PHI for orthodontics?

DD2 had her x-rays done yesterday & they show that she's definitely missing 7 of her adult teeth.

Now we're lining up orthodontics & after giving them a call to discuss pricing of consults etc, I feel a heart attack coming on!

She needs a plate/plates first (I assume they need them replaced as the shape of the mouth changes?) Braces won't be til she has her adult teeth in about 3 years. Very much later on (early 20's) there may be implants to replace the missing teeth, after hers are back where they should be.

I've never needed private health insurance, but I'm thinking it's time to look into it. I know nothing. I'm assuming I can't just sign her up for PHI with orthodontics. I'm looking for an option that would be affordable for me long term. But how much of the ortho costs would PHI actually cover? Full costs? Part of it? Is it worth going that way?

Initial consult will be in the next month or so I'd say. I'll know more then.

We found our PHI (which I now don't have) did not cover much at all. I also had top cover.

Is it not an option for her not to keep her baby teeth if there is no big ones to replace them? My sisters MIL and partner have never lost their baby teeth and TBH I don't think they look like they have bad teeth.

My eldest has braces. Very basic and it is costing me $7500. Implants etc will add u many thousands per tooth.

Bugger I was hoping they wouldn't be missing :( which adult teeth are missing do you know?

I still think see what you can get done via the public system Hun xx

It depends on what you're willing to pay and even then, quite often the PHI is lucky to cover half, or it may only be a certain amount per year you can claim for, which doesn't help when you're looking at a several thousand dollar dentist bill. DD2 got plates 2 weeks ago and they were $950 each. Our PHI paid $550 each for them, leaving an OOP of $800, which our dentist waived for us (he's awesome!). The plates that DD has are expansion plates, so no need to replace for a while as they are meant to expand. Not sure when they will need replacing. You might find that you're paying out more money in PHI premiums per year than you're actually going to ever get back from them. Then there are the waiting periods too. You might be better off just saving money now. She's not going to need the braces for several years, so what you would spend on PHI might be best to just be put into a bank acct and at least you will have 100% of tht money, not pay it out just to have them only pay you 60% of it. If you have a look at iselect, you can take it out for just one thing. No fund will pay 100% of the cost though.

Olive, I'll try uploading a pic of the xray...

ETA- maybe later...

Mildez, in the xray it does show that one tooth seems to no longer have roots. Some others have come out, or are going to come out due to the adult tooth next to them pushing them out. And I wouldn't be so worried if her front teeth on one side hadn't moved around so much to take up the space left by the missing teeth. Her eye tooth is sitting right around on that side where I think her 2 & 4 year old molars should be. If they keep moving like that she's going to look very different & she's already struggling enough with being a little different. Maybe we could just do the plates & see how they go & worry about the braces when she's much older, but something would obviously need to be done to keep them all in place until that time.
The implants aren't absolutely necessary, she could have dentures instead, but they won't be looking at any of that until she's around 20, when she's fully grown. So by then it'll be up to her what she chooses. At $7k a tooth she may not be interested in that anyway.

Ok, up the top I think it's her first molar on the right, & the first 2 molars on the left, (that's why her teeth are moving, there are no teeth on the left at all). The molars that have come down on the right have only just come through after about a year & to me don't seems to want to come any further down.

The molar on the left is i think the one that's showing a darker colour, so no roots. Don't know if that means it'll fall out sooner, rather than later. None of her eye teeth have come in yet except the one on the top right. We've been waiting a while, but they're there at least.

On her bottom, on both sides, there are no adult molars, except her 12's. The ones she has haven't fallen out yet, but are sunken.

I've compared her xray to other 10 year old xrays & her mouth looks a mess compared to them. He did say there's some crowding as well.

Bri's Xray Photo by Skye_O_ | Photobucket

Panoramic xray. Hopefully it can be seen...

She's missing all but one upper adult premolar, she has all her adult molars which is good!
Now keep in mind that many people, albeit not as common now, get premolars removed to create space due to crowding.
Simple plates with premolars on them may be a solution which will be way cheaper than implants.
Bone loss could be an issue though, any talk of genetic issues?

I've been looking around to see what I can figure out, what reason there may be for her missing so many. The typical 'what did I do wrong during pregnancy'...

The dentist asked about family history. Ex BIL (18) supposedly was told something similar years ago, but they didn't look any further into it. A cousin of mine also mentioned that 4 of hers didn't exist, but from my reading, anything under 5 is relatively normal. If her top teeth on the right hadn't moved so much, & the others looked like they were coming in I probably wouldn't worry so much. Her 2 bottom eye teeth & the top left eye tooth were lost about 2 years ago & still haven't come in. The top one seems to have broken through, it's just taking it's time. The bottom 2 might just be extremely slow?

I've read that it could be a sign of so many different syndromes, I have no idea where to start there, so I haven't, or if that's exaggerating & it's just a fluke. Neither dentist has said anything, but the first one wasn't very helpful at all.

I would think if you opened a savings account and put the approx cost of phi in every week, you would have her costs pretty much covered. All the phi i know of suck for any dental.
My sister was missing 5 adult teeth, her baby teeth were removed (something to do with them being likely to cause serious issues long term, cant remember the details sorry!!) She had braces to pull her other teeth around to close any gaps and kepther wisdom teeth when they cut thru at 20. The only downside is a couple of her molars that were pulled forward are a different colour to their neighbours but that might just be her teeth.

I'm looking into the public system. That I didn't realise was actually an option. It's a 3 year wait list, which works well for the braces, and they might get her in earlier just for the plates too.

Olive, can you explain the bone loss too me?