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What is going on? I have run into two kids recently from what I assume are low income families - one was a girl about 10, we were talking about toothbrushes and I commented on how nice her teeth were. Her mom said, she's getting braces next month. I asked why, answer - an underbite. I looked again, yes, a miniscule underbite, otherwise her teeth were beautiful and straight.
The other was a little boy of 5, when he smiled, ALL his lower back teeth had tiny metal crowns. He looked like a miniature James Bond villain.
So are dentists milking the system for all it's worth doing work on kids who don't need it? Any experiences?
What is going on? I have run into two kids recently from what I assume are low income families - one was a girl about 10, we were talking about toothbrushes and I commented on how nice her teeth were. Her mom said, she's getting braces next month. I asked why, answer - an underbite. I looked again, yes, a miniscule underbite, otherwise her teeth were beautiful and straight.
The other was a little boy of 5, when he smiled, ALL his lower back teeth had tiny metal crowns. He looked like a miniature James Bond villain.
So are dentists milking the system for all it's worth doing work on kids who don't need it? Any experiences?
You never know, I guess, depends on the orthodontist. I can't say there aren't some out there looking for opportunities to get what they can, whether or not the child really needs the work done. Unfortunately I have seen a dentist or two do this, and others have spoken about the "corporate" dental practices where it seems practice manager$$ determine the course of treatment for patients and the dentists go along with it. From what I've seen it seems dental practices with this type of philosophy tend to do this to patients with decent dental insurance as it's likely the patient won't object much if not all the money is coming out of his pocket, and he's convinced he needs all that work done ( or his kid does).
But for sure they don't ALL do this, and though it's been many years ago, I recall my daughter had a crossbite that her dentist felt needed some correction, but otherwise her teeth were straight. The orthodontist he sent her to said she did not need braces, but instead gave her a bunch of tiny rubber bands to hook across the involved teeth at night, a d some sort of gadget (IIRC) to hold them in place. She wore these at night, with regular orthodontist checkups for maybe a year, till he said the crossbite was corrected. The cost was a fraction of what braces would have been.
So are dentists milking the system for all it's worth doing work on kids who don't need it? Any experiences?
Good question. The answer is it's both. Low-income children tend to have more dental problems than other children, just as low-income adults tend to have more dental problems than other adults. When I treated Medicaid patients as a student/resident, it was not uncommon to see very young kids with a mouthful of huge cavities. Then you look at their parents' mouths and they are just as bad. So obviously if the parents don't know/don't care how to take care of their own mouths, it's unlikely their kids are going to be any better.
On the other side of the coin, there absolutely are dentists that milk the Medicaid system for all it's worth. PBS Frontline had a good documentary on this a few years a go called "Dollars and Dentists" about some of the pedo Medicaid corporate chains. In Texas, for example, the amount of Medicaid payments for braces increased by about 3000% ($6.5 mil to $220.5 mil) between 2003 and 2010, while Medicaid program enrollment only increased by 33%(!)
I saw that Texas article. The amazing part is how Medicaid approved all that treatment. Then the Dept of Justice raided those offices. Funny how they never raided the Medicaid office for approving the treatment in the first place.
What is going on? I have run into two kids recently from what I assume are low income families - one was a girl about 10, we were talking about toothbrushes and I commented on how nice her teeth were. Her mom said, she's getting braces next month. I asked why, answer - an underbite. I looked again, yes, a miniscule underbite, otherwise her teeth were beautiful and straight.
The other was a little boy of 5, when he smiled, ALL his lower back teeth had tiny metal crowns. He looked like a miniature James Bond villain.
The little boy with crowns on his teeth had rotten teeth, and a dentist fixed them.
As for the underbite, her teeth don't occlude normally. The underbite is being fixed so she has proper alignment of her chewing surfaces. I would do the same.
I had braces as a teen (45 years ago) and I still have a pronounced (at least 1/4" ) overbite. Hasn't adversely affected me at all, AFAIK.
And crowns on baby teeth? wow.
Yes, crowns on baby teeth. Decay is painful, you can't just leave rotten teeth in a child's mouth. That would be neglect.
You might check out this short video of how an overbite affects your teeth. The teeth don't line up like they're supposed to so that occlusion forces are distributed evenly, the way teeth are meant to function. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9nJ6aS5m4I
Happens ALL the time. The amount of stupid/neglectful/careless parents out there is mind-blowing.
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