Early braces? Any dentists/orthodontists about

[Kimberflop]

Hi,

My daughter is 9.5 and has lost nearly all of her baby teeth/ has almost a full set of adult teeth (maybe 1 or 2 left max). They're a mess! The front ones stick out (overjet), the bottom ones stick back, (no dummy, just bad luck) she has a gap between the front two etc etc. Our NHS dentist has said she would 'definitely' qualify for NHS braces (I know she still has to be assessed etc) and that she'd need 'proper braces').

My question is around timing - and private dentistry as an alternate option. I understand she would be on a NHS wait list - maybe for 9-12 months depending, or perhaps longer. Is that wait likely to make any difference to the outcome - I want her to get the right results with the least amount of discomfort, for the least amount of time. My parents have offered for her to have private work done - but I'm worried that if we do that, they'll over-intervene (more money for the practice of course) and she'll end up with more treatment for longer.

Would you get a private consult/choose a private option for a 9.5 yr old in these circumstances?

Hopeful bump

My daughter was first referred at a similar age and was actually seen quite quickly at the hospital as she had extra teeth and a number of other things going on. They have taken a wait and see approach after a lot of investigations, to see what happens as she grew. She still needs intervention but much less so now that her jaw is bigger, so it seems to have paid off. It may be worth having a private consultation and see what they say.

Hi, where we live nhs braces wait is 3 years and they have to have all their adult teeth before treatment starts. We went private for my son as the wait would make him 18. They costs us just under £4K

Good timing

My 9 year old is getting a removable wire thing tomorrow to push back his protruding front tooth

He had an extra tooth that pushed his front big tooth out, so he got that taken out about a year ago

The force of his lips did push the front one back a mm or so, but his orthodontist was more than happy to give him a wiggle on with the front one

Rest of his teeth are fine, the wire won't completely solve his problems but he'll have it on until his 2 last baby teeth come out (they're wobbly anyway) and then he'll have his fixed appliance

Get her on the NHS waiting list as it's likely to be far longer than 6-12 months, Ours was 2.5 years and DD had braces fitted when she was 12.5.

Her teeth look amazing 12 months on.

No need to go private in my opinion, we thought about it but glad we didn't, we still went to the same clinic we would have paid for.

My eldest was on the waiting list for about 3 years (not helped by covid), but got her NHS braces a month after she turned 13.

Youngest is 9.5 and has one baby tooth left so when we saw our dentist last month she referred her for NHS braces too. The dentist did say they tend not to fit them earlier than 12/13 even if baby teeth are lost early because their faces and jaws are still growing and developing a lot at this age.