So, I was told it would take me two years, and figured that it would wrap up around when I was finishing graduate school and would be moving. I might need to find somebody else to check in on a retainer or whatever, but nothing big. Now, it's looking like there's no way in hell that this impacted canine is going to be completely in place by this summer--I think it'll be lucky if it's even visible by then--and I will be moving from Ohio to New Mexico in July or August.
I don't want to talk to my ortho about this just yet because I'm still feeling very snappish with her over the course of this, and I think she's going to try and insist that everything will be fine and prevent me from making reasonable plans. (I did try to talk with her about it once a couple months ago, and that's exactly the response I got.)
So, how do I go about this? I'm still paying her for my braces... am I supposed to get part of this money back if treatment isn't finished? Or will I have to just stop making payments with her and make a whole new arrangement with a new orthodontist after I get there? How do I pick someone new from 2000 miles away?
Moving cross-country with braces on?
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PrincessMelody
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I would first suggest speaking with your ortho and seeing if she has any reccomendations as to how to go about finding an ortho in the area or if she even knows of any orthos. But since it seems she is not cooperating with even discussing the situation with you then I would suggest taking the whole matter into your hands.
Go searching online for orthos in the area and start calling around. Once you get close to moving, set up a date to go in do a consultation with them. If possible, obtain copies of your x-rays from your ortho and take some pictures to send them so they can get an idea of what they will be working with. Establish a relationship with them over the phone and get a good idea of what orthos you like so that you can pay them a visit once you move. I don't know what your plans are like for moving, but if you are going out there before you make the initial move, it might even be fantastic if you could go visit a few of those orthos while you are out there so you can decide who you will go with by the time you have been moved.
As far as the payment. You should get refunded and money that goes towards the remainder of your treatment. How much you are going to pay should definately be something you should discuss with the new ortho when calling around. Obviously it will be hard for them to tell when you aren't there in person, but orthos that are willing to work with you will definately be ones you want to consider going with.
Go searching online for orthos in the area and start calling around. Once you get close to moving, set up a date to go in do a consultation with them. If possible, obtain copies of your x-rays from your ortho and take some pictures to send them so they can get an idea of what they will be working with. Establish a relationship with them over the phone and get a good idea of what orthos you like so that you can pay them a visit once you move. I don't know what your plans are like for moving, but if you are going out there before you make the initial move, it might even be fantastic if you could go visit a few of those orthos while you are out there so you can decide who you will go with by the time you have been moved.
As far as the payment. You should get refunded and money that goes towards the remainder of your treatment. How much you are going to pay should definately be something you should discuss with the new ortho when calling around. Obviously it will be hard for them to tell when you aren't there in person, but orthos that are willing to work with you will definately be ones you want to consider going with.
Check out my braces story by clicking the WWW
28 months and 22 days in braces
Now in an upper and lower Hawley retainer.
28 months and 22 days in braces
Now in an upper and lower Hawley retainer.
The chances of an orthodontist in a small town in Ohio knowing one in southern New Mexico is *fairly* small, I would guess.
Aside from the amount of my original fee which was due to go for the retainer and removal, how much should I expect back if they've been on for as long as she originally planned for them to be on--with the attendant adjustments--even though treatment isn't finished? Will she just estimate at that point how close it is to done and pro-rate it accordingly?
Aside from the amount of my original fee which was due to go for the retainer and removal, how much should I expect back if they've been on for as long as she originally planned for them to be on--with the attendant adjustments--even though treatment isn't finished? Will she just estimate at that point how close it is to done and pro-rate it accordingly?
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PrincessMelody
- Posts: 346
- Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2006 11:57 pm
- Location: Orange County, California
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There is no contract so far as I'm aware--at least nothing with terms like this, it was just about how much money we were paying--so I suppose I'll just have to see.
