Ever since I started high school I have been very insecure of my teeth, from taking photos to talking to my friends and family. Although I never really thought about getting braces because I knew from the getgo dat it cost a lot of $. But how much mola are we talking about here? pssshh I never even bothered to find out.
Not until I got to college, I started getting realy conscious of my crooked teeth. I wanted braces soooo bad. It was only this month that I actually did my research and found out that braces range about 6 to 8 grand, depending on how mess up your teeth are! I'm pretty lucky that I finally save up enough money to get them fix. So the only next step was to go on yelp and look for the best dentist out there.
Since I'm going to spend about a couple grands on my teeth, might as well receive tons of free consultation out there right? and guess what! I WENT TO 8 CONSULTATIONS and I'm only going to lay out the facts which 3 stand out the most. One that was alright, EXPENSIVE, and the BEST.
It was alright:
Nu smile Dental
Check out my teeth for 5 minutes
D dentist told me she needed to extract 4 of my teeth in order to straighten bc there too over crowded. 2 upper & 2 lower teeth that needed to be extract.
heck no! that sh#$ hurts!
Here's the price range:
Basic: $5,500
The lady told me that since I live sooooo far, she's going to give me a $700 discount with $0 X-ray fee
Total Cost for Braces: $4,800 + 600 (4 TEETH EXTRACTIONS) = $5,400
Extraction cost $150 each x 4 = $600
Down Payment: $1,000
What's left is: $3800 / 200 = 19 months to pay it off
$1,000g down, and will be making $200 monthly fees. NO INTEREST.
TOTAL COST: $5,400 only $100 difference compare to the original price
Includes: One year retainer check up & set of Hawley pink or clear retainers.
Can't Afford it:
Nahal Ashouri had 30 reviews with 5 star rating, so I really had to check this one out!
I came into their office and Dr. Ashouri check out my teeth for about 5 minutes &asked me which teeth i was really concern about. Well I told her that I didn't like this tooth dat was sticking out on my upper and d over crowded lower teeth. She said she could straighten my teeth but couldn't "perfectly" align the upper 2 teeth with with both 2 lower teeth in the middle but my teeth r stil going to look straight though.
Here's the price range:
I can either do d Traditional or Invisalign
Professional Fee (Invisalign) $7188.88
Braces (Metal)$6530.00
I was realy interested in the Invisalign so this is how my payment plan would work:
I needed to make a down payment of $2188.88 & make a monthly payment of $250 for 20 months.
I also needed to get a Panograph that will cost about $230 located in 505 south Dr. Suit 7 Mountain View.
Sounds reasonable for an Invisalign but it was way too expensive for me, especially for a full time student. Only If I had an xtra 2g then I would so GO FOR IT! She's a faculty at UCSF and an expert Invisalign. She's so nice that she reminds me of Mother Theresa.
Affordable & High Quality: Dr. Vellequette
After making an appointment with Dr. Ashouri, I was scared that Dr. Vellequette was going to be expensive bc of his good reviews. But whatever, I still took the risk and made an appointment for a free consultation. Went to der office and their staff was REALLY FRIENDLY! especially LINDA she's such a sweetheart
When I sat down the lady told me that she needed to take an X-Ray,images of my lateral&frontal upper and lower teeth. It was pretty weird because all the consultation I've been through didn't go through this process! I was FREAKING SCARED!! I thought I was going to pay for this because it took them AN HR and half digging & checking every details of the crookedness VS. other dentist who only took 5mins
TADA!, they finally gave me d result of what's the BEST TREATMENT
Dr. V told me that it's best for me to go through the metal braces which is called "DAMON SYSTEM" w/out extracting 4 of my teeth! YAY!
Look it up on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jldR3f3KwQM
Here's the price:
$5,000 Includes:
Intra oral photos of the mouth
Study models of the smile
Braces
All check up appointments
Retainers
Befor geting the braces, I need to get the pano + Lateral ceph scans for $155 from the C-Dental Xrays which was way cheaper compare to Dr. Ashouri. The X-Ray was also located in 505 South Dr. Suit 7
Once they had put the braces on, I needed to make a down payment of $1,000 & make a monthly payment of $200. NO INTEREST!
As u can see, braces are affordable you just need to do a little shopping and find the best dentist out there! I'm so glad I met Dr. V! He's soooo funny!!! He reminds me of Bill guy the Science guy!!
D way I can describe his staff is like dis: Amazon+Nordstrom customer service = Dr. V's Associates! that's how amazin dey r
Find him on youtube! (whooah FYI im not a stalker lol)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTFN0991fN4 read more