--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > In a message dated > > My (former) dentist recommended braces for my son's > teeth when he was 7! Since our dental insurance > would only pay for one treatment, I told him I was > going to postpone it until he got older and his > skull & jaw were more fully developed, and he last > all of his baby teeth, etc.
... > Fast forward to when Nathan is 14, we (actually the > orthodontist) put braces on him and the results are > fantastic. And between insurance & my medical > spending account, they weren't even that expensive. > > Ironically, neither me nor my wife had braces, but > only because we didn't need them. Nathan had a > couple of teeth that had nowhere to go and were > going to be weird if left uncorrected. My daughter needed orthodontics at age 5 because she had (has) a cross-bite. The orthodontist told us that it didn't necessarily need she might not need them later on, but that it might correct the whole thing at the time, so we went for it. It wasn't really braces but more of a retainer type of thing. It was a removable retainer - she could take it out when she was eating or doing sports. Unfortunately she lost two of them because she took them out to eat lunch at school! Ultimately, we had to get the kind that is "cemented" into the mouth. Unfortunately when she started growing, we found her jaw is too smal and her teeth too big, so she did end up getting real braces at age 13. She had to have a couple of teeth removed because there wasn't room for all of them in her jaw. The good news, the ortho says, is she probably won't have a problem when her wisdom teeth come in (you could see these already through X-rays taken when she was 12 or so). She's still wearing the braces and probably will for another year or so, then she'll moves to retainers (and I hope, at age 16 or 17, won't throw them out with her lunch garbage anymore!) Our dentist told me my son would need braces (in her opinion) so we took him to the orth who said it didn't look like it. So I'm glad he didn't try to talk us into something not needed. Matthew, unlike Sarah, has a big mouth (in more ways than one) and lots of room for his teeth, but he could end up having a jaw that sticks out too much (like Leno or his Dad), so we have to keep an eye on that. But the orth said not to worry until Matt has all his permanent teeth, then he'd check again (he didn't charge for this assessment either.) I didn't have orthodontics and neither did my ex, but I don't think there were that many orths around when we were kids and few people could afford it (fortunately I have a dental plan that pays half the cost for kids under 18). My ex could have used them and I have a couple of crowded teeth (everyone in my family has that). ===== Catherine Toronto ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
