Braces

LondonDiva

Ask your friend to contact her local PALS (put the council/district & PALS into google) and ask them to look into it for her.

A lot of PCTs are being very firm with this as in our area, children losing & damaging braces 3/4 times a year in some cases is a major needless waste and they have made the decision to charge for any replacements.

So here, if the dentist can 'prove' it was correctly made, the patient will probably have to pay.

Teerah

Hi poppy,
if your daughter still has some baby teeth then it is too early for treatment as things will still change, especially as she gos through puberty and a growth spurt. However, if things are really crowded already, they are not likely to improve satisfactorily. If your daughters teeth are as severely crowded as you say then she should be able to avail of this treatment on the health service still when she loses those final baby teeth.

The one thing I am concerned about is the need for painkillers, no matter how crooked, her teeth shouldnt cause pain, have you mentioned this to her dentist?

sjcjd

Hi,

My daughter had a retainer when she was 11½ (ish) due to the overcrowding in her mouth which our dentist said would only get worse and make her now cutely crooked teeth very crooked. She had complained that her teeth felt tight on numerous occasions.

She had to have 4 teeth taken out (one from each side top and bottom) and her proper brace fitted when she was 12. She is about to have her brace taken off (finally) - she hits 14 soon, so it is a long haul.

I would take your daughter back to be honest; your dentist should be able to provide you with a suggested course of action which they can take once the baby teeth have come out. Ours told us well before she became 11 it would be advisable for her to have a brace in the near future.

You shouldnt have to pay for any of it - unless your dentist wants to wait until she is 16 when she is a paying customer!!! :rolleyes:

Our dentist is private, but I have a dental plan with them for myself so he treats my 3 kids on the NHS.

Good luck.

Teerah

sjcjd wrote:

Hi,


You shouldnt have to pay for any of it - unless your dentist wants to wait until she is 16 when she is a paying customer!!! :rolleyes:

Many people will have to pay for orthodontic treatment in the future and only the most severe cases treated on the NHS. Otherwise the treatment is free until age 18 and it would not be advantageous to the dentist to delay for financial reasons as he/she is unlikely to be the one actually doing the treatment. Most orthodontic treatment is carried out on referral by specialist orthodontists. Referring too early will not get the OP's daughter seen any earlier as treatment cannot be started until the right time.

Poppy9

Thank you for the replies.

I knew that teeth move after having a night brace and if I missed one night it was tight as hell to get back on so I made sure I didn't miss again! The bottom teeth have been painful for years and every visit to the dentist we have mentioned. It does go through phases and she will avoid food like apples when the pain is bad. As she has got older she answers for herself when he asks if she has had any problems - she always mentions the pain. The pain is specific to the point below her bottom 2 teeth.

I rang the dental surgery again today to see how we should proceed. One of the dental nurses looked up her record card and said that it's noted she is cutting her sevens (?) which might be causing the pain, but DD says no it's in the same place as always! Appreciate it might be the knock on effect of more room having to be found for the new teeth. She said her notes say "query referral on next visit for overcrowding" but she did say if the dentist doesn't think it's severe enough then he won't refer. I did ask whether it might be appropriate to x ray them to see if there is anything else there causing the problem as after chatting to my sister she said her son's extra teeth (he has 12 of them in a jar!) was only picked up after his referral to the orthodentist.

She is due a growth spurt IMO. She is 12 in 6 weeks and is one of the shortest in her group of friends but is starting to change shape. I don't expect her to be short as we are a tallish family.

Re teeth out. If she does have to have teeth out how is it done now. Is it via local injection (I've never had this as it was gas when I had mine out)? She had to have her front 2 teeth removed age 3 after knocking them. Due to her age they were going to give her gas but she was a bit chesty so they knocked her out completely. I don't really want her having this again as I understand there are always risks with GA.

Sobraon

Just in the last 6 months of DD1's treatment (5yrs) and she was 10 when the treatment started.

My personal view is to (always , always) go on your intuition as a parent. Press the dentist to refer her to an orthodontist (waiting list was up to 18 months round here). If the dentist refuses consider getting a second opinion. If the orthodontist thinks she is too young / tooth development is not adequately complete then they will extend the period to the next appointment - but you are on the list. If all else fails you can ask for a private referral to the orthodontist but of course this costs.

I always ask (politely) if decisions are being made on dental or financial grounds.
I know this sounds perhaps a bit assertive - but who else is going to act for my child?

p.s. The results for DD1 are fantastic! ...and DS has just started his treatment so another 5 yrs (perhaps) of trips to the orthodontist and 'cough' the orthodontist picked up a small cavity somehow missed by the dentist a month earlier .

choccyface2006

Poppy,

I have had two had two sets on extractions ready for my brace which I had fitted TODAY (feels abit strange) and I really think that having a GA is best.

I had so much pain after the extractions under a local, not to mention how unpleasent it was being covered in tooth and blood and restrained as they tried to get them out. They also missed roots and because of how tense I was decided not to get them out fully. I was taking painkillers day and night and was very swollen and bruised. When I had my GA it was almost pleasent! Very little pain after, just the annoyance of the stitches but no pain killers. So I would suggest a GA if possible.

Sarah x

Teerah

Poppy9 wrote:

Re teeth out. If she does have to have teeth out how is it done now. Is it via local injection (I've never had this as it was gas when I had mine out)? She had to have her front 2 teeth removed age 3 after knocking them. Due to her age they were going to give her gas but she was a bit chesty so they knocked her out completely. I don't really want her having this again as I understand there are always risks with GA.

Yes, Poppy it is usually carried out with a local anaesthetic injection. Despite Choccyface's experience, this is usually a simple and staight-forward way of doing this and causes minimal problems afterwards. Young bone heals much faster and is more elastic to begin with so extractions are usually easy enough. Managing the patients concerns is usually the difficult part of extracting children's teeth. If your daughter is nervous she could be given gas and air to help relax her but this will obviously not "knock her out". Where I work, a child could not have a GA for ortho extactions even if requested because at the end of the day, as you rightly say, there are known risks to having a GA and these are simply not justified for what is usually a cosmetic issue. The exception to this is where there is actual surgical alignmenet of the jaw bones and this would be done under GA when the patient is about 20 years old.

Teerah

Sobraon wrote:

Press the dentist to refer her to an orthodontist (waiting list was up to 18 months round here).

Most orthodontists do not appreciate getting referrals when they both know the referring dentist knows that the patient is not ready for treatment yet! Also often the waiting lists are made longer by the orthodontist having to see people whop have been referred too early and who therefore take up appointment time which could be used to actively treat those who are ready.

Sobraon wrote:

... and 'cough' the orthodontist picked up a small cavity somehow missed by the dentist a month earlier .

Orthodontists are qualified dentists obviously but they do not do any restorative work any more and may pick up on things that do not require active intervention (and bring them to the dentist's attention in case it has been missed). Your son's dentist may well have spotted the area and decided to keep it under observation for the time being. If this is the case, your dentist will prob explain this to you when you take your son back for the treatment.

Maisie

My grandaughter now 14 had braces for 2 years. Recently they were removed and her teeth are perfect. This was done free under the NHS.

Her younger sister now 11 has been told she needs braces and has seen an orthodontist. He says she does need braces but this is no longer done free on the NHS unless the family are receiving benefits which they are not.

Apparently new government rules. Very unfair to a family who work hard and are unable to claim for a child's dental treatment.

The cost is up to £2000.