Financial Costs of Orthodontic Braces for Pre-Teen

Our daughter has very crowded teeth.  We've known she would need braces since her adult teeth started coming in at around age 4.  They didn't push out the baby teeth.  Instead, the grown teeth came in *Behind* the baby teeth.  She had two rows of teeth at the bottom as a result.  I think they call this "dragon teeth".  At the same time, her upper two baby teeth fell out, and it took a full year for the adult teeth there to grow in.  She liked pretending to be a vampire during this time period!

She is self conscious about her teeth.  She wants them "fixed".  She has a couple teeth that are still completely in behind the others.

My dentist offered to do them, but to be honest, I'm not comfortable with a dentist doing orthodontic work.  I'd rather go to someone who does them full time. An actual orthodontist.  It seems there are only two in our town, so I asked for advice from friends and about 80% recommended one and 20% recommended the other.

Although I have good medical benefits through my employer, it does not include orthodontic treatment at all.  Knowing braces would be in the thousands of dollars, I also knew that I wouldn't be able to afford them for the next couple of years.  My father has offered to pay for at least part of them though, so I booked a consult with the orthodontist that came highly recommended.

The consult was very reasonably priced, at $50.00, which included any needed x-rays.  We learned that not only are her teeth crowded, but that they don't align properly at all in the molars, and that she has an overbite.  Apparently we will start noticing the overbite more once the teeth start straightening.  She will need braces, and springs to go on the braces as well to correct all of this.

So...are you ready for the price?

$5800.00

(plus the $50.00 paid for the consult)

Payable as $300.00 for initial moldings, a $1500.00 downpayment, and then $200 per month for 20 months.

I'm thankful for proud grandfathers (my dad) who are willing to give generous gifts to their grandchildren to help pay for this!

Are orthodontic braces in the future for you or your teen?  How are the prices in your city?