s/o Braces - what determines need of

[northcoast]

We've had evaluations on both kids and of course we are told they need them due to "complete" overbite (upper covers lower teeth). We are told the there "could be" damage due to biting on the palate. Overjet is 4-5 mm. Other than that their teeth don't look bad as crowding isn't too bad. Right now my kids are not having problems biting/chewing. So do they really "need" braces or do two orthos just want everyone to have perfect teeth? Any thoughts?

[KungFuPanda]

I don't think I've ever heard a story about an ortho telling someone they don't need braces. Ever.

[Beth.]

Pretty sure I have a complete overbite after years of ortho work. :glare:

[TengoFive]

I don't think I've ever heard a story about an ortho telling someone they don't need braces. Ever.

 

Our orthodontist has told us that exact thing for 2 kids so far. The others needed extensive work for underbites.

 

To the OP, ask the orthodontist what they foresee happening if they don't get braces. That will give you a better idea of whether they actually need them for anything more than cosmetic reasons.

[Barb_]

I don't think I've ever heard a story about an ortho telling someone they don't need braces. Ever.

 

Actually our ortho told me three years ago when she still had 12 baby teeth that my 4th daughter wouldn't ever need braces. I was stunned. He'd already put braces on three of our kids. Maybe he thought we'd suffered enough.:lol:

[Arcadia]

The only person that needed braces in my extended family was my brother. He has speech issues due to the positioning of his teeth. After four years of braces, his speech was much better.

 

ETA: brother had braces put in at 13.

Edited October 17, 2012 by Arcadia

[IsabelC]

Ask the orthodontist what they foresee happening if they don't get braces. That will give you a better idea of whether they actually need them for anything more than cosmetic reasons.

:iagree:

 

Also ask what the risks and benefits are to undergoing orthodontic work now vs later on. It's quite common for people in their late teens and even early twenties to have braces nowadays, so if there's no compelling reason to do it now, waiting to see if they develop any problems could be an option. On the other hand, if they're almost certain to have trouble, it may be preferable to get the braces over with ASAP.

 

Fwiw, my upper teeth are more than 1cm in front of my lower teeth. It doesn't look too glamorous in profile, but I have never had any damage or issues caused by it.

[LindaOz]

:iagree: Also ask what the risks and benefits are to undergoing orthodontic work now vs later on. It's quite common for people in their late teens and even early twenties to have braces nowadays, so if there's no compelling reason to do it now, waiting to see if they develop any problems could be an option. On the other hand, if they're almost certain to have trouble, it may be preferable to get the braces over with ASAP. Fwiw, my upper teeth are more than 1cm in front of my lower teeth. It doesn't look too glamorous in profile, but I have never had any damage or issues caused by it.

 

In Australia, it seems to be more usual to have braces later rather than earlier. My 17 and 16 year olds have braces now due to overcrowding but their orthodontist waited for my 16yo to get all her adult teeth through first - and hers were later coming through.

 

The orthodontist told my dd that no-one ever dies from crooked teeth which I think is a really cool statement coming from an ortho. ;)

[IsabelC]

In Australia, it seems to be more usual to have braces later rather than earlier. My 17 and 16 year olds have braces now due to overcrowding but their orthodontist waited for my 16yo to get all her adult teeth through first - and hers were later coming through.

Oh, I didn't realize that was only over here (I assume that when anything changes, it's already changed in the States ten years ago :lol:)

 

The orthodontist told my dd that no-one ever dies from crooked teeth which I think is a really cool statement coming from an ortho. ;)

I love your orthodontist. I thought their aim was for 100% of kids to have some type of orthodontic treatment.

 

Personally, I like the quirkiness of crooked teeth. My man has almost perfectly aligned teeth, but one on the 'wrong' angle, and it's one of my favorite things about his face.

[LindaOz]

Oh, I didn't realize that was only over here (I assume that when anything changes, it's already changed in the States ten years ago :lol:) I love your orthodontist. I thought their aim was for 100% of kids to have some type of orthodontic treatment. Personally, I like the quirkiness of crooked teeth. My man has almost perfectly aligned teeth, but one on the 'wrong' angle, and it's one of my favorite things about his face.

