Hi everyone,

i just turned 23 last week and i'm really sick of nothing being able to smile or have a conversation with someone with hiding my teeth.People get the wrong impression.You know when you have a nice set of teeth and you smile,it says come on let's talk,let's cheer up.But with me,different.My family couldn't afford braces for me back when i was 15 and my upper teeth got worse since then.I do work but don't make enough money to be able to get braces.I have bills to pay off,i had 2 root canals without insurance.So it will take me a year to pay it off.I did go to the orthodontic and wanted the Invisalign,because i saw people having worse teeth than i do and he said i do not qualify for the invisalign.I don't know but he said he would put the metal with the clear on my upper and would need to remove some teeth also.I haven't gone back there.I just can't afford.I want to smile,have a smile.Everyone describes me as a mean looking person.I'm not.Why do people judge before they even get to know someone.Please anyone write to me if you have any advice about invisalign or traditional braces and the cost,please.This healthboard is the only thing and the wonderful people that understand me.Thank you

Can you find someone that will allow you to pay for braces, by the month - say $100 per month - maybe with a small down payment to start. I hope that you can be able to do that. It's very understandable to want to have a nice smile. http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

I think you should try to find out every option possible. Best of luck.

Awww, Jenna...I know it's awful to be so conscious of your teeth. I always had what I considered to be a pretty significant overbite, and I just HATED the way I looked when I smiled! Finally, at the age of 25, I found an awesome orthodontist who does virtually NO extractions, gives discounts for practically everything, (I got 25% off because I was in college) and provided a superb payment plan! I just love my smile now, and you will too some day! Don't give up...keep "shopping around" for ortho's -- I had 4 orthodontists tell me that the only way I could possibly get braces was to have no less than 4 teeth pulled...WRONG! The ortho I finally chose said extractions weren't necessary, and he was obviously right. My teeth are perfectly aligned and my bite is perfect. Good luck to you! http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif

I had crooked front teeth and a bad overbite when I was very young, like grade 8! I ended up with braces on the top only, and only on the front 4 teeth, believe it or not!
Is your whole mouth in need of repair? Or just the front teeth?
I live in Ontario Canada, I don't know how much mine cost, my parents' insurance plan fully covered it and the retained I had to wear afterwards, but it paid off!
See if there is anything you can do to minimize the amount of braces you need. ie. Only get the top done if thats the biggest concern and it's all you can afford.
Also, is there anyone that can help you financially? Like I said, I have no idea how much braces cost, so this may not be a very good suggestion!
Hope (some of) this helps!
Good luck!

I sure do know how you feel. And it SUCKS.

That said, I do have to had that where there is a will, there is a way. Find an ortho who will set up a payment plan, as already mentioned. There are some out there who care more about the patient than the money. Get an extra part-time job to pay for it if necessary. Even a couple of nights a week at a retail store will likely give you enough money to pat the ortho.

Or, change jobs altogether and find one with dental insurance. You could also check into Delta Dental of MN, I believe they offer insurance to individuals and if I remember correctly, it isn't all that expensive.

If you do end up needing extractions (although I agree with the above post... many orthos do extractions only because it makes their job easier) you live near a great dental college that does work at 1/3 to 1/2 off what regular dentists charge.

Also, you should go ahead and learn to smile, even with the crooked teeth. I know it's hard, but by hiding your teeth you may be sending out a message that you don't want anyone to bother you. By smiling with crooked teeth, you are giving the signal for them to get to know you. I have a friend with terrible facial scars from a childhood fire... there's nothing he can do about it, he just had to learn to be patient while people got to know him and learned what a great guy he was on the inside.

I do wish you the best of luck. But please, become proactive because unfortunately, no fairy godmother is going to come and fix your teeth. It is up to you. And you will feel SO unbelievably proud of yourself when (1) you look great and (2) you did it all by yourself with no help from anyone.

Me too. Bad dental work has left me with some missing front teeth, and the ones that do show when I do smile -- every tooth is a different colour. The only one un-touched tooth is white and the rest of the ones they worked on are various shades of tobacco brown (no I do not smoke, and I rarely drink coffee or tea and completely changed my dietary habits to protect my teeth, so this really angers me). When I do smile it's a combination of holes (two missing teeth next to my two front teeth), and then it's chicklets that are all differently shaded, and very obviously too.