I'm not really upset that it's running long. I'm upset that it's running long but that every time I try to address it with her, she's like, "Oh, everything's fine, don't worry." Actually, that's what happens whenever I try to address *anything* with her. When the wire broke off my impacted canine, she insisted she still had plenty to work with and everything was A-ok for as long as I couldn't see it, but fifteen minutes of excrutiating pulling later she finally admits there's not much of it left.
It's just been an exercise in avoidance the whole time, from the beginning. I'm beginning to suspect that she doesn't generally treat adults or difficult cases; I've never seen another patient over 15 in her waiting room in the last year and a half, and I never hear her talking surgery with anyone.
The problem at the moment is: I can't go anywhere else. There's noplace else I can get to, because I don't have a car and she's the only local person on the bus line. Hence how I ended up with her in the first place. I've tried to address these issues with her, at which point she gets visibly upset. There's only three orthodontists total in my county, so I didn't exactly have a lot of variety to start with. Not a lot more where I'm going, but at least they're all located in the same city and I'll have better transportation once I get there.
Altogether, it's not her fault this is going longer, but she's impossible to talk to about it. I've already told her where I'm moving and when and tried to have this conversation, but she avoids it. It's a headache, but I figure I'm going to have to do most of the legwork on my own.
(Just having glanced at them, no, there are no orthodontists in the area I'm moving to who went to school anywhere near here, and I know where mine went around here.)
I'm not really upset that it's running long. I'm upset that it's running long but that every time I try to address it with her, she's like, "Oh, everything's fine, don't worry." Actually, that's what happens whenever I try to address *anything* with her. When the wire broke off my impacted canine, she insisted she still had plenty to work with and everything was A-ok for as long as I couldn't see it, but fifteen minutes of excrutiating pulling later she finally admits there's not much of it left.
It's just been an exercise in avoidance the whole time, from the beginning. I'm beginning to suspect that she doesn't generally treat adults or difficult cases; I've never seen another patient over 15 in her waiting room in the last year and a half, and I never hear her talking surgery with anyone.
The problem at the moment is: I can't go anywhere else. There's noplace else I can get to, because I don't have a car and she's the only local person on the bus line. Hence how I ended up with her in the first place. I've tried to address these issues with her, at which point she gets visibly upset. There's only three orthodontists total in my county, so I didn't exactly have a lot of variety to start with. Not a lot more where I'm going, but at least they're all located in the same city and I'll have better transportation once I get there.
Altogether, it's not her fault this is going longer, but she's impossible to talk to about it. I've already told her where I'm moving and when and tried to have this conversation, but she avoids it. It's a headache, but I figure I'm going to have to do most of the legwork on my own.
(Just having glanced at them, no, there are no orthodontists in the area I'm moving to who went to school anywhere near here, and I know where mine went around here.)
Update and more venting!
I have moved, now. I have still not succeeded in getting a dime back from my old orthodontist. Her sum total of help to me was photocopying the page out of the book with the orthodontists in my new town. Lovely.
So I get here, and I call around. There seem to be three major options. One doesn't see children, one is booking fairly far ahead and I'm questioning whether they really have space to add new patients, and one has a large and prosperous practice where I got in for a consultation.
The Cliff Notes version of said consultation is that I have at least another 18 months ahead of me, it's going to cost me more than $2000 more, and he says that what my old orthodontist was doing was going to leave me with a crossbite and a permanently shifted midline on the top. He says I need two teeth pulled and that there are no alternatives to this. Oh, and I'm going to have to have all the brackets removed and replaced because the ones my old one was using won't work with what he needs to do, evidently.
So here I am, my impacted canine just starting to poke through the gum, with a mouth I cannot possibly leave the way it is, and now I have to pony up another $2300 and evidently get teeth pulled while I'm still looking for a job. What a nightmare.
I have moved, now. I have still not succeeded in getting a dime back from my old orthodontist. Her sum total of help to me was photocopying the page out of the book with the orthodontists in my new town. Lovely.
