Teeth straightening etc

rcandeias

Toothsmith wrote: »

No-one 'needs' a brace.

It will not improve your health, only your appearence, so why should the taxpayer pay to make you look good? It didn't contibute towards Ann Robinson's face-lift, why should you be different!

It is done on the NHS for kids, but done at that time tends to be a bit more straightforward, and can be more successful.

That is a lifestyle choice you can make at any time, when you have the money to pay for it.

Now - healthy teeth is a different thing.

You needed a couple of fillings at some point in the past. If that was not too long ago, then maybe things haven't got much worse, and the bill may be similar. If it has got worse, it may well be more now. If you leave it much longer, it will get more again.

To get a couple of teeth filled though, and maybe a good clean up from a hygienist, you'll have plenty left from £5k.

Orthodontics (braces) needs regular monthly appointments over a 2 year period. Not the best thing to pop abroad for.

In this country, a course of orthodontic treatment done privately would be about £2-3k depending on complexity.

If things really are a long way out, facial surgery called an osteotomy is often necesary. This may be done on the NHS, but isn't an easy bit of surgery, with jaws oftn needing to be wired together for several months afterwards. Not to be taken on lightly, and it wouldn't be done to anybody who didn't have a very positive attitude towards their own dental health.

Braces are not just to simply correct and cosmetically make teeth look good as being suggested by the person quoting the above... That is one of the side effects of it, but mainly done to get a correct bite, as if teeth that don't have a proper bite are more likely to develop caries and and jaw problems and even tooth loss. And these can be quite costly as tooth loss can only then be replaced by Implants or dentures. And until it gets to that stage there will be many fillings later root canal and crowns so is more of a preventative treatment to avoid future problems.

That is why the national health and government things in general are as bad as they are, they don't want to spend the money on prevention deemed to be too expensive and unnecessary expense (as they fail to see long term) but then they spend triple to put it right.

Rico

welshdent

freda wrote: »

Nonsense! I am having a brace and operation on the NHS shortly as my bottom teeth bite into the roof of my mouth, which has long term implications for the health of my whole bone structure on my upper mouth.

I'd suggest asking a private dentist if there are any medical reasons that they could refer you to an NHS specialist for. Mine did, and it went on from there.

WADR you do not fall in to "normal" ... and normal doesnt NEED a brace as toothsmith pointed out. You clearly fall in to the minority that have a traumatic mal occlusion that DOES need correcting.