I am told by someone, based on their memories from childhood, that braces aren’t paid for based on a fixed cost-per-procedure, but rather, they are paid for in fixed monthly installments that you simply keep paying til the braces are removed, however long that may end up taking.
Is that correct?
(Assume a dentist in the US.)
No.
My sister and I both had braces in the '60s. The orthodontist used the extensive xrays and plaster models to come up with a treatment plan, and a total amount was charged. My parents made payments forever, since they had two kids with whacked out teeth.
Now, when MY kids got braces, I had dental insurance. BUT it doesn’t pay for everything. Naturally. So after the insurance coverage was figured out, I was given the total amount I owed, and I made payments forever, since I had two kids with whacked out teeth.
Parents with dental insurance need to read the fine print. Ortho typically has a whopping deductible, and then pays a certain amounts, and you get to pay the rest. On some plans, the parent has to fork over the bucks to pay for the extensive xrays necessary prior to the treatment plan being done.
And some plans do not cover ortho for patients 18 years of age or older.
~VOW
IANADentist, but my foster-sister and I had braces respectively for 7 and 5 years, starting in late middle school.
As lots of family activities were curtailed due to the cost of our teeth, I can speak pretty confidently on how it worked for us in the mid-late 90s.
There are several costs to look at.
1 is paid for by insurance.
2 had to be at least half paid off before they even started anything.
If there are teeth out, that is another charge, but for us (4 teeth and 4 wisdom teeth for me, 6 regular teeth, 2 stubborn baby teeth!! and 2 wisdom teeth for my foster sister) someone convinced the insurance company it was medically necessary, so insurance covered that part. I imagine it was hellishly expensive, as the process involved an anesthesiologist and a dental surgeon.
The remainder was a payment that for me was paid for at my monthly adjustments and for my foster sister with stubborn teeth was paid for through monthly bills since her adjustments were only every 3 months or so.
3 is a small charge similar to a dentist visit which has to be paid on site after the appointment. Unfortunately, insurance does not usually cover braces.
4 and 5 were wrapped up into one charge for me. For my foster sister, 4 was free because she had been in braces for 7 years, and was a Sophomore in college at that point and I think they felt sorry for my mom and her. I have a suspicion that 4 was free for me also because they knew we were flat broke at this point.
5 is one charge, in the $300 range, that again had to be at least half-paid before they would begin the process. I remember that total specifically, because we were dead broke at that point, and I paid the $150 from my college money because I wasn’t willing to be in braces for another few months while my parents scraped the cash together to get my retainer made. Afterwards, the rest is paid in monthly installments until it’s gone.
This was how it worked for me. Hope that made sense!
One way to pay is: If your company offers a Flexible Spending Account, plan ahead and determine how much your dental insurance will pay. Put as much as you can of the balance into the FSA and pay the dentist up front in January with pre-tax dollars.
Depending on the cost of the braces, you may have to do this more than one year.
With our family’s current orthodontist: Whether insurance covers part of it or not, the orthodontist comes up with a total dollar amount you’ll be owing (less insurance), and then sets up the payments so that you’ll be done paying by or before the time the braces are to come off. They find that once the braces are removed, there is little incentive for people to continue paying, so they are careful to make sure the ending payment comes in before the braces come off.
(grrr, phone calls in the middle of edits)
ETA - Regarding the payment estimates. There was a total price-tag for the braces themselves at the beginning, and there was an estimation made of the amount of time they expected things to take. They split the monthly payment so that it was roughly even with that time-period. There was another evaluation made about the half-way point where the time estimate was either supported or changed, and I believe that the payments were altered then if the time was significantly shorter or longer.
I do know that my foster sister’s braces were totally paid off LONG before she finished (ie, she just had the small office-visit payments), and that mine had a few payments left because I was done a little earlier than expected (helping create the retainer funding problem).
My daughter’s ortho did this as well. Our insurance covered about 15% of the cost, and we’re making payments on the rest.
This might be obvious, but the cost of all of her ongoing ortho visits are covered as we’re making payments. So any adjustments, expanders, xrays, etc. are covered during the process.
My daughters both had braces. The orthodontist did all the prelimin work, then presented us with a treatment plan…and an invoice. We could either pay cash upfront (with a 5% discount) or do a monthly payment plan for the entire amount + interest. We chose the cash option. (We had dental insurance, but it was paid back to us (not to the dentist) in monthly installments until it was maxed out.)
