19 Alpers Avenue
Newmarket
Auckland
NEW ZEALAND 1001

phone [+64] 09 524 5056
fax [+64] 09 524 5057

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- orthodontic faqs
- food and braces
- patient examples
- further examples
- myofunctional
- orthodontic fees
- relapse
- functional ortho

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Headaches and even migraines may be caused by disorders in the jaw joints. Find out more about jaw joint problems!

home : orthodontics : orthodontic fees

We have people phone the office and ask how much orthodontic treatment will cost - they want a phone diagnosis - for free of course!
"Well my son Jimmy, yeano, he has these teeth that sort of look twisted and stick out like and the school nurse said his teeth aren't biting right and I noticed that he sucks his thumb although he's almost fifteen, and my friend Rosie says that her kids stopped sucking their thumbs [and blankets and fingers and hair strands and bottles] when they were only ten. So, yeano, how much would it cost to fix this..............."
Get the drift?
And so we ask [gently of course] if they phone their car repair man and ask over the phone how much it would cost to get the family wheels - which has been belching smoke and lurching like a drunk kangaroo - back on the road?
"Yea right" comes the reply "you don't think I'm that stupid do you?"

Here's the facts:
No two children - even in the same family - have exactly the same orthodontic problem. Some patients are treated with a simple removable appliance, some are treated with a functional appliance like a bionator or twin-blocks, some are treated only with fixed appliances [braces], and lots are treated with a combination of these three treatment techniques.

Some families [and, shock horror, dentists too] think that we only use functional appliances in our treatments. Not so. Functional appliances are used to change overshot or undershot jaws to the correct jaw relationship. Then we use a whole heap of removable and fixed appliances to line up the teeth. And I would think that we use a greater variety of removable appliances than do our specialist orthodontic colleagues - because we know this stuff really works

Heres what you might pay for orthodontic treatment:

a simple treatment over 6 to 12 months with a removable plate: $2500
a bionator to align the jaws over 12 months: $2800
fixed appliances [braces] over 6 to 12 months: $4200
a combination of appliances for, say, 2 to 3 years: up to $7000 for really serious problems

And if you live in Auckland you will find this is a pretty good deal

And we don't do up front payments [unless Grandad comes in with a big fat cheque!]. Most patients set up a monthly bank AP and spread the fee over the treatment period

But we really do need to have a look inside Jimmy's mouth before we can tell you how much this stuff is going to cost. So please don't ask on the phone