I was at the ortho today. First, he verified some of the small misalignments, but also found 2 other problems. Here's what he said to each "issue":
1. Upper Jaw Gaps between cuspid and premolar: He said that this is due to the cuspids being rotated to the front. It might be fixible, but he can't guarantee it. If they are fixed, he wants to stabilize the result with a permanent retainer glued on the first premolar and cuspid.
2. Upper Jaw lateral incisor slightly inward: He said that they are located perfectly, but in fact point backwards. So it should just be a bit of tipping. Easy to fix.
3. Lower Jaw slightly crowded incisors: It's slight and doesn't influence my occlusion se he would only tackle it if I wanted. And noone cares about the lower teeth anyway, especially because my lower lip covers them completely.
4. Midline shift: At its current 1.5-2mm the effort to change it wouldn't be worth it. In adults he only corrects midline shifts if it's larger than that or incluences the bite negatively, which is not the case for me.
* Wisdom Teeth: They have enough space and in fact didn't cause any movement in the lower incisors according to the radiographs. He doesn't want to touch them anyway.
5. My upper left central incisor is rotated towards the upper midline (in the roll axis).
6. The upper right teeth are longer than the upper left teeth. There is a height difference of more than 3mm between my left and right canine. This is also the case for the lateral incisor and for the first premolar, but with less difference.
He doesn't want to touch any tooth further than the canines, maybe the first premolar. This is due to my bite matching very well, which he doesn't want to interfere with.
His treatment options were either 1 year in brackets (normal, ceramic or lingual) or 30-40 weeks in invisalign. When I told him that I don't want brackets, he explained, that problem 6 can't be solved fully without fixed braces. But he accepted it and got into more details regarding invisalign. He said that I would need attachments at least on my left central insicor, but maybe on up to 4 of my social 6. For my lower jaw he suggested stripping to fix the slight crowding. Regarding bruxism / clenching he said that he never saw a patient working through their aligner in 2 weeks.
When I carefully asked him about the possibility of removable plates, he responded that he doesn't use them on adults, because most movements are not possible with them, especially not rotations and "pulling down teeth" as needed in my case.
Retention would be a permanent retainer between the first premolars in the upper jaw to keep the gap closed, and between the canines on the lower jaw. Additionally, I'd get removable plates, a kind, which I have not seen previously. They have clasps on the molars, but both the upper and lower plate have an occlusal bite plate over all teeth. The acrylic goes over the front teeth similar to a bruxism night guard. If only he knew that I'd nearly accept treatment for these plates alone
Total cost of treatment including retainers would cost 5500 to 7000€ with normal brackets or invisalign, which seems pretty high to me for such small problems and such a short treatment time. But who am I to judge, I don't have any reference prices.
Anyway, I definitely don't want fixed braces. I don't want anything that's visible at all when I attend important social festivities. I think most people here share the same feeling about invisalign. Additionally, I don't want visible attachments as discussed above.
So this is where I'm at. I don't want to go for any of these treatments, but I also don't want to give up yet. I'm thinking about calling them for a second consultation, where I explain that I don't want any of those treatment methods and that I read about inman aligners and if they would be an option.
What do you think? Should I go for it? Push my luck? I'm really unsure right now, because this was already quite a step for me with a rather negative result.
EDIT: At this point, should the title be changed and this thread moved to "Orthodontic Treatment"?