wearing braces 11 years?

[Daurang]

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There must be more to this story? Is the parent negligent or the orthodontist negligent?

http://content.usatoday.com/communi...-braces-on-11-years/1?csp=34news#.UD6cWGie5Xd

 

[djeffreyt]

There must be more to this story? Is the parent negligent or the orthodontist negligent?

http://content.usatoday.com/communi...-braces-on-11-years/1?csp=34news#.UD6cWGie5Xd

Longest I've seen is 6 years. When the patient came into my office as a new patient, the proximal decay was almost everywhere and the gingiva was just beginning to grow into the brackets. I asked when her last visit to the Orthodontist was and was told her orthodontist had shut his doors a year ago and they hadn't found a new one.

There's definitely more to the 11 year braces story...for example, even some of the most undereducated mothers at my practice start to question it when their children have been in braces 3+ years cause it "doesn't seem normal." How does an MD for a mother figure, oh yeah, 6, 7, 8 years of going to this orthodontist is fine...

The kid had them off when he was 18, someone had to make these appointments and take him for the 9 years before he could drive.

 

[Stacker]

Both parties are stupid.

 

[DrJeff]

I'm thinking that's there's a bit of the "not always with it/there mom" who has a view of her son that there is no possible way that he could be ever doing anything wrong combined with the reality that you had a patient who probably wasn't very compliant throughout treatment (ortho bands + brackets themselves don't cause decay by themselves afterall) and that doesn't even address what type of ortho case he was to start with (simple class I crowding? Major Class III who realistically should be an orthognathic surgery case that maybe the parents didn't want? Congenitally missing multiple teeth??, etc)

 

[jda02624]

Both parties are stupid.

So you're saying the orthodontist is stupid with absolutely no details on this case?
It is always best to avoid throwing a colleague under the bus without knowing all the facts. I recommend you use this advice in your practice.

 

[DrJeff]

So you're saying the orthodontist is stupid with absolutely no details on this case?
It is always best to avoid throwing a colleague under the bus without knowing the all facts. I recommend you use this advice in your practice.

Great advice!!

I can't count the number of times where I've looked in a mouth at some "interesting" existing restoration and thought TO MYSELF "what the %^&* was that doc thinking/doing when they did this??" and then when I go to work on that patient in that same area (since of course we all think that we're superior in clinical skills to our colleagues 😉🙄😀 ) just to find out that say when the noise of the handpiece starts that the patient totally freaks out, or that they can't open their mouths for more than say 1 minute, or some other variable that can completely affect the type of work that one can deliver, but yet might not be apparent on a quick view of the basic circumstances.

All too often the old addage "there's 2 sides to every story, the one that someone tells you and then the whole story" is very true!

 

[Stacker]

So you're saying the orthodontist is stupid with absolutely no details on this case?
It is always best to avoid throwing a colleague under the bus without knowing all the facts. I recommend you use this advice in your practice.

The orthodontist wasn't a licensed orthodontist when he operated on the patient. I swear this whole interview waiting game is making me incredibly negative lately.