Question for the parents who got their kids braces:
Do you pay up front for everything? Just curious how it works. I will not be getting my daugther braces until she is in middle school. Teeth shift, etc. I don't want to do braces twice.
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We had the option to pay everything up front for a slight discount, but opted to make payments instead. Mostly because we didn't have the money to pay up front. We were presented with a bill that showed the total cost, less estimated insurance portion, less deposit. From that point there were two figures, one with a small discount for up front payment and one with the monthly payment amount over the course of the treatment. We were not forced to make a decision on the spot and encouraged to go home and look everything over. When we decided to go forward with treatment we made the first appointment and paid the deposit.
My oldest has been going to this Orthodontist yearly since she was 9 for "observation". Both the Orthodontist and our pediatric dentist (who we love) really wanted to wait until she had the majority, or preferably all, of her adult teeth so they could better judge the work that needed to be done. She got her braces on at 13 and still had 4 primary teeth left, but she loses them SO slow that the worry became if they waited longer she would have to have more extensive work since the rest of her bones were nearly set.
I'm curious who has used dental coverage towards ortho and how much it helped...
Our total bill for all work, material, appliances (including the expander, braces, and retainer) office visits, 3 "free" repair visits, sonicare brush and everything else we have needed thus far was $5380. The insurance we had when she began treatment covered a lifetime max of $1500, so that brought it down to $3880. We had a deposit of $880 and the remaining $3000 was broken into payments over the treatment period. So it helped, but not as much as some. We can use our FSA to pay our monthly bills.
I agree with the previous poster that ortho is a racket. Every kid today gets braces. I have 3. My middle one did need them, crooked and crowded teeth. She got an expander at 11 to widen her top jaw, then braces at 13. Insurance paid a life time max of $1200, her total for everything was around $4,700. She got her braces off a year ago and only has nightly silicone retainers she has to wear, no permanent bar.
My other two; their teeth look perfect but the dentist said older dd has a slight under bite and should get braces and DS has a slight over bite and should get braces, but perfect teeth otherwise. We are not getting those two braces, I'm sure they'll be fine. DH and I both have slight over bites and under bites and no problems with our teeth.
My oldest needed braces, my middle likely doesn't, though the ped dentist hasn't ruled out the possibility and my youngest most likely will. I think at our visit in Jan we will be referred. Her teeth are so tight and small. Now that she has started losing teeth they are coming in all crazy due to crowding. I fully expect to have her in expanders soon. We'll see after that. I agree with you though, that if my middle doesn't *need* them, we aren't going to do it.
So, our dd who is 12 is currently one year into her braces. The cost was $5295 and that includes everything other than loss of retainer. We are on a monthly (no interest) payment plan. $500 down/$200 per month for 2 years I think. We submit through our flex plan for reimbursement but we have to do each payment that way. They would not allow us to submit the entire cost upfront even if we were choosing to pay it all upfront because the treatment and cost is phased over 2 years.
