What would you do?

[luv2sparkle]

My husband and I took our son yesterday to his first orthodontic appointment. We were referred to a new ortho from our dentist
in the mountains. The guy is great, kind, personable and gracious. We liked everyone in his office. In the course of the conversation
he asked my son what school he went to and mentioned that he donated a orthodontic treatment to the auction they just had this
past weekend, and he has done it for a few years to the sister school to my sons. The auction closed at 2300. and treatment is
4500. DH and I didn't go to the auction this year. Son called and said, that they had this up for auction but didn't know the name
of the dentist, I thought, no way is it the one we want to go to. There are literally 100's of dentists in this town as it is close to a
well known school. So we didn't bid.

I feel sick to my stomach that we could have saved over 2000. I planned to spend the 4500 anyway, but I am tempted to put this
off for a year and seriously bid on an auction next year for that kind of savings.

But:

1. There is no guarantee the Dr. would do it again.

2. There is no guarantee we would win, or how much of a savings we would have.

Would you take your chances and wait and try to bid, or just let it go, because you were going to spend the 4500 anyway?

 

[rubybeth]

I would probably try to negotiate a better price with the orthodontist. Sometimes they'll do this if you can pay for the entire treatment up front in cash. I'd feel badly about missing the auction, but it's definitely a lottery, and you don't know that if you would have bid that you would have gotten it for $2300. Maybe the other person bidding would have bid it up even higher than that, since that's how auctions work, capitalizing on a bidding war between people. Good luck!

 

[luv2sparkle]

I could save 225. by paying everything up front. We are thinking about that. We are planning a trip with the whole family
in June so that is a consideration. DH is crunching the numbers.

I realize there is a possibility of a much higher price. But I also have information I didn't have before: A. That there is a
possibility of saving a lot of money, B. The total cost of the treatment. So if I saved 500.00 I would still come out ahead.

DS is 14, so he would be 16 when finished. I am not crazy about making it another year. Dr. Teeth, is an incredibly generous
guy to even offer his services to benefit the school. The auction goes for scholarships. I just want to be wise about what we
spend. We have one more year of tuition at UCLA and at least one more kid in college for another 4 years.

I really would like a few more people chiming in. I am having a hard time letting go of the possibility of great savings.
What would you do faced with this choice?

 

[packrat]

I'd probably just go ahead and do it now if you can swing it. Another year from now, who knows if other parents are thinking well crap, we coulda saved some money, or if there are parents who are already planning on their kids needing work next year, they might be planning on bidding too..saving even a little is great, but I'd rather do it now than put it off for a year on the off chance that you might be able to save a little money, not knowing what's going to come up in the next year.

 

[soocool]

DD had braces when she was 13. The cost 5 years ago was $4200.00 (price included molds, xrays, braces, all visits, retainers and retainer checks.) The braces came off around age 16 (braces were on a little longer than 2 years. It all depends on the shifting of teeth and when the adult molars start to come in, and how good your son is about maintaining his braces, ie. using the rubber bands).

2 years after the braces came off there was slippage even with DD wearing her retainers. The orthodontist had to shave down a tooth to make sure there was enough room to get it into place and made a new invisble retainer for her lower teeth - free of charge.

To give you an idea of what we paid: Insurance covered 1250 of orthodontia, I paid half of the balance and then monthly payments for about 2 years (about $100.00 per month no interest) to the best of my recollection. She will see him again in August before college and he said he'll make her one more retainer to take with her just in case - free of charge.

This orthodontist only works in her dentist's office once a week. DD has seen him twice a year since she was 5 years old and we were never charged for the visit. (BTW I am in SE PA- don't know where you live)

I would find out in detail what the total cost encompasses first, because when I tell people what our costs were they went right over to see our orthodontist.

 

[Ninna]

Yes, these are GOOD people if not, parents/friends of school.
Our doctors give 15% discount if payed up front [cash], and 10% for referrals. I have noticed that parents are quite loyal to their orthodontists, once one kid gets good results, family/friends follow.

I thrive on School auctions lol, photo, services & trips for less than half. In smaller schools, chances run high, older parents probably have their last child in school; they hardly attend and when they do...they rarely purchase a thing.
Younger parents line up for signed pieces, sporting goods, birthday related items & salon treatments. There is a pre-auction day where you see the lists of people/items being donated at the school's office for all if you are not an auction-working parent.

I would not bid for an orthodontist far away from school or home, too many trips involved [two years if not four].
I would go up to 3500 if the orthodontist has the latest technology with IN town lab.
We have seen split bids at closing where two parents pay the same amount [say 3k @] if the docotor is present to accept the deals.

 

[TooPatient]

I'd probably just go ahead and do it now if you can swing it. Another year from now, who knows if other parents are thinking well crap, we coulda saved some money, or if there are parents who are already planning on their kids needing work next year, they might be planning on bidding too..saving even a little is great, but I'd rather do it now than put it off for a year on the off chance that you might be able to save a little money, not knowing what's going to come up in the next year.

I agree. Do it now since you were planning to anyway.

There are too many things you can't know or plan for. You might save a bit of money or it might cost you more (like if the dentist raises his rates and you lose the auction)

 

[iugurl]

I would just go ahead with your original plan and get the braces now. There is no guarantee and it will delay braces for a whole year...

