Child under 12 years old has severely crooked teeth (NHS orthodontic treatment)

Pakkun

Hi, I hope I am posting my question in the right section.

I have a child who has severely crooked teeth. They are so severely crooked that they are causing her constant pain/discomfort. She is soon to be 10 and I understand that the advised age to get orthodontic treatment is 12 or 13.

Her NHS dentist advised us to go to a private dentist but it costs a fortune (1000 pounds just for a consultation!). 

Is it possible to get her referred to an NHS orthodontist if the misalignment is so severe? What steps should I follow? 

Any advice or suggestions are much appreciated!

Pakkun
 

pramsay13

Your NHS dentist can refer to an NHS orthodontist.
Lots of children get treatment for a lot less.

Brie

I expect the referral to private was in order to get this looked at sooner rather than later.  But the sooner she's referred to the NHS ortho would benefit her as well.  I expect that the waiting lists are very long and appointments limited unfortunately.

x_raphael_xx

I decided at 35 I wanted to finally fix my wonky teeth, cost me £3500 and 3 years of braces, but the boost in my self confidence has been worth it. (Private with a referal from my dentist)

You'll have to decide between the length of time waiting on the NHS lists or the costs & comfort of your daughter & go private.

Pakkun

Dear all,

Thank you very much for your advice and sharing your experience. It sounds like a long wait should we be lucky to be seen by an NHS orthodontist. 
We will see our NHS dentist and seek advice on how bad our daughter's teeth are and how long the waiting list in our region is likely to be.
 
I suspect that we will need to choose a private option if we need to wait for many years given the discomfort our daughter experiences at the moment...

Pakkun

pramsay13

I think if they are causing pain / discomfort it should be an argument for allowing her to skip the queue a bit. Definitely speak to your dentist again and make sure he's aware. 

Pakkun

Thank you pramssy13.
I will ask the dentist if it is a possible on my appointment day.

Sapindus

My son decided in 2021 that he wanted to take up the dentist's suggestion of orthodontics.  We were told about a 2-year waiting list.  I rang up a couple of months ago and was told "about 2 years still"...

On the plus side, I hope that this means that more urgent cases like your daughter might be allowed to jump the queue.  As my son would now be looking at waiting until he's at uni, we're going to have to go private.  I was told that so long as he went on the list before he was 18, he would still get NHS treatment if it was deemed necessary.

FBaby

It will come down to a strict assessment based on specific NHS criteria. Cosmetic betterment is not what of them. It's about clinical issues, speech impairment etc...

Waits really depend where you are. You should get an initial appointment for free and they should confirm if they meet the criteria. 

Age is mainly based on the extent of the problem and if they can cope with the requirements that comes with braces. Cleaning etc...