Oh my giddy aunt, just HOW MUCH are orthodontic braces???? < faints >

[MadreInglese]

Have just taken DD for an orthodontic appointment as our dentist thought she might need braces as she used to be a thumb sucker.

Turns out they have a new NHS priority scale for children's teeth. They can only give NHS (ie free) braces to very severe cases of wonkiness, and of these severe cases they only have a limited number they can treat each year. In the current year (Apr09-Apr10) they have already filled their allowed quota of severe cases.

They recommended that DD have braces fitted, although she is not a severe case they think she will definitely benefit from them (apparently her overbite is less than it should be as one of her canines is slightly out of line). She also talked A LOT about the psychological effects of wonky teeth. Up to this point DD didn't even bother about her teeth, and I didn't think there was a problem.

She also said that although DD has much straighter teeth now than most of her friends, by the age of 16 all her severely wonky-toothed friends will have had braces and DD will be at the other end of the scale have worse teeth than all her friends.

Oh but the punchline is, it's going to cost £2500!!!!! even the blooming orthondontist was apologising at the price.

How come the optical treatment here is great and she gets free glasses all through her childhood, and yet we have to fork out a couple of months wages to sort her teeth out??

Has anyone else been in this situation and what did you decide to do?

ahh I guess if they're not visibly that bad it does sound like it's not maybe necessary.

My teeth really are horrible I hate them with a passion. And people don't have to look closely at them to see how bad they are - just open my mouth to speak to someone across the room and it's glaringly obvious

Well it feels like she gave us the ultimatum of -

DD can live with her very slightly not even really visibly uneven TOOTH that may possibly cause jaw/ear problems (very slim chance) and serious psychological issues

or

fork out £2.5K

"Which would you like to do madam? "

I might see if I can discuss it with our dentist and see what he thinks, as he is financially unrelated to the braces clinic (unless there are commission backhanders going on )

I think I'd pay. I was always relieved that I hadn't needed braces as a teen but I wish I'd had them now.

Do you pay it all at once?

There was a pay monthly option but even that is unrealistic on our income

I have wonky teeth due to my dad pulling my front tooth out when it was wobbly. My dentist said he wouldnt refer me for years as they were still growing or some crap like that until I went at my 16th birthday to be told yeah you need one now but its going to cost you

I still have wonky teeth

Hi my 11 year needed to wear a brace as she had a 8mm gap between her teeth, so the dentist removed her 2 baby teeth which were the last baby teeth left in order to speed the process of the adult teeth coming through. She needed to wear twin blocks to get rid of the 8mm gap and bring her bottom jaw forward. The twin blocks have brought the bottom jaw forward but the adult canines still havn't come through yet so in order to get her teeth straight she has to now wait for the canines to grow down so she still has to wear the twin blocks even though they have served their purpose,as she can't get the fixed braces fitted until these 2 adult teeth have come through, this has been almost a year now and we are very fed up of this. :(

The problem with dental tourism for orthodontics is that you need to see an orthodontist every 4/6 weeks. That would mean going back to where they were fitted.