Did you know that over $200 billion is spent on children’s healthcare each year?
If you’ve been thinking about taking your child to the orthodontist, you may be wondering about the price of it all.
Is it going to break the bank, or are you going to be able to afford it without a problem? How much treatment is your child actually going to need?
While we can’t tell you how much orthodontic treatment your child will need, we can give you an estimate for the different treatments they may need!
Keep reading this orthodontist guide to learn more about the orthodontist cost of each treatment and answers to any other questions you may have.
First of all, what is an orthodontist? How is an orthodontist different from a dentist?
While a dentist helps you and your child keep up with oral hygiene, the best orthodontist will help to make your smile more aesthetic. This means making your teeth straight!
The first thing that factors into orthodontist cost is the treatments that your child needs. If they only need one, it’s going to be cheaper than if they need two or three of the treatments.
One of the most prominent orthodontic treatments is braces. These even range in price depending on the types of braces you choose to go with. There are traditional braces, lingual braces, Invisalign, and ceramic braces to choose from.
Each takes a different amount of time to work, but all have different price ranges as well.
For instance, traditional braces tend to be anywhere between $3,000 to $7,000. These tend to work the quickest, and children can choose the colors of the bands they have on their braces to express themselves during this time.
Ceramic braces are a bit more expensive, and they usually start around $4,000 and can go up to $8,000. Ceramic braces blend in with your teeth, so they are not as noticeable.
Clear aligners are along the same lines as these prices and are the most invisible of all the options. However, these ones can be lost, so there is a possibility that you would end up spending even more money, especially if your child takes them out a lot.
Lingual braces are braces that hide behind the teeth on the inside of the mouth, and they tend to be the most expensive, running up to $10,000.
A lot of the cost of the braces depends on the duration of the braces. It also depends on how many visits to the orthodontist you have to go to for readjustments and checkups.
While braces are some of the most expensive orthodontic treatments you will be looking at; there are other things you may be spending money on after braces or even before.
For instance, one of those would be a retainer. This is worn at night after the braces are taken off to ensure that the teeth stay straight. These can run anywhere between $150 to $500.
Of course, there are other treatments as well. Depending on the bite of your child, they may need a face mask to wear with their braces to fix the bite.
This could be another hundred dollars or less as well.
The price of orthodontic work is more than just the treatment itself, though. It also depends on the type of technology that an orthodontist uses when working on your child’s smile and orthodontic work.
So what is this technology used for anyway?
The technology is usually used to map out a plan for the treatment of your child’s orthodontic needs.
For instance, you may need to use technology to create images of your child’s mouth for the right impressions in the teeth for braces or Invisalign. As treatment continues, there will also be a range of X-Rays to identify what else is happening with their oral structure and how the treatment is working.
The more technology is used, the more it is going to cost.
Another large aspect of how much the orthodontic treatment costs is whether insurance covers all of it, some of it, or none of it.
For starters, does insurance cover your visits to the orthodontist or even some of them? That will help bring the cost down, so it is important to know what type of insurance coverage you have.
A lot of insurance companies do help with coverage for children under the age of 18, so it is always important to talk to the orthodontist before going through with anything. A lot of times, there are options to purchase supplemental orthodontic insurance to add to your health plan if you know you will have orthodontic treatments in the next calendar year.
It’s also important to read the small print of every insurance coverage plan. This is especially true if you foresee a move in the future while getting orthodontic treatment for your child. Sometimes, if you move when they are in the middle of receiving treatment, the next insurance company may deem the treatment as a pre-existing condition and not cover it.
If you feel confident that your child needs orthodontic treatment but are still wondering about the orthodontist cost that you may be facing, it is best to just make an appointment and consult with an orthodontist!
Contact us today so we can meet you and answer any questions you may have! Knowing what treatments you may be looking at in the future will also help to answer any questions about the cost of it all.