Yep, I like his attitide too. I don't feel like he's just playing for my money. However, with 8 kids, and potentially more needing braces, I'm sure we're contributing highly to his retirement fund ;)

 

I had a dentist try to get me to have some procedure done to my now 10yo so I consulted the ortho and he pretty much advised me to wait until her adult teeth are through because so much can change in her mouth between now and then.

[Lucy in Australia]

If you have a knowledgeable & trustworthy dentist, you could ask his opinion. Ours referred DS16 (who has an overbite) to an orthodontist who wanted to remove 4 healthy teeth & put braces on. He was adamant this was necessary; I had a problem with extracting the teeth. I then went back to the dentist & asked what medical problems he might have if we didn't do the treatment. He went round in circles a bit but finally admitted there probably wouldn't be any problems except for a very slight chance of the lower teeth rubbing on the upper palate.

[weddell]

I don't think I've ever heard a story about an ortho telling someone they don't need braces. Ever.

 

An ortho told my mom that if I had been his kid, he wouldn't get my teeth fixed since they needed so little work. Years later, he told her the same thing about my sister. My bottom teeth are crowded and the front two overlap a little. When my mouth is shut, my top teeth almost completely cover the overlap. So basically the ortho didn't think it was worth the effort/cost to fix for a small cosmetic problem (my mom agreed and I never had any work done). So there are orthos out there who don't think perfect teeth are necessary!

[northcoast]

Thanks for all the replies! We've been told what "could" happen. I'm in the process of determining what that risk is. Of course we've been told it's much better to do things earlier rather than later.

 

It's curious to see many you in Australia have ortho work done later. I wonder what the rationale is or if any studies have been done to show later is better. Here in the US it's standard to have the 2 phase treatment although we are past that for my son and they want to pull 4 teeth!! However, we are told his wisdom teeth look good and won't need pulled if we do this work. Decisions! Decisions!

 

Thank you, too, to the one that said no one dies of crooked teeth! I needed to hear that. :001_smile:

[Pippen]

I don't think I've ever heard a story about an ortho telling someone they don't need braces. Ever.

 

I've had two orthos in our town tell me my kids could go either way. With one there could be some minor problems down the road. For the other braces would be for appearance only.

[AngieW in Texas]

My oldest has perfect teeth.

 

My middle has some crowding on the bottom. We did do an ortho referral for her. He said that she could clear up the crowding with braces, but that the level of crowding she had was about what people end up with several years after their braces come off if they don't keep up with wearing the retainer at night.

 

My youngest has a lot of issues and we've known she was going to need braces since she was an infant. The roof her mouth was VERY narrow and arched. She had a cross-bite and so little room that her first 4 adult teeth knocked out 7 baby teeth and took up all the space they left. After that, the dentist ended up pulling baby teeth in advance to make room for the adult teeth that kept coming in out of position because there was no room for them.

 

I interviewed several orthos for her. Two wanted to pull 4-6 adult teeth, have her in braces with headgear for 2-3 years, switch to retainers with headgear for another 2-3 years, and then finally have just regular retainers for several more years. The dentist urged us to go to a specific ortho for another consult. He said that he could do it without pulling any teeth and without headgear, so that's who we went with. She had to wear just top braces for the first 6 months because she would have bitten the brackets off of her bottom teeth until he got the top fixed to where it was supposed to be. She was in braces for 2.5 years and she didn't need any adult teeth pulled. She is wearing her retainer 24/7 now, but she'll get to switch to night-time only in January.

[northcoast]

After seeing some replies now I am questioning what is a bad overbite? I mean lots of people of overbites and it doesn't seem to bother them. My kids right now don't want braces and don't seem troubled by their supposed issues. But they ultimately won't make the decision. :001_smile:

[katilac]

I don't think I've ever heard a story about an ortho telling someone they don't need braces. Ever.

 

Mine did. He said my oldest didn't need any work.

 

With my youngest, he spent quite a bit of time discussing her potential work with me - she had one tooth that was so far back, the two on either side could have moved into the space over time. He was very open about the fact that this might not happen, and that it could still be fixed if it did (but with more extensive work).

 

He also said that the risk of other teeth moving was the only reason he would consider doing the work that young (9-10), b/c he thinks it's too hard on little kids. We did decide to do it then, and, over the year of treatment, we never saw another patient there as young as dd.

 

I definitely recommend getting input from your dentist AND your friends with ortho experience, and having at least one consult. The ortho should be willing to explain things in detail, and willing to give you a written treatment plan that he does NOT expect you to sign that day.

