Braces

[daydream**believer]

My 12 year odl daughter needs braces.

What im wondering is, is it something i should "shop around" for. Do braces prices vary from dentist to denist?

And if i should shop around? How do i do that? Will they give prices over the phone or do i have to take daughter in to see every dentist to get a price?

[daydream**believer]

ok. thanks 🙂

[freddie*rooster]

What's with these braces, is this just an expensive trendy fad?

Back in our day there were never any such thing, we had fillings and extractions, thinking back, my brother who passed away at 66 still had all his own teeth, my brother who passed at 53 also had all his own teeth. My own son had over crowding which meant pulling a couple of back teeth, his teeth are perfect.

[*elizabeths-mum*]

I have these discussions with my dentist who also has an aversion to everyone walking around with identical sets of gravestone teeth, but sometimes it is necessary for function rather than just cosmetic. It's a bit harder on teenagers today though to be the only ones with an individual smile.

[punch*drunk]

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@freddie*rooster wrote:

What's with these braces, is this just an expensive trendy fad?

Back in our day there were never any such thing, we had fillings and extractions, thinking back, my brother who passed away at 66 still had all his own teeth, my brother who passed at 53 also had all his own teeth. My own son had over crowding which meant pulling a couple of back teeth, his teeth are perfect.

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I dont know how my kids ended up needing braces. My husband and I have both got really good, straight teeth.

My sons are mostly cosmetic to fix crowding and crookedness, they did look really bad.

My daughters dont look as bad as my sons, but she can poke her tongue out with her teeth clamped together and her jaw is growing abnormally, they cant do her braces until her jaw stops growing. Our latest trip to the dentist, last week, resulted in her needing 2 teeth pulled out. The new ones are trying to come through, but they are slightly deformed (1 point instead of 2) and they havent pushed the baby teeth out of the way. Hasnt been done yet, he wants us to check with the orthodontist before he removes them. She also has an unusual amount of tooth decay, and she has very little sweets and soft drinks compared to most kids.

So I dont know how we ended up with her having such bad teeth, I always thought knocking 3 of her teeth out when she was little resulted in the bad formation of the front ones, but the ortho says they'd have been like that anyway.

[daydream**believer]

I know freddie.

I was also a bit funny with braces. Thinking it was a thing that people were told they needed but probably didnt.

But, Miss 13's top teeth are quite crooked

Its affecting her as she doesnt smile with her mouth open and when she laughs, she covers her mouth so people wont see her teeth.

😞

I dont want her having to do that cause she hates her teeth

[*elizabeths-mum*]

One dentist I had (before moving state) told me that problems with teeth can be caused in utero if mum has an infection or a high fever at a certain point of pregnancy. Given the number of things that can go wrong from externals during that time. that makes sense to me.
My daughter has very deep fissures which cause food to stay trapped and was having something put in them for years to ward off decay.

[izabsmiling]

What's with these braces, is this just an expensive trendy fad?

With my own kids.It was/is the best medical treatment I could give them.

[twinkles**stars]

From memory cost us about $13000 for the two girls. Looked lovely until their wisdom started to come through 😞 Now in their 30's they could do with braces again just on the bottom.

An ex dental nurse told me that unless you are prepared to wear a retainer 'forever' your teeth will move again.

More older people are having their teeth straightened to prevent headaches, jaw ache etc.

[freddie*rooster]

I guess it's the same for illnesses which appear to be more common now then in years gone by, every 2nd person you come across has someone in their friends or family suffering from cancer. Maybe our lifestyles really arn't as heathly as they were, food additives and environmental issues are more prominent in todays life.

[azureline**]

One of ours has a tooth removed to allow his other teeth to align, after a dentist said he needed braces, so we got 2 other opinions.

Another had a retainer for a few years and then didn't need braces.