Need to discontinue braces to work overseas on January. Do i still need to pay remaining balance?

[Ellytheviking]

My dentist knew about this a few months ago &adjusted appointments&payments every 2wks to make treatment faster. Yesterday, I went for my appointment and he was happy that he finally corrected my underbite and misaligned jaw and said that my treatment is done and didn’t do any adjustments (still with elastics from last 4weeks). Later, He said i have to pay the remaining balance on January since it will be the month wherein My braces will be removed. Btw, I have braces for a year and 5 months case is an underbite w/misaligned jaw. To further understand the cost of my braces well the total cost is $1189, $396 down payment already made before my braces was placed last year. As of the moment my total payment is already at $792 downpayment already included. Although he mentioned that my treatment is already done I’M still not satisfied with it because I know it’s not yet done. There are still visible problems like my upper midline has not yet shifted in the middle then the lower teeth are not yet totally aligned. Both upper and lower teeth are also not touching so it’s like there’s a hole in the middle. I feel that he’s just saying that It’s done so he can get the money. I think it’s not fair since it’s a huge amount of money from the remaining balance and it doesn’t di any justice to my teeth. Do you think that it’s right to pay the remaining balance if there are still a lot of improvements to be done? And oh I forgot to mentioned that at the start of our treatment he mentioned that my case is complicated and need atleast 2-3 year to be fixed. It’s like now, for him, the meaning of done is correcting my bite and aligned my jaw but not minding anymore with the other details. :( *if only i can post pictures here to see the proof of my imperfect teeth

[assertives]

What does it say in your contract? Does it cover anything regarding the balance payment if you or your ortho needs to terminate treatment earlier than the stipulated treatment time? Depending on different offices, some orthos set like $xxxx for approx 20 visits/adjustments like my ortho. Any additional visits outside of that may or may not cost more depending on what's left to do etc.

If your contract was like that, and if your ortho has fulfilled the x number of adjustments/appointments then technically, he has fulfilled the amount of appointments for the quoted sum for the treatment given to you. As for the finishing state of your teeth, there isn't much you or your ortho can do considering you have to leave the country soon.

Perhaps make an appointment to negotiate with him regarding partial payment for the treatment.

[Ellytheviking]

Actually, he didn’t let me sign any contract or explain cases/situations (for instance this type of case wherein I have to leave the country) wherein I still or won’t need to pay the remaining balance. Last year, he just explained what is the case of my teeth, how long will it take(2-3 years) to finished, how much will it cost and how much do I need to pay for the downpayment. That’s it. That’s why I’m thinking that I just wasted a huge amount of money if I pay the remaining balance since I’m not satisfied with my teeth. For me, I think I should pay until where he just finished doing my adjustments to be fair since he already got a huge amount of money from me in the past adjustments including the downpayment. Actually, I am also not that happy with my bite because the only part that is okay is my upper and lower bite but the bite at both sides are not okay since it’s still like an open bite.

[Ellytheviking]

[quote="Ellytheviking"]Actually, he didn’t let me sign any contract or explain cases/situations (for instance this type of case wherein I have to leave the country) wherein I still or won’t need to pay the remaining balance. Last year, he just explained what is the case of my teeth, how long will it take(2-3 years) to finished, how much will it cost and how much do I need to pay for the downpayment. That’s it. That’s why I’m thinking that I just wasted a huge amount of money if I pay the remaining balance since I’m not satisfied with my teeth. For me, I think I should pay until where he just finished doing my adjustments to be fair since he already got a huge amount of money from me in the past adjustments including the downpayment. Actually, I am also not that happy with my bite because the only part that is okay is my upper and lower bite but the bite at both sides are not okay since it’s still like an open bite.[/quote]

*sorry I mean upper and lower front teeth

[assertives]

You should have a talk with him on this and see if both your ortho and you can come to a compromise on how much more to pay.