Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be astounded that we have to pay for braces?!

256 replies

toothyname · 13/01/2011 14:38

(regular with name change!)

My step daughter has just gone to the orthodontics and has been told she needs braces but that NHS wont pay as it's cosmetic.. The cost is over £2000! Has anyone got any experience of this or succesfully challenged it..? Surely good teeth can't be the privilage of wealthy children..??

OP posts:
BreconBeBuggered · 13/01/2011 16:09

AIBU to hope that DS2's gnashers will turn out to be as overcrowded as DS1's? Family history of wonky teeth so it's not as if I'm wishing it on him, exactly.

(picking jaw off floor at Riven's old dentist)

PlentyOfParsnips · 13/01/2011 16:09

I had several teeth out and every sort of brace going when I was a kid. Treatment lasted for 5 years and I bloody hated it. I wish they'd stopped a couple of years earlier when they were onto the cosmetic bit. It hurt a lot. It's left me with beautifully straight teeth but with a dental phobia and little patches of damaged enamel on the outside of several teeth where the train tracks were cemented.

When the dentist said DD might need braces, I chatted with him about whether it was just cosmetic - it was - and so decided against her having them as it was something she wasn't self-conscious about. I think healthy-but-crooked teeth are underrated.

sarah293 · 13/01/2011 16:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

pascoe28 · 13/01/2011 16:12

WimpleOfTheBallet ? excellent name, btw ? there must surely be a limit to the range and type of treatments that are available on the NHS. Sure, no-one wants to have wonky/unattractive teeth?but these are cosmetic matters and not indicative of poor health.

The problem is that people have become used to stamping their feet, getting what they want (and, more to the point, getting someone else to pay for it) and, if there is a danger they won?t get their way, they claim that there is a risk of psychological damage and ?sneak? it in that way.

I appreciate there is a debate to be had about ?rationing? in the NHS and here we are, having that debate.

teenyweenytadpole · 13/01/2011 16:20

Yikes, this thread just prompted me to book a check up for us all! DD age 9 has crooked canines, quite noticeable. The thought of paying upwards of 2k for them to be fixed fills me with despair to be honest. I can see that NHS funds are limited but....yikes!!

Original poster
toothyname · 13/01/2011 16:21

pascoe sorry you are right... paying heaps of tax and NI every month shouldn't entitle me to have treatment for our child that a professional has advised she NEEDS.. what was I thinking.

Oh, and DSDs mother - who refuses to work and claims heaps of money every month wont be paying for it will she oh no.

OP posts:
pascoe28 · 13/01/2011 16:24

toothyname - I fully sympathise at your frustration at paying heaps of tax and NI and apparently getting very little back for it.

I have long held that view...hence my exasperation at people who seek to spend yet more of my tax/NI on frivolous and cosmetic treatments.

The sooner we go fully private, with insurance for the poor paid by the State, the better.

autodidact · 13/01/2011 16:28

I think it's absolutely and utterly disgusting. Goofy misaligned teeth can be a self-esteem sapping horror and it is just wrong to make getting them sorted out dependent on income. Dentistry really is just a load of old crap these days. It's the one service where I really feel we've gone totally backwards. When I were a lass every child I knew got a great free dental service. Nowadays it depends on parents being organised and pushy and/or rich. Appalling and shameful.

TheCrackFox · 13/01/2011 16:32

I quite agree with you autodidact - but then we are probably all children of baby boomers and they can't be expected to pay for anything. They are the chosen ones.

pascoe28 · 13/01/2011 16:32

autodidact - to quote the late, great Eleanor Roosevelt, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

sarah293 · 13/01/2011 16:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

bubbleOseven · 13/01/2011 16:34

Nowadays it depends on parents being organised and pushy and/or rich.

too true!!!

I qualify under the pushy criteria there Grin - my kids were all refused nhs braces so i moved from a nhs dentist to a private dentist who I paid for but who treated the dc on the nhs. He immediately referred them all for braces and all 3 of them now have, or are going to have, braces on the nhs.

I think teeth are a pretty accurate sign of wealth these days. I know I shouldn't watch Jeremy Kyle but some of the teeth on the people there are truly awful, and that's because they're poor, no other reason.

pascoe28 · 13/01/2011 16:37

Riven - the situation you describe in the USA does not chime with that which I had in mind, so I shall attempt not to rise to the bait! {smile]

MadameCastafiore · 13/01/2011 16:40

It's amazing with the way the country is at the moment that people still think there is a bottomless pit of money!

Living in a big house is the preserve of the rich too but hey we can't have it all for free!

sarah293 · 13/01/2011 16:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

bubbleOseven · 13/01/2011 16:44

Riven, here it will be the rich and poor with lovely teeth and the middle classes with "english" mouth.

sarah293 · 13/01/2011 16:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

autodidact · 13/01/2011 16:46

I bet Eleanor Roosevelt didn't have shit wonky teeth, pascoe28.

mackereltaitai · 13/01/2011 16:52

Well, training as a dentist isn't free any more either. I remember having my braces put on took ages, I'm sad but not surprised it costs this much. We had a quote once for a proper joiner to build a wall of cupboards for us and it was £10,000 (which we couldn't afford) - why is £2000 - 3000 so amazing for braces?

It wasn't very long ago that dentists were basically refusing to do NHS work any more because they felt unable to make a living on NHS rates (am not commenting on the rights and wrongs as I don't know the details) - they do have to pay for premises etc. the new contract, including these charges, at least means that IMO it's now a bit easier to find an NHS dentist than it was say 8 years ago, isn't it? I'm probably just lucky that I've had no trouble.

Hate to mention it but check-ups at least remain genuinely free at an NHS dentist with a Tax Credit Exemption (or they do at mine). It's just if you have much done that the charges start.

I wish more British people embraced dental floss as well.

southeastastra · 13/01/2011 16:52

i also bet that it would be alot cheaper to get abroad like most dental treatments these days.

pascoe28 · 13/01/2011 16:53

autodidact - no, but she was married to a guy in a wheelchair who didn't let his disability hold him back.

mackereltaitai · 13/01/2011 16:54

but southeastra, for braces you've got to keep going back again and again. Wouldn't the travel costs rack up too much?

Original poster
toothyname · 13/01/2011 16:55

Nowadays it depends on parents being organised and pushy and/or rich. I'm not rich but I'm damn as hell pushy!!! Someone just tell me where to push!

OP posts:
southeastastra · 13/01/2011 16:56

bet you wouldn't have to go back that much and you'd get a nice day away too

and how come dentistry is so cheap abroad? (and good quality)

mackereltaitai · 13/01/2011 16:56

fGS eleanor roosevelt had famously awful teeth, they stuck out a mile! until she was in an accident in 1946 and had them capped.