Does Your Orthodontist stand behind His/Her Work?

[emiejo]

I have had two children in braces thus far. The first (son) was a total of $7500 and the second (daughter) was two "Phases" of treatment at $4600 each. This was with a "family" discount. My daughter got her braces off in February. They seemed rather impatient to get it done in the weeks up to the removal and kept talking about how we were "behind schedule". We felt that when its time, its time and we weren't worried about the additional few months.
It is now October and one of the front teeth has moved back 3 mm. At the visit yesterday, the orthodontist spoke with me about the move, admitted she was "concerned" and said that she felt putting the braces back on was the best route. I agreed.....however I was then ushered into the "Financial consultant" 's office and knew something was up. THey want me to PAY AGAIN!! for the next set of braces on the front six teeth!! I told her she was insane. Literally. I said that I had already paid nearly 10 grand for their work and that any followup work should be included. My daughter wears her appliance failthfully.....I know this for fact since I homeschool and she wears it all day instead of all night. They said that she missed a followup appointment for her retainer, an appointment that they made in spite of my telling them she was spending the summer out of state. Anyway....I want to ask everyone this:
1. What has been the "average" total cost for your braces?
2. Does your orthodontist guarantee his/her work?


Thank you.
Kristen

[Sunny]

Hi and welcome to this forum.

The orthodontists I work for do not guarantee their work ... for many reasons. Mostly it's because there's no way to guarantee the patient will fulfil their requirement ... and this makes it too difficult to have any guarantee. What the guys I work for do is have follow up checks once you're in retainers, that must be kept (within a week or two due to other appointments etc), so that the retainers and teeth can be checked. This allows for quick revisions if the retainers are allowing teeth to move. If the retainers are working properly ... and being worn fulltime, teeth can't move out of place. But ... if the retainers don't fit properly, or aren't being worn properly, then teeth can and usually will move ... and this is why the followup appointments are so important.

It's interesting that your daughter is only required to wear her retainers for half the day, as this means if her teeth weren't properly settled, movement was going to be quite easy ... and I guess this is how the tooth moved 3 mm. This movement is minor and it's disappointing for such a small movement that your ortho wasn't able to use retainers to sort it out ... but there must be a good reason for this.

Did you ask your daughter's ortho why she needs to have braces again to correct this small amount of movement or other there other things that need treatment also?

I hope you can have a good talk to your daughters ortho to find out more about the treatment she now needs and it's cost. Good luck!

[emiejo]

I am not sure how you got "half a day" out of my post but that is not the case. She wears it from breakfast to bedtime. That, technically, is more hours than just at night.
I have found several orthodontists who guarantee their work while searching online. My own included....even after 30 years...he would see me for followup. No charge. If an orthodontist has no responsibility to guarantee the work and the basis being that he/she cannot be sure that instructions are being followed....then they have no integrity. Not every patient will follow the rules....but most, will. If I put a new roof on my house, the work would be guaranteed. No one comes to the house and asks..."did you climb on the roof? did you make sure no branched would ever hit it? did you clear off all leaves?" Because the workmanship is guaranteed to last. The same goes with any major appliance, automobile, windows...even plants.

In a nutshell...she wanted another 2k to fix the movement. Minor as it may be it is obvious given it is one of her front two teeth. After only 7 months....there should not have even been a question about paying further. This is pure greed.

[mikeg]

I haven't seen a guarantee from an ortho before, but I would like to.

There are so many variables:

The retainers can be slightly off
The user may not wear them as required
Growth spurt
Teeth are always moving
etc.

At the least the ortho should give quite the discount in my opinion.

I also think that orthos should see patients in retainers more, especially the first year they come off....

Good luck withyour situation and let us know how it goes... I bet your child is not too psyched about getting them back on huh?

[Sunny]

Sorry I didn't add and subtract correctly emiejo, but the point I was trying to make, was with regard to full time wear ond part time wear of retainers. Some of our patients go to part time wear after six months, but usually that's if they're got bonded retainers.

About comparing the guarantee for teeth to that for roof ... this is kinda fun, as it's all about comparing bananas and apples ... two products that have nothing in common.d a roof. Yes our ortho's do guarantee their work in the same way as a person would guarantee a roof. Then when the product is checked and they can see non compliance, the guarantee is void. The same as a roofer will not replace a roof that has been damaged in a way that was not the result of the originally made roof.

Mike we have a service more like what you're referring to. If a person needs some work done soon after having their braces removed, due to a lapse in retainer wear, it is done at very little charge to the patient. This is due to it costing us very little, as the movement will be small. Of course the longer the time and the more the movement, the more the cost ... and the more the patient will have to pay. But ... if there's been a problem with the retainers, the teeth will be corrected free of cost. This rarely happens, and it may be connected to the way we have followup care and that retainers can be adjusted to correct small movements if they occur during this time.

[emiejo]

After being faced with the possibility of a lawsuit, the Dr. has offered to retreat at no charge. Six front braces will be placed for six months followed by a permanent retainer.

And on "the roof".....its apples to apples if one considers that all instructions/parameters are being met. She was wearing her retainer...therefore following instructions.