Reply to How do so many lower income families afford braces for their teens?

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[quote=Anonymous]I know this thread kind of died but I'm in the midst of figuring out braces for my kid and was thinking about this thread. We are not low income, more middle income (around 140k HHI) but not wealthy like so many on this board.

Braces are really not that dramatic of a cost. Virtually all orthodontists offer payment plans and the per month cost is reasonable even on a lower income (we are looking at various orthodontists ranking from $175/mo to 2=$290/mo, with different lengths of plans and different down payment amounts). We also have access to an FSA through work, which we can combine with the payment plan to bring the out of pocket cost down further (we figure anything we buy with an FSA, we are getting at a 30% discount).

We also may be able to get up to $2000 paid by our insurance if we use the right one, which can be tricky. We would also have to switch to a more expensive dental insurance, though the cost per pay is like an extra $8 every two weeks. We are government employees so yes dental insurance is offered at a decent rate.

I was stressed about the cost of braces when I started looking into it and when I first saw the price estimates at various orthodontists, but coworkers and the orthodontists themselves are really helpful in helping to navigate this stuff and making sure we're maxing out our benefits and and making it affordable. Very few child expenses are like that. This has been an unusually pleasant experience in that regard.

It seems like people kind of go out of their way to make orthodontia more accessible to people at different incomes. As someone who should have gotten braces for both serious bite issues and aesthetic reasons (severe crowding and overlap), I really wanted to do this for my kid so she could feel confident in her smile. I'm really glad we can find an affordable way to do it. it might mean taking smaller vacations next year or putting off some house maintenance, but nothing dramatic. I think it's very worth it.[/quote]

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