Dr. Lee's been my orthodontist ever since I went for braces back in 1998 to his Cupertino office (he also has a Fremont one and he alternates days btw them). He does both children and adult orthodontics and he has great bedside manner, follow-up care has been easy (twice in a decade isn't bad), he does excellent work, and the lab he uses does quality work.
I've had braces for ~1.5years to the satisfaction of my parents who had issues with my huge bunny gap and my bottom teeth that looked like a drunk sailor's (no offense to drunks or sailors). Several of parents' friends' kids had had good results going to him. Besides, everyone else in 6th grade had retainers so I was happy to join the "in"-crowd. Haha... I was so excited when he said that I needed both top and bottom braces.
I think it was a flat rate for the braces work, so all the follow-up adjustments was included. That was good because I was probably one of the worst patients ever. I would eat gum, chewy candies (starbursts!! skittles! taste the rainbow =) ), and hard candy...which was everything one was told NOT to do, and it would cause the metal thingies to pop off my teeth. He would just patiently stick them back on every time. I also hated brushing my teeth. It took one of his horror-teeth-pics-to-scare-kids-into-brushing-pics to make me start brushing.
One of the nifty things in his office is a couple sinks where you go to brush your teeth (he has a drawer of new toothbrushes) every time before he takes a look in your mouth.
After my teeth neatly lined up like ducks in a row, I was fitted for retainers which I dutifully wore at night (usually...sometimes...often..). I think he must have done a really good job because not only do people comment on my smile all the time, I have also had dentists that have asked me to model my smile for their office books (and if its other dentists, then they must know quality ^^). People also seem to want to tell me about their crappy-orthodontist stories.
Follow up work with retainers:
Back in ~2001 I managed to pop the wire out of my retainers in the clear translucent pink area and I was really sad. (Seems that retainers don't care to be sat on). He said to come in because if I had simply broken the wire, he would be able to just weld it together. Unfort, it wasn't :P so I needed a new mold/fit. For this one I had it done in the Fremont office.
Retainer life was good and well until 2010 when my wisdom teeth started to grow in. So I stopped wearing them. =P And my retainers stopped fitting after a year of not wearing them. (whoopsie)
So this month (July 2011), my mom made me go in cuz my bunny teeth gap was somewhat returning and the office ma'am still remembered her ^^. The office ma'am Sophia (I've been in the midwest for too long ^^) asked me why I stopped wearing them. I said they didn't really fit. She asked me why I didn't go in when that happened. ::hides head with shame in sand::
Oh, and as a note for people who haven't been to the Cupertino office in a while, the office has moved. Its no longer off of pacifica/torre, but is further down Torre across from the city hall/library.
So, I went in today and the doc remembered me and showed me the pics from the first time I went in. (Aww, cute lil me, and dang, he keeps all his records). He checked out the top and bottom fit. My top mold was alright, so he fixed the wires and they fit perfectly!!! =) [my mom went into a "I told you so" moment. heck, who still has their mom go with them to the dentist. :P ]
But unfort, my bottom jaw had shifted/grown/widened/some-dental-thing-I-don't-know-but-which-he-tried-to-explain, so I needed a new mold done. [my mom went into a "my child is an idiot" moment]
With my wisdom teeth semi-in, and my habit of chewing hard candies that chipped a molar (and is in pending-life-watching-stage with my normal dentist), he gave me some advice on how my wisdom teeth would affect the rest of my teeth and stuff. He is also making the lower retainer stretch further back in case my poor chipped molar decides to go to the tooth fairy, and I need my wisdom tooth to grow in to replace that molar and the longer lower retainer will prevent the bottom tooth from growing too tall while I wait for the wisdom tooth to come in. (props for you if you actually understood what's going on in my mouth) I appreciate his foresight/care/plan.
Languages: English, Mandarin, Taiwanese
Moola: no credit cards (which I think is a good because the %-age that CC eat up would just get passed on to the patient, and I'd rather not contribute to inflation by using a CC)
Appt times: Within the week in my experience.
Entertainment: fish mobiles and pretty seashore tiles on the ceiling. read more