regular dental exams”) attached to my back teeth with elastics attached to space them out. Three to six months of that and THEN the Invisalign… for another 12-18 months. Phew.

Okay, so you’d think at this point I’d say, yeah, forget that man, check ya later!

But this actually made me more inclined to go with his suggestion. Yeah, I’m pursuing this because I want straight teeth. But if I’m going to be investing ridonkulous money into my smile I’d like it to be as healthy as it can be at the end. I kind of wondered in the back of my mind after the first consult how the straightening would affect my bite, so I was glad he addressed this straight away.

After the exam I went into the office with the coordinator and discussed options. She was clear that I didn’t have to do the inital part with the appliance… we could go straight to Invisalign and they would do the best with just that. She showed me a model of what the appliance would look like. It sure as hell ain’t sexy! But it’s not the worst thing in the world, either. For a few months, I can deal (the ortho said I could be wearing it up to 6 months, but he felt that it would more realistically only be 3-4). Again, annoyance vs. end goal. Just straight or straight AND correct? I’ll take option #2, Johnny!

And then the cost. Brace yourself (hahaha!).

It’s no secret that orthodontia ain’t cheap, especially as an adult (because stupid dental insurance assumes that no one over the age of 18 needs or wants correction… grr). But I already knew what I would have spent on it with the dentist, so I had a ballpark figure. The orthodontist’s charge was more, but in the end I think it’s going to work out to be a much better value. His charge is only about $500-$1000 more than the dentist’s (depending on whether I did the dentist’s “special” or not), BUT… this includes the initial appliance AND it includes the retainers at the end. The dentist charged for the retainers separately, so I would have ended up spending about the same amount and I’m not sure it would have worked out as well.

With all this in mind… I said, “Let’s do this.”

It’s going to be a long road, but I’ve had my teeth crowded for this long, I can deal with another year or two of correction to get a lifetime of happy, healthy, pearly whites.

I walked out with my fee timeline and a handful of appointment cards. Two weeks until my first appointment for all the preliminaries. Woot! Here we go!