I am like my mother in many ways.   Notably when it comes to physical characteristics, my mother taught me that only two things matter when assessing the physical attractiveness of another human being.   Eyes are important because they allow you to read more about a person than words will ever articulate.   And nice, white straight teeth are just plain important.   No supporting rationale is required for teeth.

While I cannot control the eyes of my adoptive children (which are lovely by the way), the shape their teeth take as adults is something I can shape (and their teeth really do need some serious help). I will mold their teeth with the help of some very expensive orthodontics.

According to the Canadian Association of Orthodontics, having a nice smile is only one benefit of braces.   It can also help alleviate health problems and social/psychological issues that crop up when one is not comfortable in one’s own skin.

While I initially wanted my kids to get braces for purely aesthetic reasons, visits with our dentist and the orthodontist revealed that we had bigger problems than initially thought.   Two of our daughter’s adult canines hadn’t descended and she needs some serious bite realignment.   Some of our son’s adult teeth aren’t appearing on x-rays and at 11 years he still has more baby teeth than adult teeth in his mouth.

Social impacts have also appeared.   My son briefly stopped smiling with his mouth open.   He came home crying from school because his classmates were making fun of his teeth.   The current state of his teeth has caused him to feel really bad about himself.

Braces are expensive. The average cost for a two-year treatment is $5,000 (2004 data in USD).   Because my kids have additional surgical needs, it will cost us approximately $10,000 for our daughter and $7,000 for our son to undergo orthodontic treatment.

Orthodontics in our case is part want and part need.   I blame it on my mother and my own maternal instincts, but when faced with the choice of having to come up with money to buy a second family car, or braces, I’m choosing braces for my kids.

Here are some tips to hopefully make it a little less painful on your pocketbook.

Find an orthodontist who offers interest-free payment plans. One of my biggest concerns about braces was figuring out how to finance them. If we pay for the entire treatment upfront, the orthodontist offers a 5% discount on the entire bill.   While this would save us $375, we don’t have $7,500 sitting in our bank account and we didn’t really want to dip into our line of credit.   As an alternative, our orthodontist offers a monthly payment plan.   After the initial down payment, we get to pay a monthly interest-free installment for 24-months.

Your benefits package matters. The benefits package that accompanies your job can help with some of the costs of braces.   Check your plan for orthodontic coverage.   My wife’s plan provides a lifetime fixed amount which will cover 1/3 of the total cost of braces for both kids.   The surgical preparation for both kids, approximately $2,500, was covered entirely from a different pocket of money in the benefit plan.

Tax credits are available. The Canadian Revenue Agency offers a medical tax credit for the cost of your orthodontics. I don’t know how much it will amount to in the end, but it’s something worth saving my receipts for.

Get your kids onboard, again. After our daughter completed the first stage of treatment (this involved some dental surgery to attach chains to her canines to try to bring them down), she was given a very specific list of what, and what not, to eat.   Within the first two weeks she had eaten items on the forbidden list which caused the chains to break and sent us back for a unscheduled appointments with fees.   While she had initially expressed a desire for braces, it was time to sit her down and have a serious talk.   She had a choice to make:   Did she, or did she not, want braces?   We were happy to drive her to appointments and pay for braces, but she needed to take care of her mouth with proper brushing and observe the rules of not chewing gum and what kinds of food to eat.   We’re moving forward with the treatment plan.

Location matters. Orthodontists are not conveniently located in my city.   We like in an urban area and there are no orthodontists in the downtown core.   Every time my child has an appointment or an issue crops up, this means I need to pick up my child from school, drive them out to the orthodontist in the suburbs, have the 10 minute appointment, drive them back to school and then get myself back to work.   Getting your kid braces means that you should factor in the cost of time and gas money.

Class discomfort. Moving forward with braces had caused some interesting class issues to arise.   We live in a low to lower-middle income area and our kids attend schools with a very diverse socioeconomic range.   The majority of our kids’ friends, and their classmates, are low-income families and braces aren’t likely to be in their futures.   Were I grew up, everyone had braces.   It was odd for kids not to.   You had braces whether or not your parents could actually afford it.   My kids are experiencing the reverse as they will be one of a handful in their classes who have braces.   The teasing has already started because there is something again different about my kids (in addition to being adopted and having two moms).

I think this is more my sensitivity than that of my kids, but I am conscious that the expense of braces and the fact that my kids have something that may not be an option for other kids.   I don’t want to be the parent who sparks a want/need in another kid.   As a parent, there’s nothing worse than hearing, ‘œSo-and-so has INSERT ITEM, so why can’t I?’ Especially when the reason why your child can’t have this is not because you don’t want with your whole being to give it to them, it’s because you can’t afford it.

Did you have braces as a kid?   Are braces in your child’s future?   How are you going to pay for this?

Photo credit: stock.xchng.