First trip to the orthodontist in Britain
Today I learned something new about my adopted home country that was really good. I took my 13 year old son to the orthodontist after having been referred by our dentist a few months ago. This was the first time I’ve had experience with an orthodontist here in the UK and my husband had never gone to one as a child so wasn’t sure what it would be like. We spent about 20 minutes with the ortho as he identified what needed to be done and the options for doing this, all the while answering my questions and explaining things. Looks like my son needs quite a bit of work doing to his teeth!
When we left and went back to reception to book our follow up appointment, I got my wallet out fully expecting to be charged anywhere from £35 to £85 for the appointment. Turns out I didn’t have to pay anything at all! It’s all on the NHS which I seriously was not expecting. Dentist appointments on the NHS, yes, I understand that. However, I thought surely an appointment with the orthodontist would cost me. Luckily, the receptionist was new to her job and didn’t know what she was doing which made me feel a bit better about not knowing as well. And we had a little giggle about neither of us being clued in. Another, more experienced receptionist breezed in and informed me in clipped tones that children under the age of 18 receive treatment on the NHS and they would send a letter with the appointment a few weeks before hand and that if any of our details changed in the meantime to please contact them immediately.
When I was a child, I had the works and clearly remember all my trips to the ortho; the braces, the head gear, the retainer, the permanent brace in my lower teeth and the fact that my parents spent thousands of dollars on my teeth! So for me, this is definitely one of the benefits of raising children in Britain. Just wonderful (maybe not so much for my son though)!
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Meghan Peterson Fenn is the author of Bringing Up Brits and co-author of Inspiring Global Entrepreneurs with Heidi Mulligan Walker. Meghan is also the Director and Chief Designer at her own design company, White Ochre Design Ltd. And, she is an award winning expat blogger.
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