Raising a child is expensive. When all the costs are added up from the time your baby is born until he or she is out on their own, the numbers can seem astronomical, and if you are raising your child in the United States there is more than a fair chance your child might one day need braces. This article is dedicated to helping you cross this financial step off the list.
Orthodontic care can be quite an expensive investment in your child's life. Treatment can range from $2000 up to $8000. A hefty chunk of change you might rather wish to spend on nice romantic dinners and relaxing vacations. Here is how you can save your child's smile without breaking the bank.
Why Your Child Might Need Braces
As your child grows older and matures, he or she also gains more teeth as new pairs come through the gums and fill the mouth with their full adult set. This growth can be disruptive to the orientation of teeth around them causing crooked teeth, which in turn hurts the quality of one's appearance and difficulties eating and speaking. Braces are designed to fix this problem. They work by exerting a complicated arrangement of directional force on your teeth. This delicate balance is important to be just right as the setting of individual teeth affects the pressure they place on the adjacent ones. Good brace setting will prevent a domino effect of teeth misalignment that slowly occurs over years.
Knowing how to save
Not all treatments cost the same. Depending on the treatment your child undergoes and what insurance you have you may be able to save hundreds or even thousands. If you plan well this money should be sitting in your bank come your daughter's sweet sixteen.
Ways to Save
Get dental insurance. Talk to your HR department about enrolling in your company's dental plan. Most companies have one and while most dental plans don't cover cosmetic work, a lot of them cover necessary orthodontic work. While your insurance won't cover the entire cost of braces, most pay a significant percentage up to a lifetime maximum.
Get a dental discount plan if you don't have access to dental insurance. It's one of the easiest ways to save money on dental work and lets you avoid the hassle of filing an insurance claim. You simply pay the dentist or orthodontist directly instead of having them bill the insurance.
Apply for a medical flexible spending account through your company. Medical FSAs allow you to take out specific amounts of each paycheck pre-tax. You are then reimbursed from this FSA when you submit receipts of your medical expenses.
Visit several orthodontists. Prices of treatments can vary significantly, as they all set their own prices. Most orthodontist offices offer free evaluations, at which time they'll provide you with information about pricing, as well as any payment plans they offer.
Thankfully, planning for these unexpected events make handling them much easier.
Once you have taken these steps, you now have an achievable savings goal. You can begin to set aside money and can easily track your progress by dividing the total cost by the time it needs to be paid.
How to Personalize your Dental Braces
If you are going to be sporting dental braces, you should know there are many ways to make your look unique! You probably did not think wearing braces was going to be a chance to show off your individuality, but there are many ways to personalize your braces.
How Dental Braces are Applied
It is very common to feel nervous before getting braces, but it is important to note that the process of applying braces has been developed over hundreds of years of orthodontic practice.
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