So much for the (limited) racing budget..

My daughter is getting braces instead... sigh

Yeah. Looking down this barrel myself.

My dad said we were getting a second opinion, then somehow I never got braces. And he didn't even race!

Teenage boys don't like girls with crooked teeth.......... Race budget it is!!!

I'm of the opinion that most of the time braces exist primarily as a tool to remove your hard earned money from your pocket.

Personal experience:

We get referral to small town ortho guy. We go to appointment, and guy has a beautiful office, with free juice, and healthy snacks for his patients, and parents. He explains to us that boy has crazy crooked teeth, and he will live a miserable life if we don't spend $8000 to fix them. He gives us a 50/50 chance that it will work. I ask him if he brought his Mercedes to my shop, and I gave him a $8000 quote to fix it, with a 50/50 chance that it would work, if he'd get the work done? He doesn't answer. I ask him how he sleeps at night. He doesn't answer. Boy has exact same teeth as mom. They're not perfect, but they're fine.

I later find out that a large percentage of kids from our dentist were referred to ortho crook

Spoolpigeon wrote: Teenage boys don't like girls with crooked teeth.......... Race budget it is!!!

this belongs in the thread about asking Pop for their hand ... and all the yapping that went along in that thread about dreading the day their little girl started dating

teenage boys also refer to girls with braces as "organ grinders".

AngryCorvair wrote: teenage boys also refer to girls with braces as "organ grinders".

Only if they have no idea what they are doing.

Spoolpigeon wrote: Teenage boys don't like girls with crooked teeth.......... Race budget it is!!!

I have news for you. It's not their teeth that they're interested in.

My teeth were legitimately messed up. One of my canines had to be removed after migrating in my gums and threatening to mess up several other teeth and there were a bunch of other issues so I don't question their use. However, I don't know if the teen years are the ideal time to be fooling with your mouth. There were times my teeth were largely useless to me and I ended up living on liquids and soup at a time my body could've used all the nutrition it could get.

Mine pretty much fixed themselves as my jaw got bigger.

I had braces for a few years, rubber bands and all. After they were done, my teeth slowly migrated back to their messed up positions.

I do remember that the ortho had a fancy office staffed with pretty girls... to a teenage boy the pain was almost worth it. Almost.

mikeatrpi wrote: I had braces for a few years, rubber bands and all. After they were done, my teeth slowly migrated back to their messed up positions.

Yep. My mouth is worth the price of a nice new car. At the end of it all, they handed me a mouth guard and said "and you have to sleep with this for the rest of your life, eventually only 4+ times a month while sleeping",

As a kid, I was like "uh, no?" Teeth aren't "crooked", but they definitely aren't as straight as they were. Having to suffer through 3+ years of all that E36 M3 (that's a long time when you are under the age of 18)? berkeley NO.

Edit- IMO, unless there is severe corrective surgery they are performing, child orthodontics are also a ripoff as the kids jaw is constantly changing.

I had braces. My teeth are jacked.

50/50 is optimistic...

I wish my mother had saved her money.

I had braces, my teeth are still 99% straight, would have stayed perfect but I never wore the retainer once they were off and that was ~17 years ago?

I'm glad I don't have the snaggletooth messed up mouth I had when I was younger.

Call me vain.

Wanna fight about it?

mikeatrpi wrote: I had braces for a few years, rubber bands and all. After they were done, my teeth slowly migrated back to their messed up positions. I do remember that the ortho had a fancy office staffed with pretty girls... to a teenage boy the pain was almost worth it. Almost.

Agreed to all of it. Had wisdom teeth out, headgear for a minor overbite, braces for a few years, and retainer for a dog's age. It's been about 14 years, and positively everything has moved back where it was... short of the wisdom teeth, of course.

No idea what my mother paid for all that, but the only thing I got out of it was happy memories of staring down the receptionist's shirt on check in.

I prefer to get my teeth rearranged by participating in a bar fight.

In reply to ValuePack:

I did that too......oddly enough, I've picked up that dental assistant at a bar after all that.....cougars are fun.

Mine weren't that bad to start with, but after 3 years, they're back where they were before.

My braces were a rip off. I spent two years in them to moderately move a couple of teeth. I told my parents it was idiotic but it happened anyway. My older son on the other hand is all kinds of messed up. My wife's family has a genetically missing adult tooth. This works well because they have small mouths. My son got the small mouth but all of the teeth are coming in. He's getting fixed.

In reply to white_fly: So your British eh?

I had the same choice with my son, you're doing the right thing. Life sucks when you're embarrassed to smile.

No regrets.

My teeth are one of the few parts of me that look good

That said I'm basically half-British so my genes are a ticking time bomb of dental bills

My race budget for the year is shot too for a similar reason. When I sell the E30, the sale money and then some will go towards a ~$7000 dental bill for my teeth.

Braces, for a long time. Gorgeous teeth. Parents hooked me up, and it was worth every penny! I'm going to reward them with a great nursing home.

z31maniac wrote: I had braces, my teeth are still 99% straight, would have stayed perfect but I never wore the retainer once they were off and that was ~17 years ago? I'm glad I don't have the snaggletooth messed up mouth I had when I was younger. Call me vain. Wanna fight about it?

I agree with this. My teeth were FUBAR and now they are fairly straight and I haven't worn a retainer in a long time.