I've been a braces fan as long as I can remember but never had them myself.  Due to my parents' issues with dentists I did not go from age 10-19. Prime age for braces. The dentist I next saw at 19 was because of a cracked baby tooth that was never replaced by an adult tooth.

Around 25, I saw a new competent dentist, he asked if I ever thought about braces? He told me about a crossbite in the rear and a bite that was not overlapping in front which could be classified as a slight underbite. He didn't know any nearby orths and I did t have the money to do it at the time.

More than 10 years have passed. My wife knows nothing about my liking braces, though she seemed to suspect after me not closing a window on the computer 9 years ago.

I decided it is time. I pass a billboard for $2999 metal braces everyday heading to work. I have been acting like I have tmj disorder symptoms (which I sometimes do, but I have been playing them up)

I went to my regular dentist who said I don't need to rush to braces but he did admit my tmj disorder was related to a bad bite. This was enough to convince my wife that if my jaw was really bothering me I could go to some consultations on what to do.

I have an appointment on Monday July 3rd and one 10 days later.  The first place will do bite prosthesis for jaw problems and they do braces as well. They seemed like a place to get a "first opinion" to satisfy my wife. She works that day.

The appointment on the 13th is with the ortho office from the billboard. They really only do braces. Now I just need to keep the jaw pain show up for a little while and make another appointment or two. (If consultations are free, I might as well see what options are out there.)
 

If I'm going to do this I need to find which office is giving me the most metal/appliances, for the longest time and the best price.
   
I'll get a picture site started soon. Please feel free to contact me with questions and support.

Once they are on I think it will be time to confess. If she she's how happy I am with the decision it will make things easier.

Mike your wife's willingness to go for it helped me decide to give it a try.

Carrie and I are both 36 (37 next month to be honest) and she seems to be adjusting fine and having fun doing it. Plus if she is having this much fun doing it just for you imagine how much I'll enjoy doing it for me. 

Sorry today was a waste of time. If you need major bite correction, Invisalign probably isn't going to work as well as fixed braces, as you observed. I think most dental practices who push Invisalign just do it to make an easy buck, anyway. Doc goes to a weekend seminar and suddenly, BOOM, they're a "certified Invisalign provider" without knowing much about real orthodontics at all. But this could just be my braces-bias talking!

Good luck with finding more practices for consults. Carrie took her time doing consults before she settled on the current practice. That seemed to bear fruit for her -- she likes the orthodontist and the price was fair -- so don't get in a rush. I don't know how big a city you live in, though. If it's a small area, you may run out of orthos! There are about a million orthos in the Phoenix metro area, so Carrie had many, many choices.

Gotcha. We live in downtown Phoenix, but there are few ortho practices in the actual downtown area (two, to be exact). Carrie had much better success in the suburbs, which makes demographic/intuitive sense, so you may actually be well-positioned to find an ortho you like. Carrie's ortho is in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix.

Best of luck with your future consults! Please keep us posted.

Understand about your eagerness to get started!

Carrie and I hit a big snag once she was ready to get her braces, and she had to postpone for almost a year. But I figured I'd been waiting for, ya know, thirty years or so and could wait another ten months. I'm a pretty patient man, anyway. You obviously won't have to be patient anywhere near that long!

Awesome! Let us know how the consults go.

That is really funny. I have the same thoughts. The price seems legit (I will find out more next Thursday. ) the scheduling guy was talking about it as though it was a common question and a routine price.

I did send you a pm in case you had any questions about our area or practices I am visiting.

Anyone else with questions or comments ?