Growing up, I was in and out of the hospital many times for various surgeries. I had a ton of ear infections. To combat the infections, they gave me tetracycline. I don’t knwo if they knew about the long term side effects of tetracycline at the time. But one side effect is my teeth are kind of stained. They are not a bright white, but kind of a yellow tinted off-white. It doesn’t matter how much I brush then, or get them cleaned, they stay the same dirty stained color.
From what I have read, the staining is not just on the surface, but goes deep into the tooth. So there might not be anything I can do about removing the stains. It sounds like I might be about to get veneers to cover up the stains. I am also going to have to get a new bridge after my braces are done straightening my teeth.
A lot of people seem to be curious about the cost of adult braces. Well they are aren’t cheap. I went to a couple orthodontists. The first one quoted me about $5700. But I would have gotten a 6% discount for paying the whole thing at the start, and not using credit.
But I had problems with that orthodontist, so I got a referral to another orthodontist. The second orthodontist charged me $4500 for the braces. Plus I spend an extra few hundred dollars to get the ceramic brackets. I really debated about going with the standard metal brackets, or the ceramic brackets. But my brother said go for the ceramic brackets, so I got them. I figured a few hundred dollars over the life of my braces was that big of a deal.
My dental insurance covered about $2000 of the cost of my braces. The regular dental insurance didn’t cover adult braces. But then they offered an upgrade where we had to pay a little more each pay check, and commit to two years. I went for it, and got my braces. It will be nices to have straight teeth. I will have to look at getting my teeth whitened.