I took my 9 1/2 year old son to the orthodontist today (dentist referral for early intervention). My son has been late in losing his baby teeth. They want to pull 4 baby teeth this summer in order to make room for the next set of permanent teeth to grow in. Once that set grows in, they want to pull them and put in some sort of device that keeps his molars from moving forward and filling in that space.

They say that it will prevent more extensive orthodontic work in the future BUT, I had similar teeth and waited until I was in my 30's and now have straight teeth without going through all of this with baby teeth, etc.

The above procedure will cost $1,000 (insurance will pay 50%) and that doesn't even cover the cost of getting all of those teeth extracted -- which I am not sure will or will not be covered by insurance. Braces will probably be another $5,000 on top of this. YIKES.

Does any of this sound necessary? I feel that I'd rather let nature take its course and have him lose some of those teeth naturally first and then proceed in a few years. He WILL need the braces but...

At what age did your child(ren) start orthodontics?


This whole thing has put me in a very grumpy mood.

My daughters pediatric dentist/orthadontist-wanna-be suggested in 3rd grade she needed braces and would need them again at a later date. We took her for an evaluation to a regular orthadontist who said, yes she could use them but he suggested she wait until all her baby teeth fell out. She checked her once a year until all her baby teeth fell out and she got them in 6th grade. She will need them 2 years and then she'd done.

If you don't feel right about it, take him in for a 2nd opinion and see what the other one says.

Lisa

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Good idea... I was fuming and not thinking straight. I wish I had money like that! Anyway, I made an appointment with another orthodontist for another opinion. It DID calm me down... Thanks for the suggestion.

My neice had an appliance in at about age 9 and then they had to put the same appliance in again at age 12... They paid both times. What's the point?

I guess I am still curious as to the early treatment before all of the baby teeth have fallen out?

My son was 6.....They had to put a spacer thing (its late I can't remember the correct term) in his mouth because too many teeth and there was no room for some teeth to come in so they had to widen and make room....when that was done, he already lost his top 4 teeth and bottom 4 teeth and had his adult teeth in so they put brackets on the top 4 and bottom 4 and straightened them out.......He got those out Oct(ish) and now wears a retainer......(he's 8) His teeth do look so much better and It only cost about $1400 , his dad paid half, I paid half...(so $700ish) Knowing how bad his dad's family teeth are, I'm glad we had it done...when those adult teeth would have tried to come in, he would have had really bad crooked teeth like his dad's family...

IF he needs braces later on, it wont be anything too major...the worst was his top 2 teeth, which are now looking good...AND kids can be so cruel...its nice he got them fixed before anyone even noticed they were bad!!

My dd got her braces on when she was 10. She had to wear them for about 26 months, so she was out of them in middle school. I never realized how bad her teeth were until I saw the before and after pics. We did, however get more than one opinion. I think we got 4 as a matter of fact. Any orthodontis will give you a free consultation appointment, so I say go and have as many as you need to feel comfortable making a decision

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I am a dental assistant that works for a general dentist that also does Orthodontia. It depends on the problem. If your childs teeth are already crowded with his baby teeth ~ it's not going to get any better when the adult teeth come in ~ they are much larger. I would definatly take him to another orthodontist. And, if you can find a general dentist that does Ortho, it can save you some moeny ~ they usually don't charge as much.

Kathie

Our dentist says he waits until about 12-13.

my dd is 7. She has been seeing an ortho dentist for a year now. (no work yet just watching her overcrowded mouth). She has had 4 teeth pulled so far.

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My dd saw the ortho that is with her dentist last month. That day she wanted to start with pulling some teeth and an expander and it was going to cost $2200 but I was going to get a discount because it wasn't covered by my insurance, and then another discount if I pay all at once, which put it at $1600. I didn't do it because muy dd had a cold.

I called my dh on the way home and told him what was going on. He was like we need a second opinion and I was like she needs this! We have to do this!

Well, I got a second opinion on 3/15 and guess what? This ortho, who came highly recommended by several different people, said she might need braces but not an expander and we need to wait and see what is going to happen, and he would never pull any teeth from her mouth because it could cause more problems then fix them. He said my dd teeth might work out to be straight and He took some x-rays and did something on the computer that was really neat showing me her mouth. I paid $160 but that was basically the cost of the x-rays and told to come back in 4-5 months.

I kept asking questions and he just said if it was my child I would not do it. He also said I have been doing this for so long that I know when to wait and that doing it early really doesn't help.

I felt that the $160 that a paid was well worth it and now I feel that the other othro really wanted to make money on me because she kept saying when she gets braces you insurance will paid for it all. I wanted to say to her if I have the same insurance it will but who know if I will!!

Just a footnote on insurance and this dental group, which I see too. One of the dentist wanted to remove all my silver filling and replace them with white because my insurance would pay for it! I was like why fix it if it isn't broke?

kathylun, great post. Your story sounds so similar to mine!

My DS is so late losing those baby teeth that we think he just needs a little more time and so I called the ortho back and asked him some questions and he agreed with me! and so along with getting a second opinion, this ortho has agreed to wait until Nov/Dec and come back and see how things are going...

I feel much better from when I posted up at the top. Thanks for all of the helpful replies!

my 7 year old got spacers and then an expander (which is currently in). He'll get partial braces this summer (he'll be 8 then) and then he'll most likely have to have braces again as a teen but we have horrid jaw structure that runs in the family so anything we can do to prevent the problems my DH and my brother have are worth the $$$. From start to finish (including the expander and braces now and braces later), it will cost us about $5K. Insurance covers a max of $1500 per person so that's $3500 we'll be out from age 7 -18 we figure

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