to object to having to pay 2 and1/2 grand for DS's brace

[clam]

He's an NHS patient (like most kids) and needs a brace - full set of train tracks, the works. Braces are apparently now considered cosmetic, unless non-treatment is likely to cause significant problems. There's no fudging the criteria for this, and it's not means-tested. What do other people do? Loads of kids have braces. Are all their parents happily forking out?

Yes exactly that needmorecoffee, and it is absolutly disgusting.

Dd2's teeth do protrude quite alot but i'm not 100% sure wether she'd be graded as a 3 or 4.

oh hell. I am about to give go ahead for dd2 to get a brace. Assumed it would be free. i'd better ask first. Her teeth aren't that bad.

Dd2 gets sores on her lip because her teeth dig in, so hopefully that means they are bad enough.

needmorecoffee- it is a scandal. But the whole lottery of dentists is anyway.
I think you should ask for a second opinion- I can't believe if their teeth are bad you shopuld have to pay.

DS2 qualifies for NHS treatment but we have ended up paying for private treatment because he would have to wait two years to have it done on the NHS. This is after waiting 18 months for his initial assessment.

My dd has a tragic set of teeth - shouldn't be saying 'thank goodness they're as bad as they are' but am because otherwise we wouldn't get treatment on the NHS (we've been told that we will as she can't shut her mouth properly - her jaw is twisted to one side).

Shocking isn't it?

Dd2 has a dental appointment in November, so I am going to ask the dentists opinion then on wether hers are likely to bad enough to be treated for free.

If not I better start saving.

My dentist wouldn't commit herself as to whether we would qualify or not - although she prepared us for the fact that we might not. We had to wait until all the baby teeth were out and the adult ones on their way before the orthodontist confirmed it. It is a very precise set of criteria that they work to and there's no subjectivity about it. If your condition ticks the boxes in the right combination, you're 'in.' If not, tough. And it's not what they look like, rather whether there's an overbite, or danger of teeth hitting each other in the wrong place and cracking and that sort of stuff.

Before this IOTN thing started, all 4 of mine were referred to the orthodontist & signed up before they'd lost all their baby teeth, because they all needed some baby teeth extractions as part of their treatment; so waiting until the baby teeth are out before deciding if there's a problem at all, & how serious it is, seems mad.

(But economical for the NHS I spose )

(DS2 had the worst teeth of all, his adult incisors came in one behind the other & his upper canines from the very top of his gums so his orthodontist worked miracles.)

Well, in my DC's cases, they were referred to the orthodontist a year or two ago, so he would presumably have noticed anything untoward with the existing baby teeth. He then kept them under review until now, for DS.

If they are bad enough, they will be done on the NHS, but as Orthodontists only have a certain amount of funding for NHS patients, careful not to miss your 'slot' - ie DS (13) had his pre-brace extractions done last week, but now Orth. says she has used up all the NHS funding for this year so we have to wait until new financial year - April 09 - for braces. Having said that, his teeth aren't that bad - just crowded - and he is still free.

Well, no one's offered waiting til April as an option for me. It's just to pay up. And OK, so they'll fund 'bad enough' teeth, but it's a question of how bad, bad enough has to be. As far as I can see, it's pretty far down the line. So, as someone implied earlier, we're soon going to be able to tell the family income of kids according to how wonky their teeth are.

Oh dont get me started on this, dd1 was refered to ortherdontist by our dentist, we went to the appoitment dd1 in chair, orthrdontist then proceeded to check teeth then proclaim in front of dd that she does need a brace and what type of brace and such, then informed me that she just missed the NHS guidelines for free braces and that it would cost £2500 but quote dont worry you can pay installments over 12 months. I havent got that type of money lone parent on working tax credits it dosent strech. it was bad enough that she cant have the braces but to say in front of dd that she needs them but only if I could pay made for one sad dd and one sad mummy who felt was letting her dd down.
dd2 has very wonky teeth and dentist said she should quailfy for free treatment but am hopping mad at orthdontist dont want to ga back there.

I have just remembered reading these posts, that I also had 8 of my baby teeth taken out as the first part of my treatment to straighten my teeth up.

Dd's teeth are very much like mine were so I bet she will have to have that done too.

She has been in tears over her teeth today after some horrible boy said that her teeth stuck out so far you could land a plane on them.

Illegally has your dd been back to the dentist yet? What did they say?

my dd2 was sent to the orthodontist last year and had her teeth examined, counted, x-rayed etc...she didn't qualify bt her teeth are really not that bad anyway - I was suprised that she had been referred tbh - BUT I'm not suprisedthe free braces for all ended...it was almost a fashion at her school last year or two..almost every kid had them and they could choose the colour too...

I'm really shocked to read this, my DD has wonky teeth and has been asking the dentist for a couple of years exactly when can she have braces?

If she can't have them for free, I really don't know what I'll do. I just don't have that sort of money but I really don't want her to go through life hiding her smile.

She's already covered with eczema at the moment, so any knock to her self confidence at her age (13) is a knock too many.

This thread got me totally ed - have 4 DCs - luckily they all have good teeth and have had no problems or even fillings. You can't do much about having poor teeth so it should be something that the NHS supports - unlike some of the operations done on obese people / those that continue to smoke etc which they cause themselves. The preventative stuff for children should all be free on NHS. We all know there is limited money but some of the decisions are just barmy .

I guess the truth is, if he doesn't need them for any medical reason you'll just have to leave it and not pay. Although - I imagine if they are really really bad you could probably get them for emotional reasons IYSWIM? Like when you can get a breast reduction/enlargement on the NHS because the size of your chest has such a negative effect on you it is a medical issue.

Although I suspect he would have to wait until he was much older. And I can see why parents wouldn't want to put their kids through that.

Emmotional reasons won't change anything I'm afraid. Each PCT doesn't make its own arrangement, so one (in a way) good thing is that where you live doesn't make a blind bit of difference. The new nhs regulations that came into effect 2 years ago are ludicrous. We were astounded when we received the paperwork 6 months before it came into effect, and couldn't beleive they considered it a vast improvement to the existing regulations