Braces for teeth???On NHS??? Free, Gratis????

[Maidamess]

My dd had her first appointment at the orthodentist this morning and was told her braces would be on the NHS. I can't believe this! When is anything ever free?

Tell me there must be a catch someone, so I can start saving......

mine were free, but that was er, far too long ago to remember

dd's orthodontics are free but it depends on the severity. Otherwise you're looking at £2k min.

I thought your teeth had to be at right angles to your gums to get braces fro free these days . Am impressed

Oh, so its based on how bad intensive her treatment is? It sounded like short of having her jaw dislocated she was having quite a lot of work done.

Badly worded post. I meant, if your dentistry need is greater you are more likely to get them on NHS?

My dd is having her braces and treatment (£2,500 worth)on the NHS, because her teeth are deemed to be "bad enough" ie more than a cosmetic need. So I'm very Thankful. We have to go back every 6 weeks approx, because of the distance it means she misses 2 lessons at school everytime, they only have after school appt's for private patients. She'll have her braces on for 2-3 years and we are now 6months into her treatment.

brightwell, thanks. How has she been during the whole thing? My dd is very apprehensive. Not good at pain!!

One of my sons has a dental problem that is being treated for free on the NHS.

My other son has a dental problem that isn't considered to severe enough to qualify for free NHS treatment. His brace and treatment will cost £1,800.

In wales there is a 2 year wait just to see a private orthodontist. Then I have been told if he doesnt qualify for treatment I will have to pay about 3k!!!!! What a shocker

British Orthodontic Society Index of Orthodontic Need

Your DD must be Grade 4 or worse, Maidamess - she is lucky really

2 rows, RR? You mean her front teeth are one behind the other? DS2 had that, plus canines emerging at the top of his gums, and he got NHS treatment - I think if it's unlikely that they'll get even close to the correct positions on their own she should qualify.

Nag your dentist!

Well I thought my dd only had slightly wonky overlapping teeth. But the ortho said after Xray they are too slanty,overlapping badly with a big overbite meaning lower jaw needs to be moved forward.

So don't despair if you think you won't get NHS, let the experts have a look and it may be deemed more serious. Which is odd that its good, but it is.

Ds's orthodontist was very interesting about this. Ds has a congenital problem with his upper jaw not growing- the dentist spotted it back when he was 4. The NHS pays the orthodontist something like £350 for the brace and associated treatment (just the first year). It costs him £345 just to pay for the brace, so he gets a princely fiver for all the appointments and associated costs over a year (these are approximate figures apart from the fiver). Apparently the NHS do this to discourage orthodontists from offering this treatment because it's so expensive. Our (lovely) ortho therefore only agrees to it for really bad cases, not surprisingly. He will do it for others but only privately.

How old is she, RR? Our orthodontist took DS2 on much earlier than he would have been even considered normally, because we were seeing her anyway with DS1 and I took him along to show her how shocking his teeth were - he was 9 or 10 when he started I think.

He had loads of extractions and different appliances including palate stretchers and jaw re-arrangers (I'm sure that's not the technical term )

At 14 he has come out with beautiful straight teeth, but I wonder how much more effort would have been involved, and how wonky the teeth would have become beforehand, if he'd had to wait until the normal age - whatever that is.