Ways to Save Money Paying for Orthodontics (Braces) for Your Child (or Yourself!)

Like most parents who have had to pay for braces for their child’s teeth, I cringed when I heard the first quote for the work. In fact, I cringed when I heard each quote! Before we even got any estimates for braces, however, we started looking for ways to save money paying for our child’s orthodontics and we did find a few.

Check What Your Dental Plan/s Will Pay for Orthodontic Treatment

I griped at great length earlier about how my husband’s dental plan provides only very limited coverage for orthodontic work for dependant children. Still, at least we recouped most of the money we have paid and will be paying in premiums. So we saved money not because our costs were reimbursed but because we had to pay the premiums anyway and at least this way we got our own money back. A dubious win.

If your child is listed as a dependent under more than one dental plan, be sure to check the details of each plan. It may be possible to get some coverage from each plan.

Don’t buy into a dental plan just to get orthodontic coverage without checking out every detail! You don’t want to pay more in premiums than you will receive back in reimbursement.

Use a Health Spending Account, HSA to Pay for Braces If You Can

Some employers offer their staff a benefit called a Health Spending Account. The money in the account is used to pay for medical expenses.

Each of these plans has its own rules and restrictions so you’d have to ask for details from your company’s benefits’ department.

In our case, my husband can have an HSA provided he puts the money into it. The employer doesn’t contribute anything. It’s still valuable, though, because he puts in before-tax dollars. And in his tax bracket, that’s a substantial saving.

There’s a cap on how much he can put in his HSA and there’s some tricks where they can seize all of the money if it doesn’t get spent after 2 years.

Still, this enabled us to pay for much of the required work with pre-tax dollars, which meant a substantial saving. (I’m still waiting to see, though, if any of this turns out to be a taxable benefit. If it does, it will negate the value of the plan, though, so I’m hoping it isn’t.)

Claim the Costs of Orthodontic Work on Your Income Tax Return

First of all, orthodontic work cannot be claimed on your income tax return as a medical expense if it is done only for cosmetic reasons. The work must be medically necessary. Talk to your dentist and orthodontist about this if it’s not clear.

Whether you can save much money by reducing the income tax you have to pay will vary greatly depending on your annual income and on your combined medical expenses. You can see an example of how to claim the expenses on the CRA website.

If you have a high annual income, and no other medical expenses, you may not get to claim very much of the cost of braces on your tax return in April. For example, if your orthodontic expense for the year was $3500, and you had $1500 reimbursed by your dental plan and nothing reimbursed by a HSA, then you only have $2000 left that you can claim.

  • If your net income is over $71 734 then you have to subtract $2152 from your medical expenses (for the 2013 taxation year) leaving you with nothing to claim.
  • If your net income is lower, the amount you subtract is also lower than $2152 and you will get to claim some of the expense.

There are some tricks to claiming medical expenses. For example, they don’t have to be for the January to December period for which you are reporting your taxable income. Please read the details on the CRA website to see if you can increase your expenses by shifting the reporting period a few months one way or the other.

Pay in Advance

Many orthodontists offer a discount if you pay the entire treatment plan amount before beginning treatment. It saves them the hassle of wondering if your cheques will bounce and, of course, they get to use your money sooner.

Our orthodontist offered 5% off the bill if we paid in a lump sum. So we did.

If Possible Get Credit Card Rewards For Paying for Orthodontistry

If and when you do pay, try to maximize any benefits you can get for the actual payment.
Our orthodontist takes all of the major credit cards; it may be worth checking what payment terms your orthodontist offers before making the final decision about who to pick.

We don’t have a cash-back credit card but we do have a card that gives Petro-Points. So we now have enough Petro-Points to get another Best Buy eCertificate in time for the Boxing Day sale, should we want one. Or we could get another free year’s basic membership at CAA for one of ourselves or our relatives.

Save the Money Before You Need It to Avoid Paying Interest On a Loan

This one should be obvious but….

If you have to get a loan to pay for braces for your child, you are going to have to pay interest as well as the actual cost of the dental work. When I was paying for my child’s work, the clerk even asked me if I was going to be using my HELOC to pay because she knew others were.

Ouch: Giving up equity in your home just to have your child’s teeth straightened?! Not for me, thanks.

If I couldn’t afford to pay to have the work done, then unless my child was actually in dental distress because of the alignment of his or her teeth, I would not get the work done.

Admittedly, though, it’s easy to say that. It might have been much harder if I’d actually had to do that. Good thing we saved.

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Did you use some other strategies to reduce the costs of orthodontic work? Please share your insights with a comment.

