Seems as if a huge percentage of kids today wear braces at one time or another. What do you think about this "trend"? Have your kids had braces and at what age? Why - medical need or cosmetic? Did your insurance cover fully? What was out of pocket expense?

cj/

My 8 yr ds is having his appliance put in tomorrow -$1920. It is the Schwartz appliance to expand his jaw (both upper and lower) so there is room for all his teeth to come in. I've known this time was coming because his jaw (especially the bottom) is SO small. After 12-18 months of this, we'll soon be looking at braces! My dental insurance only pays a maximum of $1000 on orthodontic work so.......

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Mom to 3 - one with 2 legs and 2with 4!

Both my DS and DD have them. It's been a year so far. Very much needed. $5,100 approx. for each. Ins. covers $1,500. I think if you don't have insurance, tho, it whb about $3,600. I've got my suspicions.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

my son got them right before he turned 8. He has bad teeth and a jaw issue that my husband has. The point of braces and an expander now is to do this while his jaw is growing and changing instead of doing it AFTER it's grown when it's harder to do so. My daughter will most likely need the same thing but she's only 6 right now. If my DH wanted to repair his jaw and get a good bite, he would have to have his jaw broken and drink thru a straw for 6 months.So, he won't do it and he'll have to have caps/crowns later on. We don't want our kids to have to go thru all that and hopefully this will help

Our insurance covers some of it but we are taking money out and putting it into a reiumbursement account to save on taxes. Our cost is around $5K and that covers treatment until his braces are off (probably another 2 years) and follow up. Then if he needs to have them again as a teen (to help straighten teeth that may have moved or wisdom teeth that push others out of place), the ortho will deduct the $5K we have already paid and we will pay the difference.

We can already see great (and good) changes with our son

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

Ortho wanted to put an expander on my son... we decided to wait. He's LITTLE! He hasn't even grown into his teeth yet. His head will get bigger and so will his jaw. Also, he does NOT handle pain well. We will wait until his head has grown more and all of his permanent teeth are in before deciding on his teeth's future. I do think that some of the early interventions are unnecessary.

I was in my 30's before I had braces and if they could fix my mouth, they can fix anything! I had TMJ before and it went away without breaking the jaw or anything like that. The dentist did my braces -- his daughter had the jaw surgery and he said they had severed a nerve or something because she was left with a drooling problem and slight paralysis on one side of her mouth.

My 12yo got braces on last year as a necessity -- he didn't have any appliances beforehand although dentist tried to recommend it at one point when he was 6. His molars didn't line up properly and so he was biting on the outside of his lower teeth. Everything is moving into line now and his smile looks nice. We are glad that we waited.

Edit... Oh, and out-of-pocket was around $3400.

you know how you say "when you change one letter in a word, it changes the meaning entirely"?

Well, there is one word when referring to a dentist, where if you change the letter.... the words do mean differently but at the same time, they mean the exact same thing.

The word is:

EXTENSIVE


If a doctor or dentist tells you that you have to have EXTENSIVE work done...go ahead and change that one little letter....because what EXTENSIVE really means to you is EXPENSIVE

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SPJRNTGADL!

My old fashioned dentist (he was older than dirt) thought that braces/orthodontics was overrated. So, I had 6-7 permanent teeth pulled in my early teen years to avoid having braces. $75 for an extraction versus several thousand for orthodontia---you do the math.

My teeth are straight, I have no bite problems and I have no cavities! (I have good teeth genes!)

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

My advice is get a second opinion, you are going to spend that much money why not? My dd dentist told me that she needed braces, so I went to the ortho with the practice. Well she needed all this work done and I had to sign this paper and you get the picture, $$$. The ortho created the problem of what was wrong with my dd mouth and she was going to fix it!

Well, I went to a friends orthodontic, who took x-rays and said I wouldn't do a thing, lets wait and see how things change as she grows. He didn't say she wouldn't need braces but he said wait you have all the time in the world.

So we are waiting and by the way the 1st orthodontic we went to called and wanted to know what happen to us? I also saw her months later in the office and heard her talk about the big check she was getting...makes you wonder.

Like marilynk, I had to have permament teeth removed to make space in my small mouth. However, i had braces after the tooth removal to correct cross and over bites. This was when I was about 13-14 years old.

My boys' dentist recommended orthodontics, but we decided to "wait and see" and have opted not to get them for older DS. His teeth are fine; not perfect, but nice. Just not worth the several Gs. Younger one was referred when he was 8 because he had a gap (nice whistle!) in the front. He was so young!! Still had baby teeh, so we decided to wait. Now that his adult teeth are filling in, the gap is closing quite a bit, but may still need to get braces. We need to decide soon.

