Health Benefits Center

Why didn't they recommend a crown & retainer in the first place?

I had braces many years ago and had nice teeth. About 4 years after having them removed, my wisdom teeth came in and pushed some back together and they are very crooked again – however it’s only about 3 teeth total that are not aligned.

I recently began seeing a new dentist. He put a crown on one front tooth (it was very discolored from fluoride and misshaped as well) and then he is using a clear retainer to move the really crooked one in front in to the right place. He left a little gap in between them when he did the crown so that the crooked one will have room to move in to place.

This is going to cost me much less money that having braces on again and it will take much less time (a month) for the tooth to move, PLUS I don’t have to wear those ugly metal things on my teeth AT ALL… and then we can put a veneer on the last tooth. My question is, why don’t more dentist/orthodontists go this route if they only have a couple of teeth unaligned? I have had several dentists recommend that I get braces again (not happening, I am too old & I’ve already worn them once & hated them) but since this route is so much quicker and cheaper, why didn’t they recommend this in the first place?