am i being unreasonable about retainer prices

[val30]

my daughter has only had her retainer for just under 6 months and already it need replacing due to a crack in it, the orthodontist is charging me £65 to replace just one retainer

am i being unreasonable in thinking this price is extortion

and does anyone know of any way i could get help with the cost of this

[MyLastDuchess]

Why does it have a crack in it?

Mine just broke after being trodden on, but it was 5 years old. It should reasonably be expected to last a lot longer than 6 months with normal wear and tear.

The cost sounds about right to me (mine was about 110 euros five years ago), but if it has not been accidentally damaged then it should not have cracked after only six months of normal use.

[Softlysoftly]

Wtf is a retainer? You hear it in US tv all the time but never heard of it here.

[dexter73]

My dd has retainers too and AFAIK you only get one set paid for by the NHS so if anything happens to them after that then you do have to pay for the next set.

[dexter73]

A retainer is a brace that you wear at night after your braces have been removed to keep the teeth in the place they have moved to, and to stop them moving back to their original position.

[Softlysoftly]

Ah thank you

[Mandy2003]

A retainer is a wire brace on a plate (like a traditional denture plate). DS had one as opposed to having 4 teeth out to get train-tracks fitted. But the plate kept snapping and when we took it to a denture repair lab to see if it could be mended cheaper than £65 for a replacement, the lab guy said it was inevitable that it would break, the plate was under far too much stress to stay in one piece.

And the orthodontist was unbelievably rude, blaming DS every time it broke. So we gave up with orthodontists and he still has one crooked tooth. I'd hoped that as he got bigger the teeth would shuffle round to take up space in a bigger mouth, and they have to some extent but not 100%.

[dexter73]

My dd's retainers are just plastic like this.

[Mandy2003]

Aaah, this is what DS had!

[Mandy2003]

Doh, link doesn't work - anyway, it's pink with wires sticking out!

[BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack]

£65 sounds quite cheap to me, I thought they were far more than that!

[AKissIsNotAContract]

That is cheap, it probably only covers the lab fee so you are getting the orthodontist's time for free.

[dexter73]

That is the standard price for an NHS retainer. It is what I would pay too.