To be fair to the dentists, they've probably saved a few of my teeth, and my mouth doesn't feel as bad as it once did. Unfortunately my mouth still doesn't feel good, either.

I've had quite a few people look at this problem. What I can tell you is this: most general dentists look at the x-rays (like they care what I say, I'm just a silly patient, of course) and conclude that my caries have been addressed and I should be fine. Maybe they think I'm a hypochondriac, who knows.

Orthodontists analyze my malocclusion and conclude that it is quite considerable, requiring at least one, if not more teeth to be extracted; this in addition to two years of torture and risk of dental caries with their over-rated, low-tech orthodontic appliances.

My teeth are not in the best of shape, but I think that they are not so bad that I should need to endure great hardship to recover from my dental pains. I'm not seeking perfection here, I just want to cut my long term risks a little bit, and get my mouth feeling good again.

As I've said, many general dentists would have me think I have no major pain-causing problems, and orthodontists would have me think that I would have to endure a boatload of crap from them in order to feel good again.

I suspect that there might be other options that would work reasonably well, and cause me much less grief than the alternatives of non-treatment or full-blown orthodontics. So if you've got any good ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Here's a link to a flickr page where I have uploaded recent mouth and x-ray pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30404992@N08/

I do have higher resolution versions of these images, flickr just doesn't go higher than 1024x768. And I apologize for not shaving the day of the pictures. ;)