[edelweiss]

I don't think I've ever heard a story about an ortho telling someone they don't need braces. Ever.

 

Our orthodontist has told several people we know that they don't need braces. My older daughter has already had "Phase 1" done. She had a cross-bite and there was absolutely no doubt that it needed to be fixed. However, the verdict isn't in yet as to whether or not she will need "Phase 2". Everything is looking good though and our orthodontist thinks it is likely that she won't need it at all. Yea! DD2 still has a lot of baby teeth, but the orthodontist is saying that she may very well not need braces at all. :001_smile: So, there are some orthodontists out there that don't want to put braces on everybody. ;)

 

I was completely prepared for both of my daughters to need braces. It is very important to me that they have the most perfect teeth that I can give them, so I will definitely do braces if I'm advised to do so.

[QueenCat]

I don't think I've ever heard a story about an ortho telling someone they don't need braces. Ever.

 

The ortho told us my older one didn't need them.

[Splash]

Our ortho told me that middle daughter doesn't need braces and funny people who know we go to ortho for her brothers always comment on how well her teeth turned out after braces. She is just fortunate. Other four kids need braces. Tiny tiny mouths on three of them with big teeth. Oldest ds had underbite that needed to be corrected in hopes he won't require jaw surgery.

 

Fun. So our ratio is 4/5 needed braces.

[TammyS]

The orthodontist told my dd that no-one ever dies from crooked teeth which I think is a really cool statement coming from an ortho. ;)

 

My son (14 next week) has very crooked teeth. So far, we haven't done anything about it. We'd like to, but the thousands of dollars for ortho treatment just isn't there.

 

I keep telling myself that when I was young only wealthy kids got braces and the rest of us just put up with it.

 

I haven't taken him to the dentist for a cleaning in two years because I frankly just got tired of hearing that he needed to see an ortho (no sh*t, you told me, that doesn't make the $$ appear, and it's not like I could miss that his teeth are crooked). I feel *slightly* bad about that, but frankly we eat really well and he's never had a cavity, so I don't feel too bad.

 

Meanwhile, I'm taking GK Chesterton's advice not to raise a generation of children with straight teeth and crooked morals.

[northcoast]

Meanwhile, I'm taking GK Chesterton's advice not to raise a generation of children with straight teeth and crooked morals.

:lol: Great advice!!

 

Glad to hear there are some honest ortho's out there. We are meeting with our dentist today to ask what he thinks of the ortho's evaluations. I plan to ask him what are the risks if we don't have this stuff done. Money doesn't grow on trees!

[Beth S]

We have 5 kids. Our (conservative) dentist told us which ones would need braces. Oldest had a complete underbite, Kid #4 had obvious bite problems & lots of overcrowding.

 

We are thrifty. However, these 2 kids would have had weird wear on their front teeth without braces.

 

Most orthodontists give initial free consulting. Ours will monitor a young child's progress for free (e.g. our 10yo son has been twice, so they can see that his bite is not worsening to the underbite that the oldest had). Some problems do not become worse!

 

Actually, our orthodonist said that our son's future underbite could even worsen as late as 17-22yo, at the end of puberty.

 

Ultimately, the child can decide to get braces as an adult, if you truly can't afford them now. But we (honestly) live in a world that harshly judges people who have extremely maligned and crooked teeth. :glare:

 

My advice would be to continue to have the dentist or (free) orthodontist monitor the situation, but deal calmly with their advice. You can always go home, talk about it, and call back if it becomes a necessity. They have payment plans, spread out over several years, etc. Sometimes grandparents are willing to step in to assist.

 

From my perspective, the braces have worked a MIRACLE in two of our five kids mouths . . . though I'm usually a thrifty skeptic!

[Mommy22alyns]

Our ortho said that Rebecca might end up not needing braces, so it does happen.

[Laura Corin]

 

It's curious to see many you in Australia have ortho work done later. I wonder what the rationale is or if any studies have been done to show later is better. Here in the US it's standard to have the 2 phase treatment although we are past that for my son and they want to pull 4 teeth!! However, we are told his wisdom teeth look good and won't need pulled if we do this work. Decisions! Decisions!

