Help, so many children have braces!
These days, it feels like every child wears braces at some point. I arranged a consultation with an orthodontist and an insurance expert to find out why this is the case and how parents can protect themselves against horrendously high bills.
If you had them, do you still remember wearing braces? I was allowed to wear one of those braces with a plastic plate – I had to slide it under the roof of my mouth every night. Every few weeks I had to adjust the brace with a small wire pin so that the pressure on the teeth always remained the same. I can’t remember an awful lot about the braces anymore. One thing I can remember is that leftover food always collected in a small gap, which l’d then fish out again with the tip of my tongue.
Oh, and one other thing – not all of my schoolmates had the pleasure of wearing braces. Today, 40 years later, things seem different. When my 10- and 12-year-old children recently received their orthodontist’s orders, I wasn’t particularly surprised. Since having children, the question hasn’t been if they’d need braces at some point, but when that day would come.
Source: Shutterstock / Iren_Geo
The orthodontist’s initial findings: my son has a «slight deep bite», my daughter «tends to have a lack of space». Since I’m no expert, my understanding is limited, but I can already imagine this much: our children will soon be wearing braces and will be in the best of company.
Back then, parents often had to pay the entire cost
Is the impression deceptive or is it really the case that it’s easier to find a child who doesn’t like chips than a child without braces? I ask someone who should know. Claudius Wiedmer is a specialist dentist for orthodontics and a board member of the Swiss Orthodontic Society (link in German). «It’s actually deceiving,» he points out. Around 50 to 60 per cent of children and adolescents in Switzerland wear braces at some point in their lives. «But yes, there are significantly more than a few decades ago.»
Wiedmer sees the emergence of additional insurance as the main reason for this. «Back then, parents often had to pay for everything themselves. When in doubt, it was better not to bother with braces.» Thanks to additional insurance, parents are now more likely to opt for it so they can avoid the question from their children, «Why didn’t I get braces back then?»
However, expert Claudius Wiedmer identifies a second, very interesting reason for the increase in braces. «For us Europeans, the lower jaw tends to be too far back; for people from Africa or Asia, it tends to be too far forward.» Especially in children with one European and one Asian parent, this can lead to a real space problem in the mouth, as the relationship between jaw size and tooth width often no longer fits. «From a dental point of view, you can say that a genetic mix sometimes doesn’t exactly help,» says Wiedmer and laughs.
Source: Claudius Wiedmer
Aboriginal Australians even have four pairs of wisdom teeth
And to what extent does our diet influence the position of our teeth? «This process obviously takes thousands of years.» The fact is that human teeth are designed for hard food, which wears down the tooth and leads to less tooth volume. «Nature’s response to this is to move the teeth forward to close the resulting gaps,» explains Wiedmer. «As our food has become increasingly softer, the teeth are worn down less. There are no more gaps, and yet the teeth push forward.»
The fact that people in Europe actually need fewer and fewer teeth is also shown by the fact that around 30 per cent of them are now missing at least one wisdom tooth. «It’s as though nature has realised we no longer need so many teeth. In contrast, Aboriginal Australians even have another tooth behind the wisdom tooth,» says Wiedmer.
Ultimately, the question of whether or not to prescribe braces to a child isn’t a matter of life and death. «Braces are only necessary for medical reasons in around 20 to 30 per cent of cases,» explains Wiedmer. In other words, for the remaining 30 per cent or so, you might as well assume the motive’s often of an aesthetic nature. «People used to look at themselves in the mirror twice a day – in the morning and in the evening; today we’re experiencing the selfie generation. A beautiful set of teeth is becoming increasingly important.»
Orthodontist: there are black sheep in our profession too
At what age do experts recommend visiting an orthodontist to check whether a child needs braces? «That depends on the individual. But in general, you could say from the age of nine or ten.» In around 60 per cent of children, the lower jaw is too far back. «In such cases, night braces or plastic braces are used first.» Fixed braces, the so-called «train tracks», are usually only used when all permanent teeth have come through and the position of the teeth is mostly correct. «And the only thing left to do is get a straight tooth position,» says Wiedmer.
Source: Shutterstock / MilanMarkovic78
To come back to my initial theory – it’s not the evil dentists or orthodontists who arbitrarily prescribe braces out of sheer greed then? Claudius Wiedmer: «In addition to cases where braces are necessary for medical reasons, the request often comes from the parents themselves.» In fact, the number of orthodontists in Switzerland has almost doubled in the last 20 years. And the greater the competition, the higher the risk of incorrect prescriptions.
Wiedmer recommends consulting a specialist orthodontist whenever possible. «Dentists generally don’t have the in-depth knowledge of a specialist who has spent another three to four years at university after their basic studies.»
Well insured, you’re left with almost no costs
But how can you insure yourself against expensive dentist and brace costs? Our family is insured with Concordia, so I have a chat with Pascal Fries, Head of Dental and IV Benefits at Concordia. «We basically offer two insurance plans for dental costs.» One option is the general additional insurance, which covers dental costs and other issues. «Depending on the model, this insurance covers 50 or 75 per cent of the costs, of an unlimited amount», says Fries. The alternative option Concordia offers is an additional dental care insurance. «Depending on the model, this also covers 50 to 75 per cent of the costs if they’re not already covered by general additional insurance, but only up to a maximum of CHF 2,000 per calendar year.»
Pascal Fries gives an example: «Let’s say braces cost 10,000 francs. If the general additional insurance covers 75 per cent, we will pay CHF 7,500. If you have supplementary dental care insurance too that covers 50 per cent of the total amount, up to a max. of CHF 2,000, then Concordia would cover a total of CHF 9,500 of the CHF 10,000.»
Source: Shutterstock / All backgrounds for you
Insurance expert: «We don’t cover aesthetic treatments»
But until when is it advisable to take out the additional insurance? «With general additional insurance, you always have to take it out before you know about a potential problem,» says Fries. In other words, the additional insurance must be taken out before anything’s logged in the dentist’s accounts. «Under dental care insurance, children up to the age of five are accepted without a health check. From the age of six, you can continue to be included in this insurance if no specific problems are already apparent.
Does health insurance only cover the costs of medical procedures or does it also cover corrections and procedures that are primarily for aesthetic purposes? According to Pascal Fries, in many cases, it’d be difficult to make a clear distinction here. «As a rule, we trust the dentist’s decision when they recommend braces.» However, the insurance doesn’t cover purely aesthetic treatments, such as teeth whitening or if someone wants to put a diamond on their tooth.
«Ultimately, as with all insurance policies, parents have to weigh up the financial risk they can and want to take,» explains Fries. It’s evident that the bill for braces in particular can be a heavy burden on the family budget if there’s no insurance.
If necessary, we’ll force our children to wear braces
This is precisely why we took out the appropriate insurance policies for our children early enough. Even if they don’t need braces at all, we would insist on them. After all, we don’t want to imagine we’ve been paying insurance premiums for nothing for all these years. And anyway, we don’t want it to be our children’s fault that their path to becoming successful influencers is blocked just because they don’t have a smile like Emma Watson.
Header image: Shutterstock / Arina P Habich
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Martin Rupf
Senior Editor
martin.rupf@digitecgalaxus.chHalf-Danish dad of two and third child of the family, mushroom picker, angler, dedicated public viewer and world champion of putting my foot in it.
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