<p>Yes, I should have thought of this earlier.</p>
<p>Ds is 17 and needs braces. He's a late teether, and his second molars haven't even come in, partly because of an issue with his wisdom teeth, which we'll have to get removed before braces start, it seems. He's a rising senior, and I'm sure that he will not be done with all this orthodonture (sp?) by the time he leaves for college, wherever that is. What do you do in this case? Or in any case where a child needs ongoing medical treatment while living potentially hundreds of miles from home?</p>
<p>Orthodonture technology has changed much in recent years. New wire material require visits every 8-9 weeks. Than means one trip home mid-semester.</p>
<p>My son started orthodonture his senior year in high school. He had to start it before he turned 18 in order for insurance to cover it. Fortunately, we have a national insurance plan that covers him anywhere in the country. He started his treatment in our town. When he went to college 3000 miles away, our ortho gave us a list of people from his professional organization that were in the city where son attended. We narrowed down our options based on location since son would have to take public transportation to get there. The treatment plans were sent to the new ortho who continued doing what the first guy started. Son had to plan his visits around his breaks and summer vacation, etc., but he managed. </p>
<p>I was concerned that he would not take the responsibility of making the appointments in a timely fashion, especially since he was not crazy about the whole idea in the first place, but he followed through without problems. I think this worked for us because he was in a large city with numerous options and transportation. It would have been much more difficult if he had attended college in a small town.</p>
<p>^^^ That’s the concern. If he gets in his first-choice, in-state school then piece of cake. If he goes to his second-choice tiny school in tiny town, yikes.</p>
<p>In such situations, there is usually a need for two providers – one at home and one in the college town. Even if your son could schedule his orthodontic appointments for visits home, he would need at least a general dentist in the college town because inevitably, some of his hardware will break or fall off, and he will need to have it fixed. </p>
<p>The strategy that shennie’s family used sounds excellent. Another thing to think about would be whether it would be easier for your son to travel to the college town during summer break than it would be to make extra trips home during the school year. If it would be, then perhaps he should switch his orthodontic care to an orthodontist in the college town and use that person as his main orthodontist, rather than having the hometown orthodontist do most of the work.</p>
<p>I would also raise the issue of college with your hometown orthodontist. The treatment plan for someone who might need to go for long periods between visits might be different than what the orthodontist would recommend for someone who could come in frequently.</p>
<p>I have these concerns about other medical specialists. I called the health center at one very rural school to see if they would provide a link for a shuttle, cab, or call some type of car service (I would be will to pay additionally for it, provided that the fee were within reason) to get my son to an office for medical treatment if the health center could not manage a condition (not an emergency but for a chronic mild medical condition). The answer was no. This might be a reason that my son would pick another school. I am going to call back to speak with someone else to confirm that I did get the correct information.</p>