So my Colombian wife needs her first orthodontist appointment

[Ryan76 46]

My wife got her braces put on about 3 years ago in Bogota, Colombia, and she was told by her previous orthodontist that she just needed a few more appointments to tighten and then the braces could come off. But from what i've heard from my wife over the years about her appointments, they do things quite a bit differently down there. I know at one point they even extracted a couple of "side" molars and then pulled her rear molars closer. I know i never had anything like that done when i had braces.

Anyway, I called today to get my wife into her first appointment because we finally got her put on my Insurance policy (we were just married about a month ago), and the new orthodontist is asking for a "waiver" sheet from her hold orthodontist, and they say they need to know what type of braces they are, and "where the orthodontist was going" with her treatment (?). They also needed to make sure she was paid up with her previous orthodontist and didn't owe him a bunch of money (she doesn't).

She has nothing at all from her old orthodontist, and I just called her (my wife) and she seems to think it will be really difficult (if not near impossible) to get information emailed / faxed from her previous orthodontist. I'm not sure why it would be THAT big of an issue, but we'll talk more about it tonight.

Maybe we should've planned ahead better and had her bring documents form her ortho, but with all the immigration documents, flights, planning a wedding, and her obviously moving and saying her goodbyes, the orthodontist thing just never entered our minds. I just sort of figured we could make an appointment to get her braces tightened, then a few more appointments and they could come off...no big deal.

Her appointment is in 1 week so we need to immediately start trying to obtain some of this info. I don't know what else to do other than have her call her old ortho and having him fax and/or email everything he possibly can, or at least send an email that says she doesn't owe any money.

Anyway, I'm just curious if anyone else has been through this process and can give us any tips or words of advice. How big of a deal is it if you can't get ANY real info from the previous orthodontist?

[Nikita2Charles 32]

I would think maybe the dentist is thinking she's from here or her previous dentist is local, I think a good shot would be to bring her passport to the dentist showing the work was done out of the country, with her entry date that might convince them, it doesn't make any sense they would try to hold her foreign expenses yes or not against her.

[X Factor 1,112]

I would think maybe the dentist is thinking she's from here or her previous dentist is local, I think a good shot would be to bring her passport to the dentist showing the work was done out of the country, with her entry date that might convince them, it doesn't make any sense they would try to hold her foreign expenses yes or not against her.

. My fiancee will be arriving in 2 days and this is something I will have to do too.

[TBoneTX 45,324]

This exemplifies why bringing along every conceivable record, no matter how seemingly arcane, can pay off, si man. Of course, this is water under the bridge now, and something like this can easily slip through the cracks during a hectic time.

Your orthodontist sounds both conscientious and overly cautious. He wants to know what the treatment plan was, but insisting on the treatment records (and especially the payment records!) is way over the top.

A truly experienced orthodontist would be able to perceive what was being done, and either continue with it or alter the treatment program.

Do you live in a metro area where there might be Latin American-trained dentists or orthodontists who could take a look at your wife and perhaps intercede with the new orthodontist? This might be a happy medium, si man.

Postscript: Side teeth are indeed sometimes pulled for realignment purposes. I only know enough about orthodontics to be dangerous (in other words, I ain't one, no man), but there seem to be different approaches when a patient has cosmetic issues versus skeletal issues.