Orthodontist - nhs vs private any advice?

[DiddlySquatty]

Dd12.5 in yr 8 has been referred by dentist. She’s sort of got her canines coming down not in line, kind of protruding because the baby teeth are still there.
There’s a well thought of clinic where we live that does nhs and private.
Got a letter from them saying it’s 6-9 month wait for an nhs appointment.

Anyone know if we could pay for initial appointment and then opt to go nhs?
Presumably one benefit of private would be a shorter wait. Might there also be more options in terms of more discreet looking braces? I wonder if you can ‘top up’ nhs service or if it’s fully one or the other 🤔
And has anyone got an idea how much private costs? I guess we’re taking £1000s rather than £100s....?
Dd has recently entered a painfully self conscious stage and is very low in general.
I think ideally it would be good to get on with the braces ASAP.
Any experiences or expertise welcome!

I’m amazed that it’s only 6-8 months.

My daughter was at the top of the list when Corona hit. Not heard a word since. Don’t k ow when they’ll get done

6 - 9 months is good for nhs.

It was a 4 year wait for ds1 so we went private. Seriously spendy though.

Yes it is £1000's. We went private with DS as his teeth although goofy were a millimetre off being eligible for the NHS. We have paid £3700 but he has ceramic instead of metal braces (metal were £3400 though). He has had a good experience though with no pain really. Being private we can get appts outside of school hours which helps as he goes back every 6 weeks.

That's a really good wait time op. We waited almost 2 years for Dd1. Private cost depends how much needs to be done but you could easily be looking at 2k.

You can do it on finance but we got a 0% credit card as the interest on the financing seemed a bit steep to us. We just make sure to pay the same as we would have done on the finance deal so we know it will be less than the 5 years we were quoted! It's £80 a month.

6-9 months is nothing for NHS and shes only 12. Just wait

You can either go private or nhs, its not fair to pay to skip the nhs wait list. Private might offer more discreet options but tbh your traditional train tracks are the best and theres very little embarassment these days having braces as a teenager

Yes absolutely thousands. My friend paid around 3k for her dd's.

My ds had fantastic treatment on the nhs but the problem has to be bad enough for them to fund it. Do you know whether your dd's is bad enough?

@DishRanAwayWithTheSpoon

6-9 months is nothing for NHS and shes only 12. Just wait

You can either go private or nhs, its not fair to pay to skip the nhs wait list. Private might offer more discreet options but tbh your traditional train tracks are the best and theres very little embarassment these days having braces as a teenager

Why isn't it fair? If the OP is willing and can afford to go private, that's absolutely fine. It would also mean that someone who isn't able to go private would be able to take their place on the waiting list. I'm not saying that OP should go private for that reason, but it's a nice thought.

I paid £1800 for DS privately: he was very borderline and wasn’t eligible for NHS and his teeth look amazing.

DD’s teeth were truly awful sorry but they were. She waited about 18 months for NHS and started just before she was 13. She had twin blocks, hideous but incredibly effective for 6 months and regular metal tracks for about 15 months. It should have been less but Covid slowed it down. I’m pleased we didn’t go private as the result is looking brilliant

I would wait the 6-9 months - it isnt too long to wait and she is in year 8. We saw the NHS orthodontist and to be honest were not impressed (know this is just our individual experience) so we had a private consultation and were much happier with the less invasive advice and subsequent treatment - my son was in year 10.

Sorry Dish, I just understood what you meant about skipping the NHS queue in relation to the OP 's post. Literally just as I posted. I've been working too hard.....

Ps: DS private treatment was metal train tracks. I can’t see any reason to pay extra for discreet ones when 90% of their peers will be walking around with a mouth full of metal so nothing unusual

No, others might be able to confirm but my understanding is that the dentist has ticked certain boxes to refer to nhs but at the initial appointment they will assess if she definitely meets the criteria?
Maybe I’ll phone and check re. wait - some of those times people have experienced sound awful. But I wonder if it’s 6-9 months for the initial appointment then further with after that for treatment?

I’ve had three DC with braces! We paid for one and it was about 2.5k so not cheap. The NHS braces are fine there is no point paying for more expensive ones - even for the one we paid it was the same as NHS ones. If the wait is only 6 mth I’d wait unless they are going to to a palate expansion - my youngest DC needed this and sooner is best.

I had this year's ago, but it was going to be done at the dentist. I was all numbed up and then the dentist out the thing they use to pull out the tooth and it fell out. Never went wobbly though and no attempt to wiggle it failed.

I doubt you can bypass things by paying to check NHS, the NHS orthodontist will need to check for themselves.
You could pay to see whether they think you'll meet the NHS criteria and if they say you won't then continue with private.

I wouldn't worry about discreet braces, in 6-9 months half her friends will have NHS braces too.

One advantage of private is possibly getting more convenient appointment times. DD's orthodontist reserves post 3pm appointments for private patients. (Not a problem for us, as we just looked at DD's timetable and found appointments in PE, French or DT ).

DD's actual treatment has taken 3 years, but we lost 4+ months due to the pandemic and another 2 when DD's brace broke but she didn't realise.

Ours had NHS. The only difference was the choice of appointment times. NHS had more appointments in school day. Our eldest needed long term treatment from year 3 or 4 until about a month before the end of year 11. Never a problem with teasing at it was entirely normal for them all to have braces by about age 12.

Thanks for the input - hasn’t considered appointment times. I work school hours and have a term time contract so don’t have any annual leave as such to use in term. Lots of school hours appointments would be not impossible, but tricky.

Although with the potential costs, if that’s all it comes down to it would be cheaper to take unpaid leave!!!

I just paid £3000 for my DD. Dentist referred her months ago to NHS but we haven't even received an acknowledgment letter. My daughter was getting sadder by the day so I just paid up.

I think I’ll ask about wait times after the initia appointment. If it’s not much more of a wait after that we will wait for nhs I think. Also might give time for the baby teeth to fall out of their own accord

@shartsi sorry to hear your daughter was getting down about it, how old is she?

She is 11.

Our dentist wouldn't refer until all baby teeth had fallen out. Add a 4 year wait list on top and I felt we didn't have a lot of choice tbh.