Lingual dental braces: Costs and pricing considerations.

Yes, you can expect that your treatment costs with lingual braces will be greater than that price your orthodontist would charge for traditional dental braces. One obvious reason why is due to the cost of the materials involved. The brackets and wires used with traditional braces are mass-produced stock items. A dentist will purchase a range of sizes of brackets and wires and then select (and augment as needed) those that are appropriate for treating an individual patient's case.

In comparison, with lingual braces (such as iBraces) the brackets and wires are custom made for each individual patient by a dental laboratory using sophisticated computer aided cad/cam technology and robotic wire-bending technique. Obviously the treating orthodontist will need to pass these additional laboratory costs on to their lingual braces patients.

A cost-cutting alternative for lingual braces patients.

As a way of saving money, some patients may decide (if their orthodontist offers) to have treatment that involves the use of lingual braces on their upper teeth and traditional dental braces on their lower teeth. A patient's bottom teeth are generally less visible than their upper teeth. And if relatively less noticeable tooth-colored ceramic brackets are utilized with the treatment of the lower teeth, a more cost effective, yet cosmetically pleasing, treatment plan can be taken advantage of.

Will your dental insurance policy cover the cost of having lingual braces?

In those cases where you have dental insurance coverage that does provide benefits for orthodontic treatment, the insurance coverage provided for lingual braces should be similar to that allowed for treatment utilizing traditional dental braces.