It’s My Imagination

Orthodontics

A month or so ago, I took my daughter for a consult appointment at an orthodontist who is listed under our insurance plan. He has a very good reputation, his office was very busy and the staff were all very nice. After a fairly thorough exam, we were given a treatment plan that was fairly basic, nothing out of the ordinary, and a time frame of 18 months from the time she actually gets the braces on to the time they’re removed.

All of the information I was given was expected, she was all ready under the care of an orthodontist in Illinois. She was to have had her braces put on last summer, but we moved. What surprised me on this day was the cost, $6,500 for the full treatment. This is about $1,500-2,000 more than we expected. Our insurance is paying a maximum of $1,500, so everything above that we have to pay.

I did take then take her to a second orthodontist. Unfortunately, this one we weren’t comfortable with, there were only one or two other patients and it was a very strange office layout. We could see one patient having work done while we were sitting in the lobby. The cost? $2,500. What a huge difference! I felt though that we would probably be hit with a lot of little add on charges as time went on with this one. He wanted to start her treatment right then and there! Of course, he had the time, no patients waiting. We declined and left.

I have since set up her first four appointments with the 1st orthodontist. However, after speaking with our new dentist yesterday, I have decided to take her to one more orthodontist for a third cost opinion. Our new dentist used to practice orthodontics and he too was very surprised at the high cost we had been given. He concurred that there was nothing out of the ordinary about my daughter’s teeth, they were just crooked. While he also agreed that the orthodontist we were planning on having do the treatment is very good, he felt the cost was too high and we should get another quote.

So, on Monday, I will be calling another dr., this one is Not in our insurance network, so I have to also see how that will work. I realize that it is not all about cost, but I just can’t help feeling that we are going to be paying more than normal and that’s just hard to live with.