Abby, Zoë and Enzo

Comments: New Dentist Consultation

September 17^th 2008

New Dentist Consultation

Irene had called around to some other dentists in the area and found a woman, Doctor Andrea, in the MAG Shopping center who works with the Damon Braces system.  We began walking the mile there at 2:45 as the doctor started seeing patients for consults at 3:00p.m.  The cost of the consultation was R$60 = US$32.60 and she sat with me talking for probably 40 minutes then she invited Chris in, he'd been in the waiting room with the girls where they could watch cartoons, to see if he had any questions to add.  This woman's price for the work was much more in line with what we'd expected to hear when we first decided to look into getting braces here.  The total cost for the metal Damon braces  was R$1,100 = US$598 paying all at once you get a 10% discount when you pay the full price instead of installments R$1,200. Ceramic clear braces are more expensive at R$1,550 = US$842 with the discount, but the only difference with them is the price and the aesthetic, and since I am not subject to high school peer pressure and teasing, I should be able to handle the more visible metal braces and save the US$250.  The prices cover the visit to clean my teeth and get the tops put on, then go in a week or two to get the bottoms put on, then have at least one more visit to change wires.  She doesn't have the system in stock there at her office and will have to order it, so we told her to go ahead and order it and hopefully in a week or so I will begin the process of getting my teeth straightened.  Abby and Zoë are really intrigued by this, especially after looking at the brochures from the other dentist of the before and after pictures of people who had used this system.  Chris has a policy about checking prices and quotes at more than one place.  He rarely makes a big purchase without doing this type of research, sometimes it takes months, like when he was purchasing his laptop.  He made sure I called the dentists in NH to get quotes on the complete US cost, and the cost to continue the care and system there, so that we would be able to estimate what the total cost would be.  Thank goodness he insisted that we did enough research and found another doctor whose price was more reasonable.  That one extra phone call to another orthodontist saved R$4400 = US$2391.  Can you imagine the first orthodontist wanted to charge more for the braces than the hospital + doctor cost to deliver a child?  Simply unbelievable.

Abby @ 4 years, 9 months, 2 days
Zoë @ 4 years, 9 months, 2 days
Enzo expected in 7 days
News posted by Laura at 7:56 PM | Comment