can't afford orthodontic treatment for my child

bravobeastie

I always had a gap between my 2 front teeth (I could fit a £1 coin between them) and when I was 24 I decided to go to the dentist and they used white filling to 'close' the gap.

It cost me £30 (although this was almost 10 years ago) and I was told it would last about 3 years but *touch wood* is still going strong and unless I tell people about it they don't notice.

Could this be an option for your son?

raven83

Christ how things have changed. When i was at school going back 14 years a go i had a brace and to be honest there was nothing really wrong with my teeth, in fact i was keen on having one but it was the orthodontist that said i should have one rather than i "needed" one. Back then virtually all the kids in my school had a brace and you used to see lots of other children out of school with braces. As someone already said on this thread you don't tend to see many children now with braces and this is true. All the cutbacks that have been bought in mean only children that have really bad teeth will get funding. That is not a good thing in my opinion.

tooldle

I'm not sure things have changed that much to be honest.
I have an underbite, and some slightly crooked teeth. Back in the 70's my dentist advised my parents that the underbite should be 'fixed', but it was not severe enough for the NHS to cover the costs. Hence nothing was done.

Editted to add, in our area the orthodontist of choice has a massive waiting list for NHS treatment. They also do private work, and the list is far shorter. When my daughter went onto the list, we received a letter spelling out the above. We waited it out, she had a first apointment after a one yr wait. She is due back again in 12months. No big deal as the work cannot be done until she has sufficient adult teeth.

brook2jack

In 2006 the guidelines for nhs orthodontics were changed and IOTN was introduced which gave a score to determine need for orthodontics ie would it affect dental health http://www.bos.org.uk/orthodonticsandyou/orthodonticsandthenhs/whatisiotn.

A gap in between front teeth and a iotn of three will not qualify for NHS treatment as it does not affect dental health, your son might not like the appearence but the NHS dental service does not provide cosmetic treatment.

You can ask for a second opinion, it may involve going on a waiting list again ,but from the sound of it you are unlikely to get offered treatment on the NHS.

Orthodontic treatment is long and costly as you have found out from the private quote, and the iotn system is now being introduced in Scotland and NI as the NHS dental service struggles to fund treatment necessary to secure dental health PCTs are cutting back on treatment that is not strictly necessary for dental health.For most PCTs that means an IOTN of 4 and above.

Dental hospitals have even stricter criteria now and will not take on many brace patients and those they do are the most challenging cases.

I'm afraid there is no way to get the NHS to fund this from what you have said.

MX5huggy

Tell him to get out on his bike.....

I smashed out my 2 front teeth on a car that Pulled out in front of me when I was 18.

Although this was not money saving as the posts and crowns, privately, we're expensive, I think i could have had a plate on the NHS, or less good looking replacement teeth. on the other hand I have not returned to the dentist in 15 years so saved there.

Marisco

puddy wrote: »

i thought most orthodentistry was cosmetic? i know there are things like teeth not being able to join together or be cleaned but for most of us it was just to straighten out wonky teeth

My daughter had braces top and bottom in 1983/4. Her teeth grew crooked, in fact she had to have 4 back ones out as she had "too many" teeth to fit her mouth!!! :eek: There was never any question of money being paid though?????? She got referred by our dentist and off we went to the orthodontist! Job done!

P.S I love gaps in front teeth, and would have loved one myself

j.e.j.

Marisco wrote: »

My daughter had braces top and bottom in 1983/4. Her teeth grew crooked, in fact she had to have 4 back ones out as she had "too many" teeth to fit her mouth!!! :eek: There was never any question of money being paid though?????? She got referred by our dentist and off we went to the orthodontist! Job done!

P.S I love gaps in front teeth, and would have loved one myself

A similar thing happened to me back in the '80s when I was a teen. I had a misaligned bite and a couple of front teeth crowding in on one side. I got sent to the orthodontist by my usual dentist. It would have been nhs, - my parents would definitely not have paid private. I don't even remember having to wait that long.

Buttonmoons

I had a removeable brace from the age of 8! My teeth were horrific, one front tooth went forward, one went back, grew too many teeth had to get them removed (could do with them back now!) Train tracks from 11 - 18. Even after all that, one of my teeth went back, but I didn't sleep with the retainer in at night as it made me gag and choke, because my orth had moved to a bigger place and went private, but as I was already on their NHS register they couldn't chuck me off, I think they did it on purpose as I was 10minutes late for my next app and they chucked me off their list!

They had proper smelly breath, I remember that, gingivitus ahoy!

PasturesNew

Cazzab wrote: »

The orthodontist told him it would be for more cosmetic appearance rather than anything else as he has quite a gap between his 2 front teeth. I know he is quite self conscious about this and we feel we are failing him by not being able to afford to get it fixed for him.

Jimmy Tarbuck managed to make most of his career from having such a gap.

*onlyme*

We went for a dentist check up on Wednesday and DD (age 11) asked the dentist if she needed braces. The dentist asked her if she had any concerns about her teeth...

Her top teeth are quite nicely aligned, the bottom teeth, 2 of them have a very small overlap.

DD answered she wasn't really too bothered and dentist said she would check again in 6 months time and go from there. Never a mention about she wouldn't fit the criteria mentioned in earlier posts so obviously will keep that in mind.


I never realised how expensive braces were...no wonder my parents were mad as hell when my brother 'lost' his set of braces as a teenager. He had to wear the removable ones but at night he took them out and hid them under his pillow....I was very jealous as I always wanted braces....and once he annoyed me so much, I took his braces and he got a right old telling off for not wearing them. I was than too scared to put them back so I buried them in the garden.