Braces for kids

[Nishi]

Would Medicare cover this or do we need to get private health care?

We decided to wait till we moved so that we have on orthodontist doing one treatment but now I am wondering if we did the right thing?

[rikamarie]

I'm not sure but I think medicare only covers some dental and optical but not specialized treatments.

[Marilise]

You will need to get private medical aid, and then there is a waiting period. Our position is that we are goin over to a us with braces and will have to pay cash for last year of treatment as it is pre existing condition.

[Sunnyskies]

Medicare doesn't cover dental work at all. Private usually has a benefit but has a lifetime limit on orthodontic. Wait to start until you get here, as you may struggle to find an orthodontist willing to take over preexisting work.

[Guest May]

Very expensive here(expensive there too/ R20k+ on payment plan) and thing about doing it for my son in SA was that they needed to be adjusted every so often over maybe a 18month period so you couldnt fit them there because orthodontists here want to re-do the work here anyway. Hopefully next year I will find a job in Perth and be able to afford private care and braces for my 14 year old.

Here at the moment what you get is a voucher covering the kids for a dental clean/ hope it covers the cost. Boys are going on Saturday.

[debbieschutte]

We went to see an orthodontist here in sa and she did a comprehensive photo page with my daughters teeth and front and side of her face. I sent it to a certain orthodontist in perth and asked him if he would be able to continue the treatment once we arrive there in january. He declined and said we should wait because he didnt use the same treatment. The reason i wanted to start in sa was the cost. Sa R22 000. Aus $7 000. So..... guess we would have to find work SOON !

[Mara]

My eldest son went through the whole orthodontic treatment as a 12 year old, poor child, he had to wear a head brace etc, you can imagine the teasing he underwent. Guess what, it was all to no avail, by the time he was 25, his teeth were as crooked as they had been at 12, if not worse. At age 30, he had his teeth sorted out by a specialist and had to have two caps done, front bottom, in order to have straight teeth. He says if he had known then what he know now, there is absolutely no way that he would have undergone the treatment. The specialist told him that he says many, many cases, where orthodontics have totally failed to correct the problem.

Obviously, my youngest son, (six years younger) made up his mind he was not going to have any of that, he is now 37 and guess what, his teeth look great, as he became an adult , there was enough space for his teeth in his mouth.

I am not saying that braces are bad, it is each ones choice what they do, I just wanted to put our experience out there.

HE DID WEAR HIS RETAINER, until age 18, JUST AS INSTRUCTED BY ORTHODONTIST.

[Mikej]

Braces don't work when people fail wear their retainers after the braces come off. It is quite onerous, especially for children, to look after a retainer and wear it every day and night for years after the braces come off.

The new method is to attach a permanent retainer behind the teeth after the braces come off.

[Nishi]

So I need to get private health care set up in January then and expect a 12 month waiting period.

That's not too bad considering all things.

Thanks guys at least I feel a bit better about having waited to do it rather than work between SA and auss with treatments.

So do I just register with centerlink soon as I land?

[Noele2106]

Yes Nishi, register with medicare and centerlink as soon as possible when you arrive. Our private health fund paid $2200 which was the deposit required by the orthodontist for my sons braces and we had a payment plan of $200 per month. I had both my children in braces, so that was double and thankfully my daughters braces came off yesterday. She has the permanent retainer wire behind the bottom teeth and has the retainers that she has to wear 24/7 for the 1st two weeks and thereafter only at night, for forever!

[aquagirl]

most private funds only pay a small portion of orthodontic treatment so start saving!

[HansaPlease]

Another one here who wished I never bothered going through the pain of having braces when i was a kid. They did nothing for me. I'm sure my folks could have done without the expense too.

[AndreaL]

This worries me!

My son is 8 and we call him shark boy, due to the double rows of teeth popping up everywhere. I've had a consult with our dentist who also does the invisalign braces and after x-rays, we discovered that Adam has too many teeth in his bottom jaw and is missing.........yes missing.......4 adult teeth in his top jaw.........

He was quite thrilled when Dr Hany called him a mutant and now wears this title with pride ( Dr Hany is a personal friend, I wouldn't just let anyone call my boy a mutant)......fortunately he is not pushing for treatment.........rather I was............apparently this is becoming more common ( absence of secondary teeth.............but 4!) ...............thumbs down for evolution in this case.

[Nishi]

Ah yay this looks like it's going to be fun. roll on December.

So while we are here any recommendations on which orthodontist to help buy a new house for?

[Eyebrow]

Yes Nishi, register with medicare and centerlink as soon as possible when you arrive. Our private health fund paid $2200 which was the deposit required by the orthodontist for my sons braces and we had a payment plan of $200 per month. I had both my children in braces, so that was double and thankfully my daughters braces came off yesterday. She has the permanent retainer wire behind the bottom teeth and has the retainers that she has to wear 24/7 for the 1st two weeks and thereafter only at night, for forever!

Which private fund do you belong to, if I may ask?

Thanks

[Sunnyskies]

Hmm, not sure I agree on the waste of money. I had mine in the early eighties and still better than if never done. My husband had his done in the late 90s and I was impressed by how technology had improved. He went from shark teeth to nice teeth but 4 teeth had to be removed, and there has been very little movement since. Neither of us wears a retainer. My kids are now in process, but not in actual braces yet. Interestingly the orthodontist worked out their top jaws are not big enough to accommodate their teeth and so we went through a process of widening the top jaw to accommodate the teeth rather than pulling teeth. It sounds awful but it was painless as apparently the palate only hardens in the centre when kids hit their teens and so you can gradually widen it, although it took 18 months for my son and 24 months for my daughter. Now it is time to let the rest of their adult teeth come out, hopefully less skew as a result of more mouth room and then reassess what to do. So far the big teeth coming out are looking pretty good, no more shark boy for my son.

