I think the title says it all.
Early preventative work for both of them as one has bucky beaver teeth ( that she is very proud of.) and the other’s are just fun.ky.
They are 8 and 10.
We are <-----------------------------------> close to paying the entire credit card off and news that we always knew would come just decided to show up earlier.
I’m soooooo glad minimum wage went up so I got a mandatory raise by the government. Not that The Man at the MegaHell I work at would ever voluntarily give out money. ( I need 800 more hours there before some pathetic monetary increasement. I’ve worked there a year and a half, or 247 odd hours. fark me, it is a soulless drone job.)
Why can’t we just win the farking lottery?
That sucks. Ask about whether it is worth it for them to get braces before their adult teeth are all in. I needed braces in like, 4th grade, but didn’t get them until 7th, because of a few stubborn molars. Didn’t hurt me or my teeth any to wait. And it may help your credit situation!
If you can’t afford it, make sure they really need them now. I had severely bad teeth that needed (as in medically needed, not just for cosmetic reasons) braces. But I still didn’t get them until I was like 15 because of money. I ended up paying everything that wasn’t covered by insurance, but that’s another story.
The obvious solution is: teach the kids to speak with a british accent. Then everyone will expect them to have bad teeth.
OK, seriously though, while it may seem like the kids must have braces, in reality, braces are mostly cosmetic. Many people get along just fine with crooked teeth, funky teeth and bucky beaver teeth. If you truly can’t afford it, just say no. When they’re adults they can get them straightened. I’ve known several adult friends who got the braces their folks couldn’t afford.
Good luck!
Hallgirl2 had rock teeth. Her teeth were so bad that several of them were in nearly sideways. Her dentist stated she had too many, so he pulled several baby teeth in an effort to make room for the adult teeth, then several adult teeth to allow some to shift into place. That was the hope anyway. At the time, we were using government medical assistance, which rarely paid for orthodontics. She was denied twice for braces, even though she was having difficulties eating (digesting, really…it’s hard to properly digest food if you cannot properly chew it) and her self esteem was in the toilet. Forget smiling.
I finally appealed the decisions, presenting the costs of years in therapy for the damage to self esteem, medication costs related to digestion, etc. and they caved in, covering her braces.
She was 14 when she got them on and 16 when they came off. She has since then had several dentists tell her that if she’d gotten braces when she was younger, her teeth would have shifted again as she grew and may not have been as straight (even with the retainer) as they are now. (She’s 22.)
I’d recommend not being in a hurry to get the kids braces. INAD, but I certainly would not get braces for my 8 or 10 year old.
Kids 13 and 10 (the 13 year old is behind in loosing his baby teeth).
Our ortho is all about the wait, wait, wait route. He doesn’t want to see my 13 year old fitted for braces until next summer. My daughter is a different situation because he lower jaw is extremely crowded, so we’re pulling some teeth. But again, no braces until we have a better idea of what her maturing jaw will look like.
He says it is also a good idea because the kids end up with braces for a shorter time, which reduces costs and the likelihood of cavities. Most importantly, he believes in waiting to see how the jaw develops and how the teeth shift.
I got braces when I was 16. I got them not because my teeth were crooked but because my jaw wasn’t aligned properly, and it made a clicking sound when I opened my mouth, and hurt sometimes.
I was not happy to have braces in my prom and grad pictures, but my jaw is much better now.
When I was senior in HS my wisdom teeth came in and screwed up my bottom teeth.
I just say it will make my remains easier to identify by dental records.
The problem with my 8 year old with the Bucky Teeth is there isn’t enough room in her mouth for all the adult teeth to come in.
The problem with our 10 year old is that he has three baby teeth that refuse to come out ( I 've threatened daily to punch him in the mouth to get those stupid looking teeth out. He looks like a demented halloween pumpkin.) and now the adult teeth that want to come in are all farked up.
I wonder if I could make any money with a web site called chubbyhousewivessurfingtheweb(dot) com.
Your 8 year old sounds just like me. I had teeth jutting out all over the place as well as a severe overbite. (If I set my teeth I could stick two fingers in the gap between my top and bottom sets) I had to have 2 upper teeth pulled and then braces. It really is no fun.
8 seems awfully young. I got them at 10, and that was considered early at the time. How will braces make more room for teeth coming in? The pulling of baby teeth would make a little room, but…
I’m also kind of surprised they’re worried that the 10 year old still has three baby teeth - are the adult teeth impacted because of them, so they really can’t push them out? I had a baby tooth removed when it cracked: I was a sophomore in college when it was pulled! (there is no adult tooth there. My mom didn’t get one in that spot either) No one ever seemed in a rush to take it out sooner, though I suppose the lack of an adult tooth was part of that. I guess it’s good it wasn’t one of the four pulled before the braces went on, huh?
I too would want a second opinion. My kids’ dentist is a supremely gifted dentist and I respect the hell out of him, but he pushed me for years, at various times and in a tactful sort of way, to consider all sorts of cutting edge treatments for my kids, including but not limited to, braces, for kids whose teeth looked liveably functional and straight enough to me. They weren’t “perfect”, but as I finally, patiently, definitively, told him, “We don’t need ‘perfect’ to be happy. And if they don’t like their teeth when they’re grownups, they can pay for their own orthodontia.” My own brother got himself some braces when he was in his twenties, for cosmetic reasons.
I don’t think I’m being unduly cynical when I say that I think dentists sometimes push braces for really young kids out of either a wish to avoid malpractice suits from having not done something, and/or from a desire to make more money.
Your kids sound young to have braces. I had them myself from age 14 to 16, and even back then it was considered pointless to put braces on kids before their adult teeth had all come in, because otherwise I would have had them at age 10, me with my “snaggle teeth”.
As a child I had the bucky beaver teeth…wish I could have been proud of them. I ended up getting braces and jaw surgery as an adult. (The surgery included me having my jaw wired shut for six weeks.) I had a very severe overbite and it was possible that braces as a child wouldn’t have completely solved the problem.
My daughter got braces at age 8–she’s 14 now–and her teeth are just beautiful. Of course, her ortho wants to do “phase 2” and put braces on her teeth again, but I think we’re going to hold off on that. Indefinitely.
If your children don’t have self esteem issues due to their teeth, I would delay getting the braces. There are an awful lot of adults in braces these days.
Oh man do I feel your pain. All 5 of our kids needed braces, we’ve got 2 still in them, and now both my husband and me have them.
Your ortho may give a small family discount, and most arrange interest free payments. I managed to take some of the edge off by putting money in my flex account, but it still stings, I know.
I had stubborn baby teeth so they pulled them out. (they had roots) This was when I was seven. They pulled all my front teeth. (4 top, six bottom) I looked like an old prospector and for all that I made $2.50 from the tooth fairy.
