That £2000 is a hell of a lot of money for a kids brace!

[Mooshie]

Thats what i've been quoted, crumbs, thats expensive!!!

That's what mine cost ... I got interest free credit though.

for you or your child Hairylights?

For me. But does it make any difference? It takes the same time and materials, presumably?

Are you serious? Two grand?

I've been told that 2 of my 3 will oribably need braces, and that realistically i could be looking at £3000 each.

It is a lot of money, we are trying to save now for them. Their teeth will be bad but probably not bad enough to qualify for funding for them.

£2000 is at the lower end of quotes for fixed braces)( commonly known as traintracks) your child will need to be seen every 4-6 weeks for 18 months to 2 years, if not entitled to NHS orthodontics you have to pay private prices.

NHS orthodontics is a bit of a postcode lottery though there are criteria for objectively judging severity: can give more info if needed but professionally quote is reasonable for work though I do understand that does not make it affordable you may well be able to set up monthly direct debit though

I personally think it is a small price to pay & would only be happy to pay it if the Orthodontist is a "Specialist". One that has been through the extra years of training on top of his/her dentistry training.

Like sarahtigh has mentioned £2k is at the lower end & do ask your Ortho if there is any other methods of payment that will help with your cashflow if you do indeed go ahead.

BTW why does your child need to go Private? Is it that they don't meet the NHS criteria or is the waitlist too long for you?

I've just paid out £4,200 for DD2's ... I still don't know if I've done the right thing. DD1 had hers on the NHS but DD2's aren't apparently bad enough, despite the fact she's missing 10 teeth!

I've just had some fitted myself (my teeth have moved quite considerably since I had my original braces removed when I was 15) and all in, it has cost just over £3k. A whole chunk of change, but worth it for me as my self-confidence is battered because of my teeth, even though in reality they probably aren't that bad.

Definitely worth the expense for children, but it is enough to take your breath away!

i'm going to pay it because my son is self conscious about them and i dont want him to have the even bigger expense when he is older. his teeth arent deemed 'bad enough' for NHS treatment even tho he is going to have to have 2 top and 2 bottom teeth removed to make room to push them back in. Funny thing is, i know kids his age and younger who were given free braces with much better looking teeth than his!!

It is a lot of money but it will be worth it.

Hold your breath girls.... I paid £6,000 for my two braces top and bottom! But that was Harley street and they did Damon Braces so that I could have the treatment without the need for tooth removal. I would be very wary of removing perfectly healthy teeth- I had 4 removed as a child,(and a brace) 1 of them an eye tooth which dentists/orthodontists just think was crazy now. I then had all my wisdom teeth removed in my early thirties plus another decayed tooth from having impacted wisdom teeth. So 9 adult teeth all together yet still an orthodontist told me he would have to take out 4 teeth to make room to push the others back! I refused and sought other advice, hence the Harley street route, which although expensive is giving me a much better result- no tooth extraction and a broader smile. I think I would research the whole brace thing very carefully- I am no expert but its a lot of money to pay when the teeth can move again in later life, and taking out healthy teeth just seems madness to me.

My DD now 17 had braces top and bottom and the whole treatment programme cost £2800 (started aobut 3 years ago). Teeth extractions were on top of that.

DD2 has just had a quote for similar and that is now £3200, so your quote is about par for the course, I'm afraid...

@ Sunglasses, I'm no orthodontist but my son has mahoosive gnashers, if none are removed, I cant imagine where the other teeth would be pushed back to! I dont like the idea of removing healthy teeth but looks like theres no other way.....

That seems cheap to me. Mine were quite a bit more 17 years ago. Bear in mind that straight teeth are easier to clean and as a result you're less likely to have to pay for expensive dental work later on. I would get a permanent (i.e. glued in) retainer as recrowding seems really common and it is a bit pointless to have them straightened only to let them go wonky again. And keep them really clean while you have your braces - DH didn't and his teeth are manky.

Having teeth removed also can leave room for wisdom teeth to come through. If I hadn't had teeth removed then I wouldn't have had space in my mouth for all my teeth, no question.

No thats the point mooshie- the teeth dont just move back they move round to a broader pallette- it works even better in kids as there bones are still growing- check out Damon Braces on the web. I am not advocating paying what I did- dont get me wrong but for me it worked out best and I hung on to the few teeth I still have left! It just sometimes pays to get another professional opinion, there might be another way.( they may offer Damon braces cheaper than mine too elsewhere)

Wow- madamedeathstar. That sounds really serious, your poor dd! I hope the braces help sort out her problem.
For all you others paying for kids braces, I have no experience of this myself but was just wondering why they only treat some cases on the NHS? Seems a bit unfair if its obvious they need a brace.

2K sounds very reasonable to me.

NHS orthodontics is like NHS cosmetic surgery the criteria is not is there any orthodontic discrepancies from normal but is there a major functional or aesthetic component, if you can not speak eat properly.
NHS orthodontics is normally given if 4+ congenitally missing teeth anteriorly most common is the second incisors, overjet 10-12mm ( normal is 2-4mm, overbite traumatic or reverse ie bottom teeth in front of top teeth, cleft palate patients as upper arch too narrow, severe crowding ( more than 1 tooth per quadrant ie if you extracted 1 tooth in each quarter it would still be crowded)

but gap between front teeth mild/moderate crowding/spacing increased overjets of upto 7mm are rarely if ever treated on NHS sorry this post may seem harsh but that's how it is. madame deathstare would get NHS in uk but I presume she is in USA

some one commented that DAmon braces avoid extractions they do more so than standard ones but some people need extractions, if you inherit mothers small jaw but fathers big teeth etc, in some cases extremely well timed extractions can eliminate need for braces if just crowded but not out of line

Sorry I will not give any specific advice as dentist not orthodontist

My son has just paid £3000 for brace for dgd in Turkey so 2 sounds ok to me.