How Much Should You Budget to Save for Your Child’s Orthodontic Work? What Do Braces Cost?

Somewhere round about age 8 or 9 you start realizing that although the Tooth Fairy has been bringing lovely healthy adult teeth to your child, they seem to have brought ones wrong size. Teeth are coming in at odd angles or in strange places. With a tinge of sadness and worry you realize that your child may be going to need braces to look presentable or to eat comfortably. And with another twinge you realize that you don’t have long to save up for this unplanned expense: Didn’t your nephew get his braces on at 12? And your neighbour’s kid at 13? How much do you need to save for orthodontic work for your child or, worse, your children?

Orthodontists Know You Are Already Afraid of Braces So They Don’t Scare You with Online Prices

Orthodontists are very considerate. They know many parents are already scared of getting braces put on their child’s teeth. What if they hurt? What if they have to have healthy teeth pulled? What if they don’t brush properly and end up with dozens of cavities? What if they use whitening toothpaste while wearing braces and end up with permanent “checkerboards” on their teeth? So Orthodontists don’t usually put the cost of treatment on their websites: instead, they invite you to visit for a consultation.

That is why, right? It isn’t because they’re afraid you might shop for prices online? Or faint?

What Does It Cost to Get Braces?

Orthodontists are quick to point out that every mouth is different and costs can vary widely.

Fair enough. It is true that someone who has a malformed jaw or needs four teeth extracted or is missing permanent adult teeth will need different treatment that someone who just has a mild overbite.

However, as a parent I need and needed some number to budget with. Were we looking at $2000, $5000, $7500 or over $10 000?

Friends and Family May Be Reluctant to Share the Cost of Their Child’s Braces

Surprisingly, to me, many friends and family seemed embarrassed when asked a vague “what price range are braces these days?”

I suspect they were all afraid they’d been “taken” and didn’t want to quote a number in case they discovered they’d paid thousands more than they needed to.

Orthodontics are also a very expensive procedure and people often feel someone is going to accuse them of spending too much on their child “just to look pretty.”

What Did We Pay for Orthodontics Specifically Braces?

I can tell you what we paid, in southern Ontario where there are quite a few orthodontists available.

For a child who only really needed correction of a fairly severe over-bite, it cost $6500.

That’s for the initial installation, all the adjustments over 2.5 years (estimated), a retainer, and an “appliance.”

That’s not including any extractions or any sophisticated appliances to change jaw shape or length. (I was hugely relieved that no extractions were required. I doubt we would have gone ahead if they had been.)

We had guesstimated $10 000 for budgeting a few years ago, so we sighed a bit with relief because we had the money waiting in the bank.

What Did Other People Pay for Braces?

Since I had a hard time getting numbers from relatives and friends, I used the anonymity of the internet to try to get a few other opinions.

Here are some of the results:

  • For a child in 2013, $6910
  • For a teen for 5 years of treatment including a Herbst appliance and braces, $10 000
  • For a child, two quotes for the same work in 2014: $6500, $7000
  • For a child, for braces for 1 year, in 2007, $4500
  • For a child in 2004, $5500
  • For a child in 1999, $5000
  • For an adult, 28, in 2014: 5800
  • For an adult $7-8 000

So there seems to be a bit of a range.

What Should You Budget for Orthodontic Work or Braces for Your Child?

First, I’d check what, if any, coverage your work place provides for braces for a dependent child. As I mentioned in another article, our work coverage pays for only $1500 of work per child, and it costs us more than that in premiums to get it!

Then, I’d start with a budget of $10 000 per child less the amount paid for by insurance.

If you’re like most people, that may be “an impossible dream!” Still, it gives you a number to shoot for.

A more practical number may be $6 000 per child less the insurance amount.

Remember it is possible for adults to get braces, so unless you child is experiencing pain or in dental distress, you may decide not to get any orthodontic work done at all. It may be more important to save for your own retirement or for your child’s education than for cosmetic dentistry.

Don’t get bullied into spending money you don’t have!

How Can You Ensure You Get the Best Value for Orthodontic Work

Several people mentioned

  • Always wear your retainer for the recommended time to prevent teeth shifting back
  • Don’t start getting orthodontic work too early if the child is comfortable: wait till the jaw has grown
  • Always make sure you consider the “do nothing” alternative; It doesn’t mean you are a “bad” parent!

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Did your child need orthodontic work? Did you have some or all of the money saved? Did you have insurance help? If you are comfortable doing so, it would be great to add to our list of possible costs by adding your bill to a comment for others’ budgeting benefit. Please share your opinions and facts with a comment.