I think a lot depends on the orthodontist.

[rozellem]

Mine was done mid 80's. Four teeth removed, no built in retainer left and when my wisdoms came in it pushed them as skew as ever. You would never say that my folks paid a shirt load of money back then for it.

[Noele2106]

Medibank, Level of cover

Top Hospital $250 excess (no excess for children)

Top Extras 70

We have been with them for 6.5 years.

This is a once off payment and they do not contribute anymore towards orthodontics per member on the policy. I did have to pay upfront and medibank refunded me within 24 hours into my bank account. I am sure most of the major health insurance companies offer similar cover depending on the level of cover you take out. A good website to go to to do a comparison on health insurance is iselect.com.au ,

[Jacovl]

Suggesting that you fit a system that is also supported by orthodontists in Australia.

There are a variety of different systems available that are distributed globally - I.e. Damon System.

I believe that a good orthodontist will be able to continue the treatment it doesn't matter where you are.

[PotchPerth]

I am in the dental profession. There are so many orthodontic systems out there. The most important thing to remember, is that it takes an Orthodontist 4 years to become one, and a Dentist a 3 day course and sending cases for setup by other people.

Like in all sectors of medicine, everybody has their field area of expertise.

I will definately not go for orthodontic work at a dentist. It might be a little but more expensive, but they are the specialist after all.

[Bob]

My youngest daughter, who is nowadays a dentist herself working in a public hospital, needed braces as a 10 year old kid.

Lokking back on the workmanship, she says it wasn't very good . . . . . from a professional point of view.

Medicare is only a "no frills" public health care system. Don't expect too much from it, like getting all your therapy and bits and pieces done at public expense. It won't happen.

You'll need to check out private health care and insure with an Australian private health insurer. The Australian gov't throws in a 30% rebate on the insurance premiums, so you end up paying the remaining 70% to get cover.

You'll need to serve any "waiting period" for the treatment required. Check with the health insurer what wait you'll need to do.

Also . . . . . and this is important . . . . go to a "preferred" provider that deals with your specific health insurance. If you don't, you'll be paying a lot of money.

I am with BUPA health insurance. For years I went to a local dentist who charged me about the same as I got back in coverage from my health insurer. If I had a $300 dental job done, I'd get about $150 back from my health insurer leaving me to pay about as much again for the payment.

I found out about BUPA "preferred providers". I went to a BUPA preferred dentist. Cost $160. I only ended up paying $16 . . . . the $144 (which ended up being 90%) was what BUPA paid in coverage for the dental work involved.

My son and daughter-in-law are with HBF insurance and that health insurance also has its own "preferred providers" for all sorts of health needs . . . . dentists, physiotherapists, chiropractors, opticians, etc.

[Mikej]

In WA the best dental cover is HBF. They have a no gap policy for general dental for children. This means that you pay nothing for any dental work for your children. This does not include major dental such as crowns and orthodontics but does cover all general dental. In my experience adults also get really good cover with HBF. BUPA is also really good and focus a lot on preventative treatment.

It is really important to try see a dentist who is an approved provider for your own particular private medical insurer and one who has HICAPS. HICAPS is part of NAB and offers you the service of getting your health insurer to pay the medical practitioner at the time of treatment (through the EFTPOS machine) and then you only pay the GAP. The alternative is to pay everything up front and claim your benefit from the insurer later.

Medibank private is not a good insurer for dental cover. Dentists do not like Medibank and as a result they opt out of becoming providers for them.

A dentist (and other ancillary professionals such as optometrists) becomes a preferred provider for an insurer when they agree to bill the fees stipulated by the insurer. This is immediately a benefit for patients because most of the stipulated fees are lower than the average private fees normally billed.

The reason Medibank is not popular is because their fees are so low that many dentists choose not to sign up with them. Another issue with Medibank is that the benefit they offer their customers is still very little even when their cost to the dentist is so low.

Here is an example of the fees with one item a scale and clean. There is about 30% difference in fee to the dentist between HBF and MEDIBANK.

HBF $115 to the dentist

MEDIBANK $89 to the dentist

In the case of HBF all members get one free scale and clean every year (including adults) so they have no out of pocket expense while Medibank members still have to contribute even though Medibank pays the dentist much less.

Edited May 20, 2014 by Mikej

[Johnno]

My daughter is 15yrs old and had braces fitted during the last school holidays. After my son went through the same thing a few years ago we opted for the top dental cover and specified that we wanted the best level of orthodontic cover. We have been with Medibank Private since arriving in Oz 13 years ago so we stayed with them through this. The cost for my daughters braces was $6,500 and our private insurer picked up $3,500

She had to have a few teeth removed before the orthodontist could work his magic, that set us back $2,000! The private medical covered the half day in hospital, the costs were for surgeon, anaesthetist etc.

PS! Parking at the hospital was about $10,000 for the half day

Also when we arrived in Oz I saw an ad on TV for taking out private medical cover for your pets. I laughed until we got our first dog and he landed up at the vet one Sunday morning! After receiving the account I grabbed a handful of application forms from the desk!! Crikey vets are expensive around here!!

Edited May 28, 2014 by Johnno