[Closed] Braces...for teeth rather than strides.

NHS treatment is available if they're bad enough. There is an index against which the irregularity of teeth is compared and then they take into account an aesthetic component (see IOTN). If they're not bad enough then can only be done privately and commonly £2k upwards. If they really need doing....

Blimey, does everybody here have Hollywood smile genes?  Nobody else's kids been thorugh this?

Cheers P4S for the reply, the upwards bit is what is worrying me at the moment!  Looking at those charts and photogrpahic examples, it looks doubtful the NHS would be interested.  Self confidence is everything at this age though and there are long term dental health advantages to getting it sorted now (desperately trying to justify the cost...).

Both of my daughters have had their braces off in the last month.  Eldest had a proper messed up grid, had braces for 3.5 years, the before and after shots are staggering, worthy of the gallery they have up at the orthodontist.  Youngest daughter had them on for just over a year, her case was much less serious than my eldest but somehow made the NHS cut as well.  Thanks NHS saved me a fortune.

Get your Dentist to refer you to your local Orthodontist to see if your eldest qualifies.  The difference in care was small but you have to wait for an available slot - we didn't wait at all for the youngest and only a short time for the eldest (despite orthodontist projecting an 8 months to one year wait).  The only other difference seems to be greater flexibility with appointments in school time, ie, if you're NHS you have to have appointments in school time while the private patients could have pre or post school appointments.
<div class="SnapLinksContainer" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; display: none;">
<div class="SL_SelectionRect">
<div class="SL_SelectionLabel"></div>
</div>
<!-- Used for easily cloning the properly namespaced rect --></div>

"there are long term dental health advantages to getting it sorted now (desperately trying to justify the cost…)."

Try and be clear what these might be. One reason might be that it's more difficult to clean crowded teeth leaving them more likely to get decay or gum disease. If they're that bad then they'll probably be eligible for NHS treatment. A lot of modern orthodontics seems to leave people with perfectly straight teeth that don't really meet properly so need long term retainers to stop them from moving back. I'm not convinced that retainers are any easier to clean around than crooked teeth sometimes.

Also it can be done as an adult, especially privately. Consider other ways of instilling confidence than making sure people all conform regardless of cost and not focussing purely on appearance...//old man dentist speaking// 🙂

Try and be clear what these might be. One reason might be that it’s more difficult to clean crowded teeth leaving them more likely to get decay or gum disease.

I think was the reason daughter #1 was eligible

P4S - assumed you were a dentist!

Thanks for the info - believe me we avoid the shallow crap as much as we can, but she's eleven and seems to be worried about this more than anything.  Its two teeth (the ones either side of the front two - that technical enough for you?!) mainly, and these protrude.

Interesting to hear that the brace might not be a permanent fix, assumed it would be.  Will enquire about the longer term need for retainers.  Upwards of 3k is what we are looking at!!

Depending where you are that may be right. Most orthodontists will offer payment terms I think, like £150 a month or something. Definitely ask about retainers though. It's a little hobby horse of mine at the moment and can add significantly to the long term cost. I'm not an orthodontist but my best man is a consultant orthodontist and his special research interest is retention. It's a major first world problem 😉

I've got little to add to what Paul's said other than in theory the NHS iotn score caters for people who would genuinely have dental issues without braces and if your daughter doesn't qualify then the long term issues are more likely to be cosmetic. That said, if my daughter hadn't qualified, I would definitely have paid. I've got plenty of patients who didn't meet the iotn criteria but who's teeth are noticeably not "straight". Girls potentially have plenty of different self image issues as they get older and avoiding having (what they perceive as) wonky teeth would be a no-brainier for me if I could afford it.

Prices will obvs vary depending where you are but 3k sounds fairly average. I suspect the further south east you live the higher the cost.

As far as retention goes, permanent retainers definitely affect your ability to clean between teeth (although it is possible with a little effort) From recent chats with my orthodontist mate I think the current view is that teeth will always try and move back where they came from and some kind of long term retention is the only way to prevent that, be that glued on wire on the back of the teeth and / or wearing removable retainers once or twice a week overnight indefinitely . That's definitely a sea change in view from what they thought 20 years ago.

I was lucky enough to have mine done by my dad, so free. My 11 year old daughter has a pronounced overbite (so will be getting braces from the NHS when the necessary deciduous teeth finally fall out. I'm just hoping that happens before she gets a hockey stick in the mouth 🙂 (she does wear a mouth guard for hockey but she's so forgetful her head would fall off it wasn't stuck to her shoulders).

Re retainers - my teeth haven't moved back in 40 years without them!