I went to Dr. laffer as a kid. My dentist thought I needed a correction, but it wasn't supposed to be major work. I ended up with braces from 4th grade to 10th grade. Imagine how miserable that was in the worst years of a kid's life.
Everything took longer than their office estimated.... Headgear for 4 months turned into 2 years. Lip bumpers for a year turned into 3 years. Some thing I was supposed to chew on for a couple months turned into a year and a half. They never even ran their appointments on time.
And the guy was mean... he pulled a tooth out with my sister when she was 8. When she started tearing up he told her to not act like a baby.
Seeing as I was in braces for 7 years, you'd think it would at least be pain free as they were taking their time.... nope. Woke up nightly in pain and tried to live off a diet of junk food as a kid since I didn't like to chew on anything.
Results: nada. After 7 years of braces the retainers lasted maybe 6 months or regular wear and 12 mos of nightly use. Those were extremely uncomfortable, too. And since I had grown larger than Dr Laffer in that time he no longer could bully me into wearing them 24/7.
So my teeth are probably only slightly better than if I had never worn braces.
I also developed a hatred for all dentists in that time, which probably doesn't help my oral hygiene. read more