Son needs braces

[MixedBag]

hate to disagree, but both of my girls and my son have had their "jaw broken" -- when it comes right down to it.

All three had an appliance mounted in their upper jaw to their teeth and it had this thing in the middle that (for the girls), I turned each day and over a period of I think it was 6 weeks, they upper jaw was made wider and "was broken".  It didn't hurt them.

Their front two teeth were actually apart by a bit, and then they went back together on their own.

The appliance stayed in place for a very long time to allow the bone to grow back and heal therefore their upper jaw was now wider to allow for more space to fit all the teeth.

[MixedBag]

You're right.  Until the child emancipates, mom has the final say.

But c'mon, if the child can drive himself/herself there, and the other parent is footing the bill entirely, is the court gonna find the NCP in contempt and stop something that the child wants?

[MixedBag]

getting it done as a child IS much better.

But this NCP is saying that the CP won't approve.

And I'm throwing the idea out there that the NCP can decide to also support this down the road when the child is an adult -- because the focus is to support the endeavor for the child.

And if the CP won't cooperate now, the NCP can always still support later.

[mistoffolees]

But wouldn't the person who works in a dental oral surgery clinic have a better feel for how common this is than you do? Perhaps your family just has a very rare genetic trait which causes a narrow jaw?

Of course, it doesn't really matter - the OP doesn't have the legal authority to authorize braces and the CP refuses. Unless he can convince a court that it's necessary, he's greatly overstepping his bounds by authorizing braces.

[Jade]

>......and make sure you have ALL the facts before you give
>out that kind of 'advice', Jade.  If your aunt had to have her
>jaw broken before she got braces, it wasn't because of the
>braces but probably something else that had to be fixed before
>applying braces.  Or from some other problem that developed at
>some time in her life.  Or it could be congenital and she had
>it all her life.  MANY possibilities as to why she had to have
>it done.
>
>I work in a collegiate oral surgery clinic..........breaking
>the jaw is a very rare occurance nowadays and there must be
>extenuating circumstances before they will go that far.  The
>only possible difference between getting braces as a teen
>compared to adult is that it 'might' take longer as an adult.
>Then again, it might not.  EVERY person is different and what
>happens to one may not happen to another.  And everyone reacts
>to treatment differently as well.  Some progress rapidly,
>while others take more time.
>
>
So you know my aunt and her situation better than me?  Didn't realize that you knew her.

Oh, wait a minute, if you knew her, then you would have known that the doctor told her that she wouldn't have had to have her jaw broken to get her teeth fixed if she had it done as a child.  

[Jade]

>getting it done as a child IS much better.
>
>But this NCP is saying that the CP won't approve.
>
>And I'm throwing the idea out there that the NCP can decide to
>also support this down the road when the child is an adult --
>because the focus is to support the endeavor for the child.
>
>And if the CP won't cooperate now, the NCP can always still
>support later.

Then the CP is an idiot.  I had to have braces.  And I was teased as a child because of my teeth.

It does a lot of damage to a child.  

Would a psychologist stating that they are necessary help the ncp's case?

[MixedBag]

that THAT depends on the state and whether or not most orders lean towards having ortho covered as a medical item or not.

Don't know about Indiana.

I had a letter here in AL saying they were medically necessary and EX#1 didn't want to fess up because his parents didn't do it for him.  Judge supported EX#1.

I as CP still took them and paid about $10K total for both girls.

CP is an idiot IMHO particularly if the NCP is willing to pay 100%.

[Kitty C.]

.........any more than you know the child pertinent to this thread.  That's why I said there could be a myriad of reasons why her jaw had to be broken and just because she had to have it done as an adult doesn't mean that every person who gets braces as an adult would have to have it done as well.  And because we see the worst of the worst, there have also been instances of kids required to have their jaws fractured for various reasons as well.  When you see patients within a 4 state area, you eventually see almost everything at least a few times.

Almost every medical and dental procedure is easier to recover from as a child than as an adult.  That's the difference in physiology between and adult and child.  The VERY first thing you learn about pediatrics is that they are NOT little adults.  Another example is chicken pox....much easier for kids to recover from and less painful than the shingles that adults can get if they are exposed and not already immune.

But the issue here is the desire of the NCP to get braces, when the CP is adamently against it.  And regardless of how emotionally detrimental it might appear for the child to have crooked teeth, is it worth the thousands of dollars, hours in court, and possible backlash from the CP, with no guarantee of the outcome (let alone what the process could do to the child's wellbeing).  Yes, it's tough on the child, but it can be character-building as well if they had to wait till they were an adult.  I was bullied for over 6 years in school and publicly humiliated at my HS graduation for the way I looked.  I had that fixed 20 years ago.  But I credit my strength of character today from what I went through then.  You take the good with the bad and if you look hard enough, there is a silver lining to all bad situations.