How do you organise orthodontist appointments?

[elliejjtiny]

Ds is 12 and his orthodontist is over an hour's drive away, depending on the time of day, last week it took 3 hours. We aren't at the stage when he is having braces yet, hopefully we will have an appointment to discuss it in the autumn. But i just can't work out how we can navigate it all when we have to go up there every 6 weeks for adjustments without significant help from grandparents who are struggling with their mobility more and more as time goes on. We have other dc who we need to get to school/college as well. Also concerned about the amount of school that will be missed and no doubt the school won't be happy either.

Are you in a very rural area and is this your nearest orthodontist ? If so then they will be used to organising appointments and perhaps they can make these at times that will be better for you.eg 5pm.

re his education - most of their patients will be older (say 14-16 ) and their missing school is on obviously more important than for a 12 year old , so they will get priority.

What was your plan for travel when you were referred there and agreed to his course of treatment?

He isn't the closest orthodontist but he is the closest one who is trained in the condition ds has. He used to do a clinic at our local hospital but that stopped when ds was about 7. Ds was referred before he was born when the clinic was still at our local hospital 10 minutes drive away. At the time we never considered the clinic at our local hospital would stop. We also didn't consider how dependant our older dc would still be. When ds was referred, our now 17 year old was only 5 so we didn't know then that he would have SEN that would prevent him from getting to college on his own.

Wow it was bad enough for me when my daughter’s orthodontist was 20 something minutes from home. A pain when I was already at work a further 20 minutes away and usually resulted in a half day. I’m lucky I have a very flexible employer but it must be an utter nightmare for some people and if you have more than one child with a couple of years age gap you can be doing it continuously for years!

All you can do is suck it up though surely? If he needs this treatment in this specific place. Is there anyone else who can help you out?

Thankfully none of my other dc have this medical condition so if any of them need braces they can be seen locally. Thankfully dh is self employed which helps.

Most of the appointments are short, and only every 8 weeks once you get going. DD1's was near her school though and she didn't have them until she was about 15 in the end so sometimes she went on her own after the first few. Same with DD2.

If it’s NHS I did find the booking very inflexible sadly. Also, after an appointment the orthodontist would ask to see them again in six weeks, only to book at reception where they’d say the first available appointment was 10 weeks’ time! Never did understand how they didn’t communicate to each other in the same building. Unfortunately they did miss quite a chunk of the school day, hopefully you can get afternoon appointments?

We’ve had to navigate youngest DS through this in years 8 to 11; had to go to specialist centre due to nature of what was wrong and needed surgery initially. Explained to school who essentially had to accept it as medical condition and gave authorised absence for appointments; tried to fit appointments in half terms and school holidays or on sports days or during other less essential lessons when possible, had to manage around GCSE exams as well, but despite the every 6 to 8 weeks requirement we did get to agree appointments around commitments to some degree. Ensured DS caught up school work that had been missed where necessary.
Work was a challenge- DH and I alternated and took half day annual leave or negotiated to make time back. Still another 12 months or so to go but in the last year or so during school holidays we’ve dropped him off for some appointments, he’s gone in on his own and caught the bus back. We’ve just gone in every few to catch up on what’s happening. He really needed it doing as it would have caused him lifelong issues otherwise, but will be glad once it’s finished. It’s not easy, but I have a friend whose child has multiple serious health conditions and can see this was relatively trivial in comparison!

We have a similar issue. Appointments are every 12 weeks, which helps, so we try to use school holidays where possible.

If it’s term time, we book as late in the day as possible.

Is getting there by train possible, when he’s feeling a bit more confident about it?

Appointments themselves only take about 5 minutes - it’s a long old trip for that! End result is worth it though.