 

Thank you, too, to the one that said no one dies of crooked teeth! I needed to hear that. :001_smile:

 

My dentist didn't send Calvin to the ortho until all his adult teeth were in. He was seriously goofy: his upper teeth sat naturally on his lower lip. By the time he went to the ortho, he was moving into puberty and his lower jaw was broadening. The treatment went well and his teeth went great: he had one removed and the others shifted over perfectly.

 

Laura

[LibraryLover]

Well, for us, it's genetic. The x-rays, oy. SO crowded, so crooked!

 

The length of time my kids have been in braces varies. One of mine did only 14 months, one did 18, and one did 16. One needed nearly 30 months.

 

I might not be an orthodontist, but I can look at pans and see horror. lol

[cassiemc]

One ortho told me that our daughter didn't need any work. It does happen :)

 

My oldest son is getting braces within the month. We had 2 free consults with different orthos. Different treatment plans for a very pronounced overbite. I would never put braces on a child that doesn't want them. I would also not put braces on a young child or pull perfectly healthy teeth. We waited until all of his baby teeth were out. We went at 10 and the ortho wanted to pull teeth for the braces, no thanks! Consults are important. Treatment plans vary and you have to like these people. You will be seeing them for 2-3 years, every month or so :)

[LittleIzumi]

I would only go in for kids who have serious issues. Both of dd's dentists have commented on her teeth before she was 7. She has an extra baby tooth, extra permanent tooth, and 10mm overbite, plus her teeth go in interesting directions. :lol: It's also probably causing her slight speech issues, according to the SLP. She would live without braces, but I think it would be preferable to get them fixed if we can. Her sister has perfect teeth. I mean perfect. It's so not fair. :lol::lol::lol: I see no reason to ever bring that dd to an ortho, period.

[Ali in OR]

Our dentist referred our youngest to the ortho when she was 8, but he never referred her older sister, so he saw a specific need for youngest. She had a significant overbite and her teeth were angling out. Ortho showed us how her lower jaw was smaller than upper jaw and that her bite is off by a whole mountain/valley. He also explained that the difference in the jaws is easy to fix when they are young and growing--just a year of headgear if done at the right time. Hence the need for an early referral, before all of the adult teeth are in. He was also very clear that her bite is so off that she will need a phase two. He's a conservative ortho and doesn't automatically put kids in braces, but he was able to explain to my satisfaction why it would be best for her. I will be taking older dd in this month for an eval and will be curious to see what he says. I know if she had serious bite issues the dentist would have referred her by now. Her teeth are a little twisted at different angles and the eye teeth (or tooth, only one is in), are pretty high up. Maybe he'll tell us the issues are cosmetic only. Even if it is just that, I think it is something we will try to address. As someone else said up-thread, we live in a very image-conscious world and if that helps her in future job interviews or in her own self-confidence, then it's a gift that we'd like to give her now while she's our financial responsibility and we have at least some minimal insurance for ortho work.

[LucyStoner]

Braces were not a financial option for me as a child. By the time I was 30, my bite and alignment issues had a couple of teeth and the crowding (I had several impacted teeth that were not wisdom teeth and 1 tooth that was erupted fully behind my other teeth. It was a mess. I got braces. I finally realized what a bite was and the pain and headaches from my teeth have been resolved. While certainly it was a nice cosmetic improvement, it has proven very helpful in other ways. My very non-intervention, low tech, relentlessly honest inclined dentist urged me to see an ortho. He said I'd lose all my molars to wear eventually if I didn't do something about the crazy bite. I should get them off this summer. Woot.

[northcoast]

Thanks again for replies.

 

Margaret in CO, do check or have the family check for ortho care. In some of my research ortho is covered under Medicaid/CHIP plans for severe problems. I didn't see what severe meant and we don't qualify so I quick looking.

 

After visiting our dentist yesterday, he looked at the ortho evaluations and said both our kids have severe overbites as you can't see the bottom teeth when the jaw is closed. And that makes their molars in back not line up properly. My kids' teeth are going to wear down eventually. Older age will be the problems really hit but one can't say when that will happen. However my dentist also said if a kid doesn't want braces, won't take care of the teeth while getting corrected, won't wear the retainer afterwards and you can't motivate them/convince, then it's money wasted. Patient compliance is a big factor for success with braces. He also said it is easier to deal with problems earlier rather than later and ultimately the family has to decide what's best for them.