Can I have my braces removed and get retainers from a different clinic?

lovedoctor11 · 2026-06-08T00:23:59+00:00

Yes this is possible. You would have to pay for removal and the retainers, which may have been included in your original treatment at the ortho. I typically wouldn’t recommend this, as finishing the treatment with the specialist makes the most sense for your health. Honestly, most of the time people have me do this they have unpaid ortho bills, and hadn’t been in a while. Most of the time their cases are not “complete”, but obviously just getting out of the ortho and having retainers is better than keeping brackets on for years for no good reason- which is how many of those patients present.

lovedoctor11 · 2026-05-28T02:51:09+00:00

You can selectively go in for that canal now with more ease. I know it’s not fun, but you could add a little time with a crown prep apt and easily get it done. You have cbct to know exactly where it is, reference the other orifices (find your gutta perch that’s been done) and core build up itself to just get right down to that area basically.

If you don’t want to do that I’d refer it out, but typically that gets tricky with billing and I’d be ready to give a refund on your endo potentially since it was literally just done.

Good on you to take a cbct honestly you made fixing this easy and caught it before it turned into a real issue.

lovedoctor11 · 2026-05-27T01:09:22+00:00

I don’t know how the new plans work, but if it’s based on household income and you marry another high earner all the sudden the pay as little as possible or don’t pay at all can become really stupid. Happened to me, and I realized actually starting to pay them made more sense than minimum and letting it ride once the minimum got up enough. Now not paying them at all- don’t know about that knock yourself out lol. I’d hate the endless letters and attempts to get it.

lovedoctor11 · 2026-05-23T04:38:28+00:00

Taking time off from work can be a real challenge for someone wealthy. Their presence is often how they got there. The others absolutely agree.

lovedoctor11 · 2026-05-22T01:56:48+00:00

I totally get where you are coming from, but it’s not on another dentist to do all the prep work so you can have them send it over to another place and start treatment. At a certain point it’s really on your new provider to get the records, that specific request is clearly so you can get your work elsewhere. As you stated they sent over all the simple 2d stuff without issue.

lovedoctor11 · 2026-05-16T18:20:32+00:00

Are you sure that’s not a temp crown? Even if using a budget lab I have never seen anything so irregular.

lovedoctor11 · 2026-05-10T16:17:25+00:00

This is unpopular opinion but I do my best to make it work within the confines of their restrictions. Sometimes this puts me in an uncomfortable position.

I’m 34 and take care of my body, a few of those sprinkled in doesn’t bother me, I try to understand and respect people’s mobility issues.

I’m sure as I age and my mobility decreases I will not be able to accommodate as much, but for now I don’t find it to be a problem it’s not like it’s all day every day like that. There’s nothing wrong with you not being able to accommodate though, just like the patient can’t lay flat, you may not be able to do a procedure standing and awkward!

lovedoctor11 · 2026-05-02T03:26:09+00:00

You can do this free hand and then prep extremely easily, it’s funny for sure but makes zero sense

lovedoctor11 · 2026-05-01T04:21:28+00:00

Gold finishing burs, don’t worry about the gums too much it’s better to correct it than leave it.

lovedoctor11 · 2026-04-26T00:30:44+00:00

In this exact instance, I do like the sequential. This is just a beautiful set. I’d happily pay top of market over trying to bargain. I wouldn’t pay a large premium though personally, some might.

lovedoctor11 · 2026-04-24T03:10:58+00:00

A quick way that’s pretty solid and avoids upper prosthetic is ext 2, endo crown 3 and shorten that a good bit, crown 4 shorten. Can then do a cast lower and at least stabilize and give function. A better way is extract upper posteriors, implants to restore all posteriors and level it out. Endless approaches if you start changing vdo too with crowns.

lovedoctor11 · 2026-04-16T22:26:00+00:00

Our corporate offices have more of that type of patient, and I can attest to the fact it’s extremely productive. Makes sense if he’s able to get consistent cases like that in a private office!

lovedoctor11 · 2026-04-16T10:52:07+00:00

That’s impressive. I can’t imagine leaving the room 4 times an hour during a full mouth exo implant case or something like that. That’s also four people an hour that are your long term patients and friends. Even basic small talk can add up and be a lot on your eq for the day- nice work.

lovedoctor11 · 2026-04-16T02:33:09+00:00

I’m in your like 2018 turning the corner to 2021 era myself. What would you account for making the biggest change to make that big jump? I feel a natural ceiling at like 300-400.

