I had my first consultation with ortho1 today morning. Before leaving the house I checked my blood pressure and pulse and they were completely through the roof! So much for wanting to stay calm…

The practice has an open treatment area with 3 chairs. I was led into a semi-private room with an open doorway to the open treatment area. Upon entering the room I instantly spotted 6 sets of appliance presentation model. Gladly, none of them was for invisalign Two had fixed brackets (one with metal ones and one with clear ones). Two more had removable plates and another one even a Bionator. The last one was for showing fixed retainers.

I stated from the very beginning that I'd like to have some smaller problems fixed with removable appliances which I only did at the end of the appointment 3 years ago. I'd like to think that this helped, but judging by the models I guess there really were only two options to begin with.
The orthodontist took a look at my teeth and pretty much found the same things I had collected over the years and want to get fixed. According to her, most things can be fixed with removable braces, albeit with a bit of difficulty. However, aligning my midline (2mm off) and fixing my wisdom teeth (which have enough space but are biting edge-to-edge not affecting my bite) can only be done with fixed braces and elastics (which I don't want).

The removable appliances she showed me are somewhat similar to Schwarz appliances. She said that my plates will probably with a few springs, screws and maybe other goodies. For my bruxism, she wants to apply a posterior bite plane to the lower appliance. She'll make the plane pretty thick, thicker than my night guard which has 2-3mm to relax my joint muscles. All in all she expects 1 year of treatment depending on how much I wear the braces (12h/d minimum).
For retention she showed me bonded retainers and stated that she always uses them on both jaws, usually on the front 4 or 6 teeth, sometimes even on 8. For my bruxism I'd additionally have a night guard for my lower jaw. I asked whether it'd be possible to use removable retainers instead. She wasn't really positive, stating that I'd need to wear them for the rest of my life as teeth will always shift to a certain degree and that fixed retainers are lower maintenance. I replied that I'll probably already wear the bruxism guard for the rest of my life, so it wouldn't really matter if I'd have one or two appliance in my mouth during the night. She didn't seem to positive, but also not fully negative about it.

If I go ahead with this ortho, there'll be a second appointment for record taking where they'll take two sets of molds (one for the record and one for appliance creation) and radiographs. In a third appointment she'll present the treatment plan. If I agree to still go forward with her, the braces will be fitted in a fourth appointment.


In the end, I'm already super stoked. This was a huge success as I got an offer containing just what I wanted and which I'll gladly accept. I still have a consultation tomorrow morning with a different ortho, so I'll se what they propose. But I can go into that more relaxed as I don't really "need" it anymore, already having a very good option.

Yesterday was my record-taking appointment. It didn't involve the orthodontist at all. Instead, the assistant prepared and handled everything. First, both a panoramic and a side-view radiograph were taken. Afterwards she photographed my side profile in addition my teeth from the front. The last thing to do where the impressions of both jaws. Luckily I didn't have any problems with that. The impression material went back into my mouth quite a lot, so far that I couldn't have my tongue not touch it. However, I didn't really need to gag. It wasn't necessarily comfortable, but it also didn't bother me significantly compared to what I've read pretty much everywhere else. While my impressions were taken, another patient next to me was lucky (or unfortunate?) enough to get a lower lip bumper installed. After my impressions, I was already finished, in fact quite a lot quicker than I expected. I have another appointment in 3 weeks to get presented and discuss the treatment plan. If (or rather once) I accept, another set of impressions will be taken to create the braces from (the ones taken yesterday are for record-keeping and treatment evaluation only). I guess 3 weeks isn't anything unusual, but that time will probably feel like ages for me. I wonder how much time they'll need to create the appliances afterwards. How long did it take for you accepting the treatment plan to getting removable braces? So what time frame can I probably expect?

Thanks. I'm from Germany. Guess I can call myself lucky in my quest for removable braces being from a country where at least children are still somewhat regularly treated with them.

When I got my removables as a kid they made them in house so it was all really fast - probably all farmed out to labs now though.

Two days ago I had another appointment where the ortho presented me with an overview of my treatment. She acknowledged all of the small things I'd like to get corrected, but also mentioned some other things that she found. There are the known slight crowding, rotation and tilting, mainly in the front. But she also explained that my front teeth are close to an edge-to-edge bite, only having a slight overbite and overjet, less than the normal expected ones. Regarding my edge-to-edge wisdom teeth, the impressions unfortunately had an air bubble where my wisdom teeth are. They took new impressions, making sure that my wisdom teeth were included this time, to see if she might be able to partially correct them.

As treatment she plans removable plates with posterior bite planes for bruxism. Maybe, depending on the new impressions, she can use buttons on the wisdom teeth to correct them. Primarily, she wants to pull back my lower and upper front teeth to increase my too small overbite and overjet while also fixing the crowding, rotations and tilting. In the upper jaw I have enough space for all of those corrections, but the lower jaw will require IPR. For retention I'll get fixed retainers as well as hawley-style retainers, each for both jaws. All in all, the treatment will take roughly 1 - 1½ years.

I should get the detailed treatment plan today, which I'll sign and hand to them on Tuesday. At that appointment yet another set of impressions will be taken for the lab to construct the appliances from. The lab is part of their practice, so the braces will be done by Thursday already, where I'll finally get them!!!

Them having the lab on-site makes me glad I chose their practice instead of others. The removable braces production step itself is just 2 days. However, with all the appointments beforehand, I'm nervous since pretty much the beginning and didn't have a good night's sleep since close to 4 weeks now. So I already had plenty of time to get and be nervous and still have several days left.

The detailed treatment plan mainly contains what was already discussed beforehand. The diagnosis sounds like my whole mouth is a construction site Treatment plan is as expected, except that it doesn't mention anything regarding my wisdom teeth. Guess that'll be a question for tomorrow.

When I get my appliances on Thursday I'll absolutely post pictures of them!