DAY 1
I’ve just had adult braces on and I searched the mumsnet forums for people’s experience before I got mine I thought I’d post updates about my experience as I go.
So I looked at Invisalign and my dentist quoted me £3.5k for Invisalign Go which was all they offered. It’s a 6 month treatment.
I then visited a local orthodontist who quoted me for aligners and traditional train track braces.
The aligners were £5400 because they’re custom made by him - I could NOT afford this.
The traditional braces (with ceramics on top teeth) were £4000.
Both would take 10-12 months and braces would offer a marginally better outcome. Marginal because I don’t have significant issues, just some overcrowding which is getting worse with age.
I’ve gone for traditional braces so I can have the assurance of orthodontist lead treatment. I’ve hated my teeth for ages and I’ve been thinking about this for close to a decade (I’m mid 40s) so I figure a year is not that long in the scheme of things to put up with them. And the cost had also put me off before, but now I think the amount of time I’ve hated my teeth, if I’d got it done years ago the cost would just be a distant memory now!
I’ve literally just had them fitted. The fitting was fine, not particularly uncomfortable (I did take ibuprofen beforehand) and they’re not painful at the moment, more just a feeling of pressure. However, they feel very VERY strange. I feel like I can’t talk properly and I can’t bite properly - at the moment I’m not really sure how I’ll ever eat anything solid. It feels exactly like having a mouth full of metal which probably shouldn’t have come as such a surprise!
Here’s a pic of my teeth before and now with braces.