fitted for harmony braces

I went for my appointment the other day to get my impressions taken. What an experience! Everyone there is so ridiculously friendly and genuinely nice! They all welcomed me and congratulated me on my decision. The process of doing the impressions wasn't too bad, but of course I had to be the exception to the rule and it took 3 tries to get my bottom one right. On the upside Michelle and Dr. Cliff were both very meticulous in making sure they were right before they go off to the lab. The reason it took 3 tries is that my teeth are so crowded the bottom palate is kind of squished, so we had to switch to a smaller tray. And overall it still only took about half an hour so not a big deal. Michelle was kind enough to send me my pictures and x-rays, which I will post soon. Now begins the waiting - the impressions get sent to the lab in Europe so it will take about 6 weeks to get the braces back and then I can get them put on (and get a couple extractions - eeks!) Stay tuned...

The big decision

Well, this is it, I have really decided to get braces! Since I did NOT want the visible appearance of traditional braces, I did a ton of research and found the new self-ligating systems, which are less noticeable and don't use elastics. They also offer clear brackets for the front teeth, which make them even less noticeable. Then I found lingual braces, which go behind the teeth so you can't see them at all, but they used elastics which concerned me about the hygiene and inconvenience. Finally I found the best of both worlds...lingual, self-ligating braces!!! Surprisingly the cost was not much higher than the other options, and for me it is worth it. In my search for the perfect smile, I have had consults with 3 orthodontists in Coppell, 1 in Dallas (Highland Park) and 1 in Carrollton. The cost of treatment ranged from $6,000-10,000 and all of them estimated the same treatment time of 18 months. I finally settled on a fantastic ortho in Coppell, Dr. Alexander, because I was the most comfortable with him and his staff, the environment was very friendly and welcoming, and he is the only ortho I could find who offers Harmony, although I found him while looking at a different type of brace. Good thing to note, most orthos in the Dallas area offer free consultations, including an estimate on the treatment, and I even went to see Dr. Alexander twice because I was getting cold feet and had some more questions I wanted answered. All of the offices also offered no interest payment plans, which was a big help although I know there are other options like Care Credit if you need to stretch your payments over a longer period of time. So now that I have decided to move forward, I go in next week to get the molds taken of my teeth, and then it takes 6-8 weeks to get the braces back from the lab and have them put on. I think the waiting will be the worst part, because now that I'm going ahead with my decision I want to get started right away!