Orthodontia on the Cheap

Several years ago, Rai, your Mom and I were in Vietnam. In Hanoi, we rented some bikes. We paid only a dollar per day for the bike rental. Despite the low cost, we had high expectations for quality and service so when the chain on my bike kept falling off of the rings, I was extremely upset mostly because each time this happened, I would lunge forward off of the seat and scrape my shins on the pedals. After a half day of this, we returned to our hotel to mend my wounds. Attempting to lock the bikes to a pole, I encountered another problem: the bike lock was defective.
The broken lock was the straw that broke the camel's back. I raised the chain high in the air and whipped it down with all my might. Repeatedly, I lashed at the bike with the chain until, at one hit, the lock portion of the chain broke off, flew through the air, and hit me in the lip. I could taste blood. My teeth had cut my lip. There was more, my front tooth had been chipped. You can only imagine how happy I was at that moment.
Over the years, that chipped tooth has turned until, about a year ago, I noticed that it had probably rotated 30 degrees off-center. I made the decision to see an orthodontist to have the crooked tooth repaired. Now, a year and some braces later, my teeth are straight once more.
Why tell you this, Rai? Well, the same wonderful benefits that give your Mom only a few weeks of maternity leave, give our family only $500 for orthodontic work. Anyone familiar with orthodontic costs knows that $500 is just a drop in the bucket of total costs. So, that $500 and a bigger chunk of our own money is now gone. Our family now has $0 in orthodontic benefits.
You'd better hope that you have some straight teeth, Rai. Since the full amount of these benefits has been used we now have to consider alternative ways to get your teeth straightened if that is ever necessary.
We discovered one alternative in Golden Gate Park during the weekend. A huge family area was set up in one of the meadows. Reading the signs, we saw that the entire event had been sponsored and funded by Image Orthodontics. Wow -- something offered free to us by an orthodontic office! We'll take it!
And, we did. We joined the dozens of other families taking advantage of the slides, climbing wall, ball pit and more. As we tumbled at the end of the giant slide, I thought, "if we hit the dirt just right, we could get your teeth straightened right here." Kind of an unorthodox solution to orthodontics, but much cheaper and it could actually work! Thank you, Image Orthodontics!