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Paula Said:

How costly would braces be to just close a large gap between the top two front teeth?

We Answered:

The best thing to do is visit some orthodontists for quotes - many do this for free, so call around and see what you can get. From what I can tell many ortho's in the US do a time payment option, so perhaps your son could even pay for them himself by getting a part time job and paying them off in installments (here in NZ you generally have to pay up front). Prices will vary depending on where you live and how long the estimated treatment is, so seeing some orthos is the only way you'll get an accurate quote.

It's possible something like this could be just fixed with a retainer and not full braces - I know someone who's done it that way - which would I'm sure be cheaper.

One thing to remember is that if you move just the front teeth in together, you then create a gap next to those teeth which would then need to be filled, so your son would still have to have any appliance on long enough to close all the gaps.

My advice is to fix this now if you can, especially if your son is uncomfortable with it - I'm 31 and just got braces and I look back at all the years where I wanted by teeth fixed but didn't and really wish I'd done something about them much earlier.

Eric Said:

Of the estimated 46 million of Americans without health care coverage, many are non white ! Why such a gap ?

We Answered:

Lets be totally honest here if we want to be true to ourselves and put it all on the table. For decades minorities in America especially African-Americans have been systematically phased out of the economic pie and the fruits that come with that and health care and health insurance is no exception.

I suspect that most Blacks in America even those with health insurance are hard pressed to find a primary care provider in their community. If you ever pay attention, most free clinics in America are most often located in poor Black neighborhoods and they rarely have the latest in medical equipment to treat certain ailments !

The facilities that exist are often of lower quality and lack the resources institutions located in primarily white areas have.

What this means is that even when minorities are covered by health insurance, they're less likely to have quality care and less able to afford the associated out-of-pocket expenses -- and the results are staggering. Children born to black women are more than twice as likely to die within their first year of life as are children born to white women.

This disparity is unaffected by income or education level. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the mortality rate for infants of college-educated black women is 11.5 deaths for 1,000 live births, more than twice that for infants of similarly educated white women, 4.2 for 1,000 live births.

It's not just infant mortality. According to a 2004 analysis published in the American Journal of Public Health, if the mortality rate of blacks had been the same as that of whites between 1991 and 2000, 880,000 deaths could have been avoided. People of color are more likely to suffer and die from chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease, they're less likely to get the kinds of life-saving treatments that whites get, and they're more likely to receive the kinds of treatments you would avoid if you could -- such as limb amputation for diabetes.

African Americans made up almost half of the new cases of HIV infection recorded in the 2000 Census. People of color are less likely to have seen a dentist. Only 27 percent of African Americans and Hispanics, 36 percent of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, and 41 percent of Native Americans and Alaska Natives reported seeing a dentist in the past year, compared to nearly half of whites who had. A fifth of black adults report being in poor or fair health, slightly more than Hispanic adults and nearly twice as many as white adults. Some of these conditions are due to disparities in employment, education, and wealth.

Some of these conditions are due to disparities in employment, education, and wealth. Language and cultural barriers also hinder effective care, preventing patients and doctors from communicating effectively about medical problems and treatments. But disparities persist even when controlling for income and education levels, the most reliable indicators of quality coverage.

So racism plays a part as it does with every other aspect of life for minorities ! People will say that's not true but in reality it is true !

Since the passage of Civil Rights Legislation in the 1960s, Blacks have done far worse economically than before Civil Rights Legislation was passed when Black communities sustained themselves and took care of their !

Blacks were making decent albeit slow progress on the 1970s but since that they have steadily taken steps backwards to a time before Civil Rights and desegregation came along !

This is no coincidence that it's happening and it's been done slowly and methodically without anyone noticing for well over 30 plus years !

When men and women no matter what race they are cannot find suitable employment that offers a living wage, benefits etc etc etc, they most often will suffer because of that and Blacks and other minorities have not had the same access to jobs that their White counterparts have had especially in the blue collar job market !

Whites working blur collar are often make twice or three times the amount a minority makes in similar jobs and that's considering if they can even land the job !

Great example ! Where I live we have two tobacco plants (Philip Morris and Brown and Williamson, that sit in the heart of the African-American community yet 80% of the hourly employees are White and live on average 25-50 miles away in surrounding areas versus Blacks who literally live within a few blocks of both plants yet they cannot land a job at either plant ! That's called racism whether we like it or not !

These plants have been in their current locations since the 1950s and back then the area was all White as were the employees until the migration of the 1960s known as "White Flight" took place and Whites started moving out because Blacks were moving in and yet the face of employment at these two plants has remained largely unchanged !

These jobs on average pay around $22 bucks per hour yet these two tobacco giants want the money Blacks spend on their products yet they don't think enough of them to hire them !

This type of scenario happens daily all over America !

Eleanor Said:

Why should men care if women get paid LESS, if they don't give a DAMN about unreasonable car insurance for men?

We Answered:

Good point. I'm still an advocate of womens' rights though since not all women feel that way.

Mabel Said:

What was your the cost of your braces? So I can compare,?

We Answered:

I'm currently paying in tri-monthly installments.
It's costing me $6630 for the braces and an extra $750 for having ceramic brackets on top.

I have no insurance, but in Australia we can claim any medical fees of more than $1500 off our tax. (Which is awesome, because I'm a student.)

But as someone else said, you should definitely not consider the cost - I mean, if you're putting yourself out there to have stuff done to your teeth then you're going to want the person doing the work to be the best you can get, regardless of the cost. There are so many different things that can go wrong if you end up with a dodgy orthodontist - get recommendations from friends or a doctor or a dentist - generally, the more professional and hygienic an orthodontist is the better the result for you. This of course will come with its own price but it's definitely worth it.