So I get here, and I call around. There seem to be three major options. One doesn't see children, one is booking fairly far ahead and I'm questioning whether they really have space to add new patients, and one has a large and prosperous practice where I got in for a consultation.
The Cliff Notes version of said consultation is that I have at least another 18 months ahead of me, it's going to cost me more than $2000 more, and he says that what my old orthodontist was doing was going to leave me with a crossbite and a permanently shifted midline on the top. He says I need two teeth pulled and that there are no alternatives to this. Oh, and I'm going to have to have all the brackets removed and replaced because the ones my old one was using won't work with what he needs to do, evidently.
So here I am, my impacted canine just starting to poke through the gum, with a mouth I cannot possibly leave the way it is, and now I have to pony up another $2300 and evidently get teeth pulled while I'm still looking for a job. What a nightmare.
I'm hoping to get in to one other place. There are only three local options that I've found so far, and one of them doesn't treat adults--argh!
I'm definitely not getting any teeth pulled without talking to someone else, obviously, although he was... very thorough about explaining why that had to happen, and it makes sense, but it's definitely not something I like hearing. At the price this guy wants to charge me, I *could* fly home to my old orthodontist for less, provided it took less than eight months for her to finish me. If it's going to be another 18 months either way, that stops working out.
I don't know exactly what's up with the brackets. I may have misunderstood him? It was something about the wires he wants to use not working with the brackets I have in, but I don't know enough about the different types to understand how that works.
I'm definitely not getting any teeth pulled without talking to someone else, obviously, although he was... very thorough about explaining why that had to happen, and it makes sense, but it's definitely not something I like hearing. At the price this guy wants to charge me, I *could* fly home to my old orthodontist for less, provided it took less than eight months for her to finish me. If it's going to be another 18 months either way, that stops working out.
I don't know exactly what's up with the brackets. I may have misunderstood him? It was something about the wires he wants to use not working with the brackets I have in, but I don't know enough about the different types to understand how that works.
Got another consult appointment, but I can't get in there until the 18th of September... at least it's something, and this place has specifically said they're going to contact my old orthodontist before they even see me, so I think that might be a good sign.
I haven't gone this long without an adjustment in ages and it feels really weird. I was in every 3-4 weeks for probably the last... five or six months? It's only been a little over a month, I guess I should probably relax.
I haven't gone this long without an adjustment in ages and it feels really weird. I was in every 3-4 weeks for probably the last... five or six months? It's only been a little over a month, I guess I should probably relax.
A very belated update:
Well. The second consult went really well, in terms of my relationship with the guy--he's terrific--but same verdict: it would never happen within the old ortho's estimates, and she was evidently planning on leaving a bunch of things unfixed. Going to be another three grand or so to actually get my mouth into the shape it should be in, but he thinks he can do it without pulling teeth. He's going to rebracket, too, because among other things, it's now becoming obvious that several of the brackets I have on now are on crooked.
I've been waiting now for several months for my old orthodontist to send my records to the new one. My last phone call to the old one hasn't even been returned, and that was before the holidays. This is getting to be completely ridiculous. I suppose, if nothing else, let this be a warning to anybody thinking of picking an orthodontist based on cost instead of actual recommendations...
Well. The second consult went really well, in terms of my relationship with the guy--he's terrific--but same verdict: it would never happen within the old ortho's estimates, and she was evidently planning on leaving a bunch of things unfixed. Going to be another three grand or so to actually get my mouth into the shape it should be in, but he thinks he can do it without pulling teeth. He's going to rebracket, too, because among other things, it's now becoming obvious that several of the brackets I have on now are on crooked.
I've been waiting now for several months for my old orthodontist to send my records to the new one. My last phone call to the old one hasn't even been returned, and that was before the holidays. This is getting to be completely ridiculous. I suppose, if nothing else, let this be a warning to anybody thinking of picking an orthodontist based on cost instead of actual recommendations...