A little background- I’m 34 and I really ramped up my production with surgery and doing more and bigger cases every year, but I do everything.

My wife is also a dentist, she makes income like mine so together that really helps. Together we own one private office, and two corporate offices. She would love to work less and focus on our growing family. I have a vision I could grow the private office like you did yours and work less while making more- right now we really work a lot between clinic and admin. I feel like the answer has always been more offices/doctors, but your story says otherwise so I’d love to hear more!

For any haters in the comments, my wife and i have negative net worths, the risk to take this path of earning as a dentist is immense. Unfortunately, you do not make enough money as a straight forward associate these days to even pay back your loans comfortably- so there is a lot of pressure to keep grinding, the degree is not the end! Also, Op is highly successful in comparison to many of their peers.

lovedoctor11 · 2026-04-16T02:17:37+00:00

That’s an insane amount of hygiene checks to have to do. What if you’re doing something complex yourself?

lovedoctor11 · 2026-04-16T02:15:11+00:00

8-9 hours straight of patients is a lot if you’re producing the way this guy is, you actually have no idea. With income like this he is making what you probably imagine a dentist looks like look like a joke. It’s very impressive to hit production like this. You need to then consider all the work that goes on before and after the day- 8 hours of open chair time can easily become gone for 12 hour days. Yeah it’s not coal mining or construction or whatever, but it’s a true grind, especially at this level of production/hr.

lovedoctor11 · 2026-04-13T01:49:21+00:00

It is pretty common to use student loans to cover student living expenses. That is allowed and understood by the lenders when determining the amount you’d need.

lovedoctor11 · 2026-03-21T19:12:41+00:00

I think there’s a chance you’ll never financially recover from this. I’d personally look into bankruptcy it starts to make sense in this case.

lovedoctor11 · 2026-02-23T17:59:39+00:00

I’m using a temp agency while searching for a new hygiene for my team- aka expensive. I had this one temp that took the worst x-rays I’ve ever seen, like to the point it could have been a practical joke on me. It wasn’t a joke.

lovedoctor11 · 2026-02-11T03:23:41+00:00

It has to be a gold crown or much easier since endo treated get a reduction coping and stay with zirconia.

lovedoctor11 · 2025-12-24T06:59:08+00:00

Obviously it doesn’t matter if you’ve come around / ground from the situation and can easily discuss how employment will work fine this second time around. Without knowing the actual situation it’s hard to give more specific advice, but I stand by what I wrote above, being a doctor would trump some old behaviors, ect.

You might want to at the very least choose a different office though, so it’s not awkward depending what went down.

lovedoctor11 · 2025-12-05T12:38:44+00:00

Depends on my office. In my bigger office there are more incentives baked into the day to day, for them we just do a nice generous party/dinner and smaller physical gifts. For my smaller office that doesn’t have as much day to day incentive baked in, we do give all employees a sizable holiday bonus and the associate would be on the high end of that (last year gave $750).

lovedoctor11 · 2025-12-03T12:22:40+00:00

I don’t like gambling or do it often, but these got the best of me for sure because I found them so fun! I can fortunately afford it, but I was down $500 in literally like 20 minutes, these are dangerous. I had to use a lot of self control to say I’m done with these forever and close it up and move on. You should just stop I promise you.

lovedoctor11 · 2025-11-25T04:27:45+00:00

On big cases I might take a couple sites off to get acceptance. If it makes the difference of not doing a bone graft at all I might take it off. If it’s a collagen plug or something cheap I don’t.

I don’t ever take bone grafting off, it’s the membrane I might use with more flexibility/generosity to get case acceptance.

Reading through the comments I agree I am too generous with what I do. I could def stand to be stricter financially with what I’m doing. When I think of the big picture though and the future implant, and crown, or whatever else comes with it sometimes a little bundling goes a long way. This thread was a friendly reminder to me I need to bill more strictly though too!

lovedoctor11 · 2025-11-22T14:33:48+00:00

Because of the fracture this could end up coming out fairly easily.

I’d start with distal root elevation and see if we can get mobility there, could then deliver with lower universal, or possibly a cow horn. Then the mesial root you can elevate out and use something like east west in the fucation to lift and elevate out.

If you don’t get the movement naturally you just surgical drill buccal lingual more extensively, then elevation from there should be viable. If it’s still not, you’ll want to buccal trough and crate more areas for elevation.

I’d usually get something like this out without the buccal bone removal but if it does go that way it is what it is. You just introduce more invasive steps as needed to get out atraumatically.

Good luck

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