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I would do it now! Just from experience, my son (who's a lot younger than yours) had issues with his expander and we had to take it out and now are waiting a few years to put it back in and thus he hasn't gotten his braces. You don't want to run into a similar situation and wish that his braces had been put on when you had the chance (and the money in-hand).

School auctions are so unpredictable re: the amount items go for. Also, how fancy is the action? You've got to add in the costs of a new outfit (possibly? The auction for my kids' school is VERY dressy and everyone shells out $ for all that stuff). There goes a couple more hundred dollars.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I am having problems w/editing...my posts won't go through, but wanted to add you'll also have to pay for tickets, too! That reduces the amount of savings.

 

[luv2sparkle]

Thank you so much for your replies, Rubybeth, Packrat, Soocool, Ninna, Toopatient, lugurl, and MC. I am strongly leaning
to just doing it now. Truthfully, had Dr. Teeth not mentioned the whole thing, I wouldn't have even given it a second thought.

The thing that kills me is that I should have been at the auction working!!! Had I done what I should have, I would have seen
it, although I am not sure if the Dr. name was mentioned. Our school has a yearly fee that you can work off as a credit to your
account and we usually work a couple hours getting ready for it. It was cold and rainy and DH was finally home after working a
couple 24 hour shifts in a row and we just wanted to hang out and relax.

This is our last kid, so like Ninna mentioned we usually don't bid on a lot of the frilly stuff. They had a golden retriever puppy, a
couple of fixy bikes and wake boards and the usual spa stuff. We do contribute every year, I just don't usually want the 'stuff'.

I wouldn't have spent any extra money going to the thing or buying tickets. They have done that in the past, but have changed to
a Circue de Solei kind of theme the last couple years and the event is now held at the school.

Hopefully, DH will have some down time at work today and will be able to crunch the numbers and see if our plan is working out and
we can still do all the things we have in the works. We'll either pay it all up front or split it in half. I don't want any kind of payments.

It is just the thought of saving a chunk of money that has hung me up. This is our third set of braces so we have been down the
road before. He will have to have a palate spreader first and then the braces. DS is ready to go. When I suggested we might wait
another year he was not too happy. I have been teasing him that I was going to keep his teeth jacked up for as long as I could
just to keep all the girls away! Well, that's not working anyway, so I might as well go for it.

Thanks for the voices of reason ladies. I need to hear them instead of all the things rolling around in my own brain! So appreciate you
all!!!!

 

[rockzilla]

I would say go for it now. What looks like a 2-year treatment time frame could easily turn into 2.5-3 years, and it would be a bummer for him to have to still have braces in his senior photos, for the prom, etc. (yes, I know these are teenage problems, but thinking back, those things were a bigger deal than you'd think!)

My parents never got me braces, I was probably one of only a few kids at my HS who didn't have them, due to $$. I felt self-conscious all through high school, all through college...as you get older, it is harder to make the plunge and get braces since the last think you want as a freshman in college is to look like you're still in high school (doubly true for later in college when you are interviewing for jobs/internships). I eventually got invisalign as an adult -- I was able to get about half paid for by insurance and the remainder I used a flexible spending account.

I would actually look into the flexible spending account if I were you. If you know you are going to have the expense (say $2k) in the next year, you can have your employer deduct it each pay check over the course of the year (tax free!) The nice thing is, you don't have to have accumulated the full amount before getting reimbursed. You could get reimbursed at the start of the year when only, say 10%, has been deducted from your check.

The other nice thing, which I didn't learn until I left my job, is that if you leave your job before the full amount is deducted, you don't have to pay the remainder back! Of course, the flip side is also true, if you have had $1k deducted from your account but only redeemed $500, you can lose out, so best to be sure of how much you'll need and get reimbursed at the start of the year.

RZ

 

[tyty333]

I would do it now...didnt read all the post but sometimes when you put things off they only get worse and take longer to fix.

 

[movie zombie]

just do it now. nothing has changed.

MoZo

 

[zoebartlett]

I would just go ahead with your original plan and get the braces now. There is no guarantee and it will delay braces for a whole year...

Yup, this is what I'd do if I was in your situation.

 

[MissGotRocks]

It's always hard to learn that you COULD have gotten a better deal but I wouldn't wait a year in hopes that everything would fall into place and you would win the auction (provided that the same dr. offers it again). Then you'd be sick for waiting a whole year and you could have already had it paid off!

I so understand your point but the chances of it all falling into place are really slim to none.

 

[IdLikeToBuyAVal]

Have you thought about doing a flex spending or health savings account for the braces? Either way, you'll save money by paying for them with pre-tax income instead of post tax. You can get info on the flex/HSA from the IRS website. Many employers offer the plans now so it might be worth checking into. Just a thought, it might take SOME of the sting out of the cost and my flex spending is deducted from each of my paychecks.

 

[luv2sparkle]

I don't think that DH has a flex spending plan available. We don't haver orthodontic coverage because it wasn't worth it. The
premium was high and it only covered 1K. We have the money to pay for it, I just really would have liked to spend half and save
the rest! But thanks so much for your input-I'dliketobuyaval