1/2 way through

The orthodontist thinks Chase will get his braces off in December....yay!  That means, literally, only 12 visits total.  The original estimates from the other guys wanted reverse headgear, palate expander and this meant YEARS of treatment.  Chase's teeth already look amazing!  He's pretty fresh out of school and he said the newer studies are showing that only about 5% of kids actually need that extent of treatment as opposed to doing what we did and just wait for normal growth to fix some of it and then intervene for what may be left.  In Chase's case it was his ectopic eye teeth that didn't want to drop down, gap in his front teeth and crossbite.  None of it's there anymore.  He even got his inside wire off today and is close to getting the bumps off his back teeth.

Cole is only on his 3rd visit and only has bottom brackets so far.  He's only anticipating putting a few on the top to even it out a little.  We settled for good enough treatment over perfection to a savings of about $3,000+.  It will be barely noticeable in the end.  Cole's issues were a crossbite in his back teeth because of a molar that was turned on it's side and pretty bad crowding in the front lowers.  They literally zig-zagged across his mouth and all of this left him with a moderate overbite.  The turned tooth was worrisome though.  Same thing as Chase, they can eventually damage beyond keeping the teeth, which would cost us what we paid in their treatments anyways.  Cole first wire looked like a U when it went in and after it was attached to the brackets, it looked like a U with crimps in it and one big indent.  It had to go in a long way to grab that turned over tooth.  His front teeth are already lined up.  They're arched upward now, but he says they still need to come out because they were bent backwards and shouldn't have been.  He says once they come forward into more of a U shape, not a flattened U like they are now (after straightening some) his overbite will correct more.  His turned tooth looks really good.  It's still turned because, well, it has a LONG way to go, but it's definitely moving.  Poor Cole's in a lot more pain after each wire than Chase because his have so much further to move.  I asked if we could have done anything earlier with his bottoms and he told me that the bottom fuses around age 4.  He said there's no way you could anticipate this much at that age and this is the only situation.  I felt better about that.

In the end both boys only cost about $4,600 total.  That was after almost 5 years of shopping around, 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinions before deciding what route to do.  I asked tons of questions to understand what our choices were and realized we were better off waiting until now.  Now hopefully, we get a break before any of the others need braces.  Thank goodness he gives a 5% discount for each sibling and 5% for cash payment.

They're going to have some pretty great smiles!