Orthodonticts - did we get scammed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Per my daughter's pediatric dentist, orthodontia is needed in children that don't have adult teeth, when the problems are structural, such as bite correction. For everything else, she recommends waiting until all the baby teeth are out.

Even for my kid who is missing adult teeth, braces didn’t start until all baby teeth were gone. She was monitored by an orthodontist but it was free because her older brother was a patient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I wish we had waited. We were told she might not need braces again, but we'd see how her teeth came in.

Also, I'm really conflicted about whether to force the issue. So far we've been told its cosmetic, but I'll wait and see what my orthodontist says. Her teeth are also crowded on top and she's not good at brushing so that can be an issue. She says she doesn't care. But, I am afraid at 18, or 25, she'll care and it will be more difficult then and she may be stuck with the bill. This is complicated by the fact that she's Autistic, so she has enough "difference" to contend with without having crooked teeth on top of it. At the same time, she has enough difficultly to contend with now, I don't want to add to her plate. It's her first year of HS next year too.

UGH.

Don’t force it. Tell her when she is ready at any age you will pay but you’d like to do it now.

I agree with this. There's no reason to do it now if she is so opposed to it. Let her decide when she's ready. If you are willing to pay for it now there's no reason why you can't pay for it later instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 13.5 year old just got his 2nd round of braces off and his teeth are beautiful. We did do an 8 month early round in 2nd grade. He lost his upper front teeth and when they started to grow in they were coming in with an underbite. I]they put the braces on the top teeth and bite elevators on. It was fixed in 3-4 weeks (!) and the orthodontist just kept the top braces on to line up the teeth. He had pretty straight teeth after that and only wore his braces the second time for about 13 months. For us, it wasn’t a scam.

Wait until he stops wearing his retainers in the manner he should wear them. You can say he would never(!) but high school kids do not do a good job of wearing (or not losing) their retainers.

This happens to everyone who does not wear their retainers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP this is two-phase orthodontics - you take on the procedures in those early years in the knowledge you may well have to go through it all again.

It's a pointless exercise in most cases - people do it out of vanity and it's a costly exercise.

This may be true in some cases, but not all. If your kid has ectopic canines, they may need phase one to avoid losing their permanent front teeth. (If left to their own devices, the canines can drill into neighboring adult teeth and kill the root.) A palate expander and two sets of braces is a dream compare to what awaits you if you let it go untreated. (Loss of permanent adult teeth, surgical exposure of the canine, use of a metal chain to yank it back into place.)

I had this 25 years ago, everything you wrote- surgery, chains, everything. My canines were horizonal in my upper gums, apparently nobody noticed before I was 12 or so. God I wish someone had used a palate expander on me before pulling my teeth, I'm not sure why not because I know classmates who had them. Maybe it was too late for me. Luckily the roots of my lateral incisors were ok, otherwise they were going to pull those and move my canines next to my central incisors. I would have looked like a freak! So that didn't happen and they pulled my premolars instead. I still would have rather a palate expander than pulling any teeth any day and my jaw/mouth area has always looked weak and I attribute that to a narrow palate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your orthodontist should have referred to a myofunctional therapist to address the poor oral resting posture that caused the crooked teeth in the first place, and to address (I assume) a mouth breathing habit. I highly recommend finding a dentist who will do these things, otherwise even a second round of orthodontics will relapse and she will eventually end up with crooked teeth.

That crap is a scam. I am a dentist and my daughter needed braces, and I knew exactly what she needed. One ortho wanted to send us to a myofacial therapist to fix my daughters tongue thrust. Funny, because she didn’t have one. I said no thanks.

Did they know you were a dentist?

No. My husband took her for the consult.

[Anonymous]

We had teeth that were not descending and in threat of needing to be extracted so we had to start at 10. At 12 all the adult teeth are in so we're just about done, thank god.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it’s a scam, or if it is, we’re all getting scammed because I think a phase 1 and a phase 2 are very typical now.

You are all getting scammed. There have been several long-term, peer-reviewed published studies that find no benefit to 2-phase orthodontics. People need to get multiple consultations and ask each ortho about this. Their answers will be revealing.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31562403/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4588783/

Depends on the case. Sometimes kids need phase one to save adult teeth.

[Anonymous]

I took my 9 year old to the orthodontist, because his teeth were so crooked kids were making fun of him at school. Best thing I did, tbh. He needed an expander, and it’s much easier to expand the mouth when kids are younger.

[Anonymous]

Well if two phases are a scam, the orthodontist did a great job of explaining why it was needed. DD, age 9, has a tiny jaw and her permanent teeth which were not out yet were pushing against the roots of her front teeth. We had her baby teeth pulled, and she will need an expander in the hopes she won’t need permanent teeth pulled. She also has one tooth that sticks out so if she gets braces now to fix that and needs it again after the rest of the permanent teeth come in, so be it. I had two phases back 30 years ago too. I blame genetics but no two mouths are the same. My husband has perfect teeth and never needed braces and thinks that if you go to an orthodontist, they will find something wrong. I don’t believe that, I had two canines that stuck out and my siblings used to call me dracula, lol. Some people just need more dental work!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP this is two-phase orthodontics - you take on the procedures in those early years in the knowledge you may well have to go through it all again.

It's a pointless exercise in most cases - people do it out of vanity and it's a costly exercise.

This may be true in some cases, but not all. If your kid has ectopic canines, they may need phase one to avoid losing their permanent front teeth. (If left to their own devices, the canines can drill into neighboring adult teeth and kill the root.) A palate expander and two sets of braces is a dream compare to what awaits you if you let it go untreated. (Loss of permanent adult teeth, surgical exposure of the canine, use of a metal chain to yank it back into place.)

I had this 25 years ago, everything you wrote- surgery, chains, everything. My canines were horizonal in my upper gums, apparently nobody noticed before I was 12 or so. God I wish someone had used a palate expander on me before pulling my teeth, I'm not sure why not because I know classmates who had them. Maybe it was too late for me. Luckily the roots of my lateral incisors were ok, otherwise they were going to pull those and move my canines next to my central incisors. I would have looked like a freak! So that didn't happen and they pulled my premolars instead. I still would have rather a palate expander than pulling any teeth any day and my jaw/mouth area has always looked weak and I attribute that to a narrow palate.

This is the situation with my 8 year old. One of her canines coming in was coming in at the root of her front tooth. She has plenty of room but has braces to shift her teeth around so the canine can come in straight. The ortho was very clear to us what would happen if we didn’t do something to prevent the trajectory of the canine.