My experiences with the braces shop are mixed. Very mixed.
First of all, I am very happy with its service to the braces community and very happy to own and wear some custom braces. But it is not all sunshine and rainbows with the braces shop.
On 18-08-2013 I ordered my braces: fixed braces upper- and lower jaw, retainer type, with headgear tubes and two headgears, high pull headgear and cervical headgear plus a set of retainers, upper and lower jaw.
On 03-09-2013 I got a message the impression kit was sent.
Taking the impressions is a lot of fun and a bit tricky: you can not see what you are doing.
On 17-09-2013 I got confirmation my impressions had arrived at the shop.
On 07-10-2013 I got a message my braces were sent to me and on 10-10-2013 they arrived. I was very excited wearing braces again and wore them over the weekend. I immediately noticed some problems.
1. The plastic plates for the lower jaw were too long, poking at the bottom of my mouth creating ulcers, making it very unpleasant to wear the braces after two days.
2. The labial bows of the retainers were more acting like lip bumpers. Their distance from my teeth was rather large.
3. The labial bow of my lower jaw fixed braces had a very bad fit. Most brackets were more than a millimeter apart from the teeth.
4. The ends of the inner bow of the headgear were way too long, sticking into my gums.
So I contacted the braces shop about the problems. I quickly got a reply. The problem was in the impression of the lower jaw. It wasn't that good and 'repaired' by the braces shop. I knew what I had done wrong: I inserted the set for the lower jaw too far in my mouth so my front teeth touched the set.
So I ordered a new impression set for the lower jaw and took care to do a better job with making the impression. Instead of making new braces the braces were 'repaired'. The promblem with the plates was solved and it turned out well for the retainer but the lower jaw fixed braces got worse. Although it is following the lower teeth reasonably well the problem is when I bite down my upper teeth are biting down on the ball clasps (I can see the braces shop bent them up a little) moving the whole labial bow and making it painful to wear after about an hour. I haven't had this problem with the retainers: I have worn them for over 24 hours without problems; I can even eat with them.
On 19-01-2014 I got the advice to get myself the thermo formed aligner type of fixed braces. So I ordered them. Having worn my fakes for some time now I knew I wanted them to stand out more so I ordered them with silver ligatures.
On 20-02-2014 I got the message my braces were sent over and on 27-02-2014 they arrived. Unfortunately the ligatures were transparent instead of silver. The lower jaw fit was fine but the upper jaw didn't fit at all. Also it seemed they forgot to deburr the upper braces: the edges were very sharp and it wasn't polished like the lower jaw ones.
On 27-02-2014 I sent back the upper jaw braces and about a month(!) later I got a message they had arrived. Then all turned quiet for a very long time. So I mailed the shop on 26-08-2014 and got an answer. Finally, on 08-10-2014 the braces completed their journey back to me. They were polished now but the fit hasn't improved nor were the promised silver ligatures in the package.
There I gave up. :-(
So my conclusions are:
Yes! The braces shop can make very fine braces.
But customer service and problem solving is not good at all.
So make sure you have good impressions and hope you get good braces the first time.
On the headgear department:
1. Why are headgears delivered with 600 g modules when 450 g modules are available too?
2. Headgear bows with a fixed inner arch have a far better fit (for me) than the headgears custom fitted by the shop.
3. The outer bows of the headgear from the shop are very long. That is fine with a cervical strap but it doesn't work with the high pull strap.
4. The hooks of the outer bows of the shop are too small for fitting a combination headgear (cervical plus high pull strap).
I have worn my fake braces a lot and worn headgear often in public even talking with other people about braces and having myself photographed by others at touristic spots but that is an other story.
