First consultation is tomorrow at 2:00. I updated my instagram page to show my upper and lower arches.

Any suggestions on things I should ask the ortho about? (Aside from the obvious: cost, materials, length of treatment and appliances.)

I appreciate the views but I would love some questions or responses. Thanks to Mike and my regional neighbor Cassandra for their comments and questions.

It's excellent news that your wife is supportive! That puts you a nice step closer to your goal, and definitely removes a (perceived) roadblock. Interesting comment about "the other side," though.

Everyone tells me I should create an Instagram account, but I'm trying to move away from social media rather than increasing my use! It's easy enough to see your pics without an account, though. You might get more views, if that's even your goal, if you link the Insta pics here in the thread as you take them.

Paying it forward, so to speak. I like it!

Good call on the link. Will make it easier for folks to follow your progress.

Good luck!

Carrie chose one of the least expensive practices she visited. It's been totally fine. Okay, it doesn't have an espresso machine and a video arcade like some of them, but whatever. Everyone is very pleasant and she likes the geeky ortho. Go in with an open mind and you might be surprised.

Don't forget to update us after the consult!

Well, that's a bummer, but at least you learned something from the experience.

Carrie got a similar warning about elastics not doing as much for adults, so that may be a common thing with orthos who are trying to manage expectations.

You can always lengthen your treatment by postponing appointments and such.

15-20 minutes isn't so bad. I mean, you only go every six weeks or so when in active treatment. Carrie's ortho is about 20 minutes away (without traffic) and it's not a big deal.

I think the lack of engagement here comes down to two things:

- Lots of lurkers. It's common on internet forums. Most people just want to consume content rather than participate or contribute.

- You're male and most people here are straight males.

My thread about Carrie's journey got 13 people who replied (not counting Carrie and me). I'm very grateful for that level of engagement, especially since I didn't expect it, but it's still not a proportionately big number considering that thread is approaching 9000 views. It's just the nature of these things.

About 6 years ago I had a bridge that was loose. I checked with an orthodontist about the possibility of having braces put on to close the gap where the bridge was. At that time the bridge had been in place for about 15 years. He told me that there would be surgery involved, and that even then I would not be satisfied with the end result. The gap was very close to the front and moving the teeth would not create a balanced look. After he had moved the teeth I would still need a crown on the tooth to make it look right. It would have been to costly to have all the work done.

Both my dentist and the orthodontist advised getting the bridge replaced, which is what I had done. After the bridge was replaced, my teeth began to shift. The old bridge had held the top teeth in the same place for that long. When the bridge came loose, they started moving a little. My bottom teeth rested against the back of the bridge, so they didn't move. My teeth in front had a small amount of height difference. After the bridge was replaced, my teeth had just enough room to shift slightly. I also had a couple of root canals done about the same time.

I started to notice a change in how I was chewing my food.

At the same time that this was going on, my wife went to her dentist to have a cavity filled. The dentist ended up cracking the tooth so badly he had to pull it. The choices we had were to leave the gap, put in an implant or bridge or get her braces to close the gap. We decided to go with braces because it would be cheaper than replacing a bridge a couple of times. We also didn't want to grind down healthy teeth if we didn't need to.

I went to see her orthodontist about what was happening to my teeth. Her orthodontist told me I would have to wait until my teeth had settled into their new positions before she would even consider doing anything. My dentist and my wife's orthodontist did give me a couple of temporary appliances to do some short term things to help. My dentist did try and talk me into just doing crowns and veneers , but that would not fix the problem only hide it. The orthodontist did talk about using invisalign at first, but I didn't want that because she was not sure about being able to do it without brackets at some point. At the time I was driving long haul truck, and she wasn't sure I could make all my appointments on time.

I changed jobs. We moved about 2 hours from where we were. I asked for referrals to new dentists and orthodontists near our new place. The new orthodontist was more willing to treat me.

I had some more dental work done, just replacing fillings and a very thorough cleaning.

My new orthodontist was confident that he could fix my teeth for me. He offered me several options. My choices were metal brackets, ceramic brackets or invisalign. I chose metal because I like the look, and it was a little cheaper.

It took over six years between the first time I talked to an orthodontist and I actually got braces.

Have patience, it will happen eventually.