What kinda gets me about this subject, is that each of the 5 foster children that I know personally have braces....paid for by MassHealth, of course. I can't believe that they are all medically necessary. I just don't get it....when did orthodontics become a rite of passage for kids? I'm all for giving these kids a good chance at life, but I'd definitely rather see these dollars go for their education, not straight teeth!

cj/

so far my four boys are all natural.... no braces and their fine

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Both my son and my daughter had them (they are now 18 1/2 and 17) - my daughter also had an expander, and both had retainers (my daughter had 2 - lost one)

It wasn't that they had horrible teeth - they were ok....but there was room for improvement, so we did it - the orthodontist took my insurance in FULL, so I didn't pay for any of the above (actually, out of pocket was $50 each before they started the procedure, but that was it, no further payments)

I work for the Department of Education in New York City - We have great health and dental

**Edited to add: my daughter also had an appliance put in on the roof of her mouth to stop her from sucking her thumb (no payment on that either)

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Wow. That's fantastic coverage!

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GROW through life

Real eyes...realize...real lies.

Our kids all need braces My 9 year old had his put on 6 months ago. My 11 year old had his put on 2 weeks ago and DD is still too young. Very expensive and no ortho coverage with our dental. Lots of money!!! But all worth it!

I recommend always getting a second or third opinion. My Pediatric dentist referred 3 different Orthodontists for my son. The first wanted to do the expanders on him NOW. $1900 out of pocket. The 2nd said lets hold off because he still has permanent teeth that need to come out . He recommends coming in every 6 months for free consult until he fills it is time. When I took son back to dentist he said if it were his child he would wait(and he has 10 kids) so needless to say we are waiting. I , on the other hand had my first retainer when I was 7 and in second grade but my teeth were horrible. My sons Orthodontist did say if he had teeth sticking out and were bothering him then he would do the expanders now--luckily they are not bad at all.

After being told by our dentist that my daughter needed to see an orthodontist, I took her to three different ones. First, I wanted to see if each would tell me the same thing (they did) and to check prices. All prices were very comparable. They ranged from $5100 to $5500. I chose the orthodontist that I liked the best (which happened to be the middle priced one). Our insurance paid only $1000 of it (though I'm not complaining as alot of people don't have insurance that will pay for any of it!). My daughter had to have the roof expander to make her upper mouth larger and has had her braces for two years next month. On August 28th, they start taking them off and she gets fitted for her retainer that day too!!! She is so excited!!! She gets them off the day before her freshman (yearbook) pictures!!

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Mom to a beautiful 15 year old DD and my handsome little man who's 6!

~~~GO DALE JR!!~~~

My 18 year old is getting them on this week. Insurance only covers til he is 19, which will be 6 months of coverage. It's sad because his teeth are perfectly straight, but he has a huge gap between his two front teeth and it is getting worse. II was surprised they were going to put them on his bottom teeth too, but they said the cost is the same. They have such a racket going on these dentists.

Personally I think the dentists, whose businesses have suffered with the intro of sealants and fluoride treatments for kids, are getting referral kickbacks on the orthodontics. cj's conspiracy theory!!

DD 13 had her braces started Aug. 2006. She has top & bottom and had an expander. She is to have her braces for approx. 2 years. She wore the expander for 10 weeks and now has a "P" bar to keep her pallet in place. My DD had a severe underbite and a fairly strong crossbite. Her crossbite is almost straight and her underbite is in the works. Actually at her appt. today she received rubber bands to start bringing the lower teeth in more. So far I am VERY impressed with how far things have come. This cost us $5200 out of pocket, no insurance. So well worth it to see the huge smile and how excited she is to feel better about herself

I think you might be on to something! Maybe we should contact Michael Moore for his next movie!

I have the horrible things when I was a teenager and had perfect teeth afterwards. fast forward to when I was 27 and in a car wreck. was hit in the rear and knocked into a tree. out came the old handy dandy air bag and bye bye front teeth. since I am short, the air bag hit me right smack in the face, breaking my nose and knocking out all my upper front teeth. if I had to do it over, I would have skipped the horror of the braces!

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My 14 year old gets her braces off next week. She is so excited!!! But retainer wear follows.

I know that braces seem like alot but when I look back at all the visits over the last 2 years, I understand why. There is alot of time/commitment involved.

My 11 year old has braces as well. Hers is more because of problems in her mouth than cosmetic like the oldest. Our ortho has worked wonders in her mouth. I am very impressed with the overall process.

We have been making payments for 2 years now with atleast 1 1/2 more to go..... But I am glad we did this for our girls.

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