And I clench my jaw, tighten my lips, try to speak without opening my mouth very much, cover my mouth, am very careful when I eat (and besides being on a mostly liquid diet, when I DO eat, I try to hide). It's affected my personal life & relationship with my Husband, I don't smile at all (when I smile in the mirror I am horrified that I actually look like that... at least at work I don't see myself and get to forget).

I'm disgusted and angry that dentists would let me walk out of their office looking like this and tell me that because I had some temporaries in, that I didn't have choices in colors (thus the brown), and that only my permanents would be matching white,...

I had one dentist start a root canal on the tooth right next to my front tooth and couldn't finish it (?) so that left another hole in my "smile."

Every dentist I've seen over the last several years -- NONE will accept payment plans. They tell me to take out a 2nd mortgage (I don't own a house), take out a loan (sucky credit), charge it (no credit cards),... or take out a loan with one of the companies that make loans to people for dental work or cosmetic work (they charge a lot of interest, but that's all they do, make loans to cover dental work)...

For $15,000 (which would cover half my work) the payment was $650 per month. I don't know if that means if you only needed $7,000 you'd only have to pay $325 a month or not (which is still a lot)...

I've never found a dentist willing to accept payments along the way for anything other than general dentistry. For major work like braces,... they want it all up front, or 50% prepayment and 50% at the time.

i totally understand how u feel, i had braces and my teeth are perfectly straight but while i had my braces my front tooth changed colour. it gott slightly darker than tha rest! my dentist said it had nothing to do with my braces and later gave me a root canal, which of course was not that much help! i am VERY self consious and will not smile... i want my teeth whitened and tha front tooth fixed, i heard BRIGHTSMILE was good but im not sure, does anyone have any suggestions they would be much appreciated!!!!

I hear ya too. My top row teeth are pretty bad, but I don't let that hold me back from laughing and smiling openly. I used to hold back my smiles too, but I came to learn that smiling openly is better than hiding. Sure people notice my teeth, but after a while, they come to accept it and see me the way I am, not by the way my teeth look. I also have more fun laughing openly too.

Took me a while to save up for Invisalign. I was saving up for a car that I wanted badly at the time (still do), and I figured fixing my teeth was more important, as I actually saw it getting worse within a 2 month period. I also have no insurance and parents aren't from a wealthy descent, so I took it upon myself to work 3 jobs at one point last summer(2 parttime, 1 freelance). They gave me 5% off for paying it all upfront. Here's a link to my experiences so far:
http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/Forum39/HTML/000127.html

Originally posted by whyme?!:
i totally understand how u feel, i had braces and my teeth are perfectly straight but while i had my braces my front tooth changed colour. it gott slightly darker than tha rest! my dentist said it had nothing to do with my braces and later gave me a root canal, which of course was not that much help! i am VERY self consious and will not smile... i want my teeth whitened and tha front tooth fixed, i heard BRIGHTSMILE was good but im not sure, does anyone have any suggestions they would be much appreciated!!!!

I had yellowish teeth and got porcelain laminates put on top, and bonding on the bottom. It was such a dramatic improvement. That was 15 years ago and I still get compliments on my smile to this day. I've never been happier! It may be something for you to consider :-)

I just got my braces off after 3 years of treatment and I'm not satisfied with my smile. This really disappoints me. http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/frown.gif

Originally posted by AntiSocial:
I just got my braces off after 3 years of treatment and I'm not satisfied with my smile. This really disappoints me. http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/frown.gif


What is bothering you?

The thing that bothers me is that the top teeth are still crooked (overbite). It seems that my orthodontist wasn't trying very hard and I'm thinking of getting Invisalign braces when I get older and independent. This kind of sucks because I have to fix what the orthodontist should have fixed in the first place.

Why don't you insist that the orthodontist fix your teeth? You deserve to get what you paid for. From my experience, if you make a big stink about things, you get what you want! Be polite, but don't let things go until you are happy.