Smiles - Braces?

elekid

I went to Smiles on O'Connell St in Dublin this morning with a sore front tooth. The dentist cleaned it but said the pain was due to mis-alignment of lower teeth leading to lack of contact between my molars when I try to close my teeth. She said this was causing undue force on my front teeth when chewing, damaging them as a result and causing a small crack in one. She said I will probably need to get braces to correct the problem and should see an orthodontist, but there was nothing she could do about the pain.

They seemed very friendly and professional but the dental "spa" moniker kind of puts me off and I was hoping more could be done for the pain. If I do need to get something like this done I want to make sure I go to the right people. Looking at their site it seems it will cost a minimum of €4,000 for braces which is a scary amount of money and I don't even know if that covers repeat visits, tightening or just the basic braces

I know I'm jumping the gun here and do intend to do some research and see what their orthodontist says, but I was wondering if anyone has experience of getting braces with Smiles, or experience with them (good or bad) in general? And does €4,000 sound pricy or reasonable for braces? Thanks.

elekid

To bump my own thread, I've had some confusing results for this:

I went to the Smiles Orthodontist first. They examined my teeth, took photos and made molds of them. They already have a treatment plan worked out involving wisdom tooth extraction and at least 1 crown but I have to go back for x-rays before they give me full detail. I asked what the consequences might be of not getting treatment and they said I might experience some slight jaw pain in future.

In the meantime I got a second opinion from an orthodontist who is registered with the OSI. He spent a good while examining my teeth before concluding he could see no functional or cosmetic reason why I'd need orthodontic work. He said that although my bite was misaligned it didn't seem to be causing any harm and he couldn't see that changing for the forseeable future.

I'm more inclined to trust the second guy, not just because he's telling me what I want to hear but because he's with the OSI, spent longer actually looking at my teeth and didn't seem so eager to jump into an expensive treatment plan. I don't care if my teeth aren't perfectly aligned so long as I can chew, am not in pain and will not end up causing long-term damage.

So I'm inclined to cancel Smiles altogether and not get treatment but I guess I'd like to see if anyone more experienced here has any advice on this and if I'm right to be giving more weight to opinion of the guy in the OSI?

georgieporgy

love to help but just not enough info. what exactly did the ortho guy mean by misaligned bite. Possibly a crossbite. if so that would cause future damage. probably could do with a third opinion

elekid

Thanks. Basically when I try to close my teeth together they only meet at the very back, the rest of them don't touch at all unless I specifically bite to one side or the other. When I do that they only meet on the side I favour. Also my bottom front teeth come in behind my upper front teeth when I close my mouth, as if my lower jaw is set further back than my upper jaw. I hope that makes sense.