<p>I have been trying to convince my parents for years that I need braces (my teeth are awful, spaces, buck teeth, and just not attractice, I HATE SMILING). I want to have braces in college and finally have straight teeth and have confidence in my smile. I am not rich, I am going to Emory next year and would like a new confidence. However my parents are African and see no importance in braces (they do not understand anything that has to do with appearance really) and my dad says men dont need braces... Is there any scholarships for braces? I am working but I dont even think thats enough honestly, is there anyway I can find cheaper braces? Any advice? Thank you! I am on the parents forum because I know parents hold a wealth of advice</p>
<p>I wonder if a kindly orthodontist would be willing to work with you, knowing that you are a student, and accept some kind of ongoing payment plan of $x / month. Does Emory have a dental school?</p>
<p>Your parents do not want you to change your apperance for cosmetic reasons.
You should reason with them with medical reasons why you need to get your bite corrected(over bite and buck teeth) and teeth properly aligned(spaces between teeth).
If you do not get your bite corrected you can suffer from TMJ(look it up), and have all kinds of complications like headaches, clicking when chew and you open and close your jaw widely it may lock.
Your gums will eventually erode, your teeth will loosen without healthy gums if your teeth are not aligned and your bite natural.
Do more research along theses lines and they may agree to get you braces if it is a medical reason.</p>
<p>What does your dentist say? Perhaps she/he can talk to your parents. Many families have dental insurance which covers a small portion of the cost of braces. My insurance is paying $1800 of my D’s $5200 bill. I pay the orthodontist $100 a month to cover my portion. You may be able to find an orthodontist who will work with you in stages so your monthly bill is even less.</p>
<p>you dont have to pay all at once. they usually have monthly payment plan. if you have dental insurance you should get $1500 cover. when you get braces, you need to get them in georgia preferably somewhere near emory (assuming from your name) to make visits easier. braces in georgia cost can vary but mine was about $3500 after insurance and usually if you pay all at once you get a % discount and my teeth was bad. it took me two years to get it fixed. if you have messed up teeth and you dont get it fix they can lead to bigger problem such as gingivitis/periodontist which will cause loss of bones which will cause your teeth to fall out which will cost so much more than braces to get it fixed. bad teeth also can hinder future job prospects. i dont think there are scholarship for braces but there might be financial aid from the gov (not sure but you should google it). emory had dental school so maybe. oh also, make sure you had your wisdom teeth taken out before braces. depending on your insurance, it should cover majority of that cost.</p>
<p>^ LordMonty is a spammer.</p>
<p>I also needed braces as a teen, however my family did not have the money. (cross bite & lower canines turned 90 degrees from what they should be). As an adult, I didn’t want a mouth full of metal, so I put it off until I heard of InvisAlign. To me, my teeth are now nothing short of a miracle. What I’m saying if you can’t afford it now, never give up.</p>
<p>The idea of finding a dental school nearby is also a good idea. They need patients to practice on, however, I’m not sure the policy for orthodontia. (My undergrad has a dental school and it was a cheap place for cleanings & checkups).</p>
<p>Thank you so much guys, so do you think Emory dental school will help me out? I plan on getting insurance from emory (comes with FA), but do orthodotists reason well with payments? Most of the ones I called said you had to pay in full or pay half for a down payment… The cheapest so far is 4,500… I will email emory dental when I get home from work, any other advice?
P.S. ilikepizza mine is really bad too, I hope i only need 2 years of braces, how many appointments is it for braces?
Also my jaw locks up occasionally and has been bothering me for quite a while so I usually have to open and clsoe them for relief, but idk if that is healthy. Also using mouthpieces usually always locks my jaw all the way shut for ~25min., is this because i dont have braces? honestly, I take care of ym body, but I hate how when I smile I look so ugly with alll the problems in my teeth and im willing to do work study to pay it off</p>
<p>is the $4500 for the traditional kind of braces with rubber band things? i had damon braces which supposedly cost more. is the insurance you are getting from emory dental or just health insurance? because if its not dental, it wont cover dental stuff. for traditional braces you have to visit each month but for damon its once every 12 weeks or something like that. damon works really well. my only problem was the horrible crowdings and slight overbite. the teeth looked straight within a year but they kept it to make minor adjustments. the price was about $5000 (without insurance benefit) but it included removable & permanent retainer so if i were you, i would keep on searching. do you live in GA? if not, you can go to emory healthcare aetna website and search for ortho and it will show you a bunch of orthos that are close to emory.