The total cost included the preliminary molds, etc., all x-rays, the installation and removal of the braces, one set of retainers, and all adjustments in between, no matter how long it took. It also included periodic visits after removal.
FYI, my oldest daughter had her braces off in a little under two years. The other daughter had hers for almost four years. Same price. Oh, and the original orthodontist retired in the middle of the 2nd one’s treatment. His successor took over her treatment. How they worked out payment wasn’t divulged to us.
If it was a monthly payment into infinity, there’d be no incentive for the ortho to take off the braces on time. In fact, there’d be quite an incentive for him to leave them on…
There are different ways of paying for braces. You can certainly pay in installments, but we paid for MilliCal’s braces all in one go. It was cheaper, in the long run.
Chiming in. Both my kids had braces (in fact my daughter had TWO separate rounds - ouch!). We were quoted a big up-front price, of which a certain amount would be covered by insurance (ours was good - up to 2,500 bucks per patient). The balance could be paid up front, or in various combinations of down payments and installments. We opted to pay cash up front for both, as I’d recently received an inheritance and there was a small discount for doing so.
Had we had to make payments, it would have been for a couple of years regardless of the length of treatment.
I have, however, heard of several instances of orthodontists actually making partial refunds when a child’s teeth took an unusually short time to move.
The orthodontist we went with for both our kids charges a total price up front. The only extra charge would have been for a lost or broken appliance. Each time we paid a down payment on that number, and then paid the balance in 20 monthly installments. For my son it was great, because he had his braces for years - numerous visits and appliances were involved. I think they were using him as a science experiment! I shudder to think what it would have cost for all that if we’d paid ala carte.
This was my experience, as well, 30 years ago. My orthodontist quoted a total price to my parents, and they paid it off over 24 monthly installments (as I was expected to have the braces on for 2 years). I wasn’t involved enough in the finances of it all to know if our dental insurance covered any of it.
We agreed on a fixed price and I am paying it off. They weren’t sure how long he would have them on, somewhere between 18 to 24 months. But no matter, it’s the same price. We set it up so that I pay quarterly (i.e. every 3 months). One more payment and we’re done!
Paid for like a car loan. No savings for paying early. All interest calculated up front and chopped up into one month pieces.
Our Orthodontist guaranteed follow-through without charge. If he needed more work after the 3 years, the work kept going no matter what until his teeth were as promised.
In fact, he did need more work and not a whisper regarding money once we’d paid the sum initially owed. They were good to their word.
My daughter’s braces we paid for each month for about the two years she wore them. My son, a few years later, we paid in a lump sum up front. Whatever.
The nice thing is that each of them only wore the braces for two years, instead of the four or five years that was standard when I was a kid.
One lump sum to be paid off in full minus 10% discount. Or the full payment is divided into equal sums and billed monthly. All visits are included in the price, retainer too. If lost, you pay for replacement.
The first consultation is free, xrays, measurements and pictures are taken, and the Dr is able to propose a treatment & price on the spot. You get to mull it over at home, no negotiating his price. The insurance covered about $1500, roughly half of the full price.
For the first kid I went orthodontist shopping, 2 told me she needed teeth pulled, the ortho I chose only removes teeth if it is absolutely neccessary. Seems the other guys like acres of space in the mouth.
Lump sum with a 10% discount or monthly payments, interest free. But it was a fixed amount decided upon in advance. Payments didn’t just keep accumulating. They tried to break it up over the length of how long they expected the braces to be on. We paid a lump sum and didn’t pay a cent after that. All exams, repairs etc included.
However, replacement retainer- $$$$. He lost his 1 week after getting his braces off. Stinker.
Ours offered a payment plan. We paid up front and got a discount (something like 10%). They do not nickle and dime you for things after they quote you - except for things like lost retainers.
My older son has had braces. We paid them off in installments, which were finished more than a year before the braces came off - partly because the treatment (which started with a palate expander, a type of plastic dental torture device) worked more slowly than the orthodontist had anticipated. Still, even if he had stuck to the original time table, the payments would have stopped before the treatment did.
We were not charged for the extra check-ups the delay required!
Thats how it worked for my 3 daughters too.