Hard Core Metal

I'm embarking on a new adventure - braces! For the tooths, not the legs. I had a consultation this morning with an orthodontist that I really liked (actually, I had two consultations, one with a DDS that I liked, one with a DDS that I did not like). The cost is do-able, insurance will cover $2K of it (wow), and I'm looking at an 18 month committment. Sounds reasonable to me! The only glitch I see right now is that DDS1 said there was no need to pull teeth; DDS2 said we'd need to pull up to 4 teeth. Hello, how many teeth do I have in my mouth total???? 32???? Pull out 12.5% of my teeth?!?!?! But aside from the obvious discomfort of having bones pulled out of ones head, my main concern is just the discrepancy in diagnoses. Was DDS1 telling me what he thought I wanted to hear, and in fact my teeth will go crooked again later because we didn't pull teeth? Is DDS2 eager for blood and gore? Would DDS2's job be easier if we pulled teeth? I just want good care - ok, I want great care. I want a beautiful office with friendly staff and a doctor I like who has good bedside manner. I want to understand what is going on and I don't want false hopes.
So I emailed the technician at DDS1 and reported the findings of DDS2. I asked that DDS1 revisit my file with this in mind and let me know if he sees anything he didn't catch the first time. And I tried to frame it in the context that I need to calculate how much money to put in my flex spending account for 2008 - obviously, pulling teeth isn't going to be free.
I have to submit my final allocations Monday, so hopefully I'll get a reply soon. Figure I'll call in 2 days if I don't get a message back. Here's hoping that DDS1 is just so much more progressive with orthodontia than DDS2 and can achieve long-lasting results without pulling teeth!