what do you mean by locks up? that cant be good. it might be caused by wisdom teeth if you didnt take them out. do you have crowdings?</p>
<p>I would suggest looking into InvisAlign. My orthodontist said I would be in traditional braces nearly 2 years, but with InvisAlign the uppers were done in 6 months, lower 9 months. I started just about 10 years ago and still wear retainers to bed every night. </p>
<p>My youngest just got his off a few weeks ago and it was just over $4000 for traditional metal and he was in them for nearly 2.5 years. (& we live in North NJ, which is expensive). I would shop around for prices.</p>
<p>Does invisallign work well? And I think I have my own dental insurance Emory Is for health care. I live in Georgia and my mom (she said she heard braces are the best to fix problems) thinks if I bought braces it should be traditional braces, so this probably means even If I’m paying I have to get those unless I convince her otherwise and yes my teeth are crowded. So what’s more effective? I heard you have a lot. Of appointments with invisalign and I don’t want to always have to leave campus</p>
<p>invisallign looks better but if your teeth are really crowded, its going to take a long time and might not work. damon or innovation-c will work faster (most people it saves about half a year) and less painful and easier to clean (google search the difference). traditional requires working with rubber bands and wire tightening which can take some time in office visits. and because its harder to clean, you have easier time getting cavities and gum problems which can cost you later. damon/innovation-c dont need those color rubber bands which means if you have really crooked teeth, it wont be as obvious. i would search around and if price for those 2 is almost like traditional, i would go with those 2. pm me if you want a recommendation. the person that did mine does all 3 types.</p>
<p>There is another issue to think through in addition to the finances.
Generally, the orthodontist will check the braces and make adjustments every four weeks or so…less during some phases, more during others. If your home is not near your college, it could be tricky to continue appropriate care during school breaks.</p>
<p>Invisalign doesn’t work for major corrections (Tooth twisted more than 30 degrees etc…), only minor ones. Also, its is obscenely expensive in the long run (Like 2x normal braces) Insurance will also not cover it.</p>
<p>My D just finished with invisalign and it was the same cost as traditional braces ( about $4000). The nice thing about invisalign is that if your teeth begin to shift you can pop in the invisalign that fits and straighten them out again(assuming you’ve kept them all). My older daughter had traditional braces and will probably need to have them again at some point in her life as she stopped wearing her retainer after a year or so and her teeth have begun to shift. You also don’t have to visit the ortho quite as often with invisalign. Most orthos have free consultations and will help you decide which is better for you.</p>
<p>With all this good advice, I just want to encourage you to pursue this issue. This is a health conern as well as one that will affect your professonal and personal life. You know this, and you are right. Apply the skills that got you into Emory (including going to good sources of information such as this one) and find a solution!</p>
<p>I believe the only dental school in Georgia is in Augusta. Might be worth a drive to get a full consultation with the orthodontist clinic. They do provide orthodontic services. [Becoming</a> a Patient*](<a href=“http://www.georgiahealth.edu/sod/patientservices/becomingapatient.html]Becoming”>http://www.georgiahealth.edu/sod/patientservices/becomingapatient.html) </p>
<p>Another option is waiting to get to Emory, and then visiting health services. There may be Emory grads practicing in town who will see and treat students for a reduced fee. Do not hesitate to try to network and find an orthodontist in the area who is an Emory grad. There are health practitioners out there who would be honored to assist a student like yourself for a reduced fee.</p>
<p>Let the orthodontist tell you what your best options are. Lots of folks can tell you their success stories. But only the orthodontist can tell you what kind of braces will be best for you. There are also metal braces that can be placed on the inside of the teeth–lingual braces. There are lots of options. There are also new metal braces that speed up the time you need then on. But only the orthodontist can tell you what your options are. You may have several options or you may only have one. </p>
<p>All braces work by making adjustments to your teeth. So you will always have frequent visits. The teeth move as the orthodontist adjusts the braces, or as you change the invisilign trays.</p>
<p>@jsanche32 - please reread my post. My lower canines were rotated nearly 90 degrees and they were corrected in 9 months, which was far less than the 2+ years I would have been in traditional metal. Watching both my kids go through the traditional metal route, I can say that InvisAlign is probably more painful, as you put in new aligners every 2 weeks vs getting tightened every 4-6 weeks. I popped 2 Advils every 3 hours for the first 2 days of each aligner pair. My teeth were quite crowded - I was already down 4 teeth when it started and the orthodontist still had to increase the space between my teeth with what I called “sand paper dental floss”. </p>
<p>Would I do it again? In a second - I had a cross-bite and suffered from horrible TMJ pain, as my teeth did not align. I could only chew on one side of my mouth. We tried to submit some of it to medical, however we didn’t get very far.</p>
<p>Invisalign has improved on what they could do from a few years back. If you only did it in 9 months then you had very minor work to do. i.e. You used invisalign express (Which is usually affordable) The OP seems to need a lot more work which would mean that he would need the normal Invisalign process. That can take about 2-3 years (Which is about 52-78 sets of trays). The problem here is that invisalign is still considered a cosmetic procedure by dental insurance companies, so you have to pay the entire sum out of pocket. Normal braces are usually covered by insurance up to 50% of cost (Some even less though). </p>
<p>Also, I think you’re missing the point here. If you’re a student with limited means, invisalign is just too expensive if you have a lot of work to do on your smile. You would either have to take out a dental loan or get help from your parents(Which the OP said is an impossibility).</p>
<p>Best bet here (Since from the OP’s post you have a lot of work to do) is to get dental insurance that covers braces up to 25-50%. Then get normal braces. In case you’re worried about the whole metal mouth thing, you can get clear braces.</p>
<p>Obviously, before doing all that you need to see just how much work you really need. Make an appt. with an Orthodontist and get an estimate. Make sure to shop around as prices do tend to vary all over the place (even in the same city). Also, be sure to check their accreditation.</p>