anijh

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my first blog post! I thought I'd write about my first visit to an orthodontist in over 10 years. Two days ago, I visited with a local orthodontics office to discuss my teeth and possible Invisalign treatment. It went really well, the doctor and his staff were very nice and professional. For the first few minutes of the visit, the orthodontist made small talk with me about his practice, his experience as an Invisalign provider (premier) and college life (he taught for 27 years at the university I recently graduated from).

After the intro/small talk, he examined my teeth and proceeded to rattle off a couple of things to his assistant about what he saw. He could tell I had orthodontia work before without me mentioning it to him so I took it as a good sign that my previous orthodontist had done some decent work on my smile and that my case wouldn't be too bad.

After examining my teeth, he discussed with me my options for braces. He thought I would be a good fit for Invisalign but he also talked to me about metal and ceramic braces. He thought ceramic or Invisalign would be ideal since I'm not too keen on the metal look. He said I would probably be wearing braces (any of the three mentioned above) for a year and that the prices for Invisalign and ceramic braces were roughly the same ~$4700.

He shared with me that Invisalign had something called an Invisalign Express plan that the company sometimes like to recommend for patients like me but that he wasn't a fan of the Express. He think it's second-rate and said that if I were to choose to proceed with Invisalign, he would go with the full plan.

After discussing Invisalign and the other options, I was able to have a Q&A session with him and we discussed my slight tongue thrust where I like to rest my tongue against my two fronts. He said tongue thrusts are usually a sign of allergies or a blockage of the airways but that sometimes it can be due to a bad habit. I don't have any allergies so I guess I have a bad habit. LOL It wasn't all terrible news with the tongue thrust though because I haven't pushed my teeth out much.

After Q&A, he let me know the Invisalign consultation was completed and that I was free to leave with no charge but if I wanted to do the next step of completing medical records stuff, i.e. x-rays, pictures, impressions, etc. that there would be a charge for that. I wasn't prepared to get all these things done on Friday but I liked the doctor and his assistants so I went for it. They spent a lot of time answering my questions, made me laugh more than a few times, and provided me with a reasonable price (from what I've read online). Awesome customer service goes a long way with me.

I haven't yet committed to Invisalign or ceramic braces but I'm pretty sure that if I do proceed I will be going with this office. I have another appointment with him in 6 days to discuss my medical records (x-rays and impressions) and more on what I want to do.