Background: As a teen I had had head gear and an assortment of retainers that ultimately left me with crooked teeth again due to over-crowding issues never being resolved. I also have very short roots from apparently having my teeth moved too quickly.
Why I think Six Month Smiles was not a good fit for me:
- STAINING. I naturally have "dirty" teeth. Something about my saliva, teeth, and body chemistry- I brush twice a day with a Sonicare, I floss religiously, but my teeth are a furry battle. Six Month Smiles was a hygienic nightmare for me. At the two month mark, I had such vicious staining and plaque, the dentist gave me a prescription floss and mouthwash and scheduled an extra cleaning. It helped, but it was not a panacea. Right after the dentist put the braces on, she shoved a small slip of paper in my hand and pushed me out of her office. I stumbled into the lobby with the deer-in-the-headlights thing going on. Did this piece of paper say I committed to no raw vegetables, no pasta sauces, no berries, no sodas, no caffeines or tea or anything else that might stain my teeth for the next six months? Yep. And in my case, it was serious. I had one Coke Zero and the cement and guard wire were brown, and it went drastically down hill from there. If I had understood these issues, I would've opted for Invisalign instead, so I could floss and clean unfettered.
- BREAKING BRACKETS. No chips or anything crunchy- no joke. I was breaking brackets left and right. I had a tiny light ripple chip and a bracket broke off. I even broke a bracket eating a pancake. I am not kidding. My dentist got lazy about repairing these brackets, they were mostly on my mid-molars. The last two months my bottom mid molars had no brackets, and now they sit about an eighth to a quarter of an inch inward medially from all my other teeth. Totally not joking. What's worse, the last month, a bracket broke of one of my front teeth. That tooth is a bit off from the others. My dentist claimed it was coming along nicely, but the truth was, it was straight at the 5 month mark, and crooked vertically and behind all the other teeth by the 7 month mark, largely because she did not reattach the bracket.
- HYGIENE ISSUE TWO- I will report back on this one, because the verdict is still out, but I have had some serious fillings in all my molars from childhood, and the molars that had the brackets on them for Six Month Smiles have not faired well. I had tremendous sensitivity on them while the dentist was taking the brackets off, and when I got home I was distressed again to see tiny black holes through the sides of the molars. I think I am going to end up with at least 2 if not as many as 4 root canals from this whole experience. I mentioned it to the dentist, and she said, "Well, it may just be staining. We will get you in and see," hmmm, that was not really what I wanted to here.
- RETAINERS FOR LIFE- After I got my braces off the dentist had retainers made. She wants me to wear these retainers 24 hours a day for life. The original plan was to put a permanent retainer in behind my teeth, but with the way I reacted to the braces, she realized that would not be a good idea for me. Well, the retainer she had made up for me looks just like the Invisalign ones, except thinner and cheaper. Also, that very night after she gave them to me, I started getting a sore throat. She did not give me any instructions with them, I tried cleaning them a little with mouthwash. Every night I wore them, I woke up with horrible sore throats. I tried wearing the retainers in the day, but my bottom piece cut my mouth up badly if I was talking at all. Finally, on week two of this ridiculousness, I soaked both retainers completely in mouthwash for 10 minutes, and I was able to sleep one night without a sore throat. So, those retainers are nasty harbingers of bacteria. Pretty scary, right? I also don't see them lasting for more than a few months. My teeth move a bit if I go more than a day without wearing them. I just don't see how this is going to pan out long term.
- MOMS OF LITTLE CHILDREN- As with any orthodontic endeavor, the frequent office visits were a bit of a nightmare with four children in tow. My husband's schedule did not marry up well with the dentist's availability. Plus, the dentist did not work on Fridays. My first week, I had two broken brackets right off the bat, one right on a front tooth. I called on a Wednesday, and the dentist's office wanted to put me off until Monday or Tuesday. I told them I would rip the braces out myself if they didn't find a time slot for me before that. I was in some serious pain, and the spinning brackets were a nightmare added on to the ordeal. Luckily, they squeezed me in on that Thursday. I must admit that a lot of the appointments were pretty short. But when it came time to get the braces off, we had a lot of trouble marrying up our schedules. As a result the braces stayed on almost 6 weeks longer than intended, and my teeth kept moving during that time, and I truly think my front teeth got worse during that time instead of better. That brings me to another issue...
- NO END POINT AND FAR FROM PERFECTION. Six Month Smiles has no defined end point. They say six months, the truth is, (and the program is very upfront about this) you are aiming for about a 90% solution. Not perfection, but better. Well, who is to say what's better? The truth is that my top crooked canines were pretty much aligned and done in about six weeks! The months to follow were unclear in their goals. There was some inter-dental shaving done, and my teeth were pulled in tighter to each other after that with a "power chain", but the truth is, my bottom teeth became more crooked in my mind, and I think they were moved solely to adjust my bite to the top teeth. I ended up losing my neat bottom teeth to a strange little jumble so that my canines could come in. I am not sure it was worth it. Every month that ticked by after about month four was a bit comical. It was like trying to shake a box full of dice and hope all sixes come up. Each time, one or two teeth would move into better position, but others would start doing things they shouldn't do.
- LAST IMPORTANT NOTE: Find a really good dentist. I think the lady I went to was largely experimenting on me. I was an idiot for not going to a real orthodontics clinic. I don't think she is hygienic enough in her office, she has a high office turnover of staff which is an indication of issues, she had to keep referring to instructions through every procedure, it did not give me a warm fuzzy. The whole experience was not good. I would not do it again. I do regret the entire experience, I think it will be a terrible battle to keep my teeth in their current alignment (which is only probably about a 75% solution) and I think it will probably expedite me into implants or dentures in the long run.
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