Does your tween or teenager have braces? Will he/she be needing them? Do you have dental insurance or will you pay out of pocket? How will you try and help your kiddo through this difficult stage? Share your thoughts with us!

My 13-yo SD will have braces in a couple of months. Her grandmother is paying for whatever the dental insurance won't cover.

I never wore braces myself, and neither did anyone in my family, so I'm not really sure how I'll address it - probably follow her dad's lead, since he did have them. I won't tease her about them, though.

Our 14 year old has braces. My husband is one of those people with freakishly perfect teeth, so he's never had them, but none of our kids seem to have inherited his dental genes.

Her braces cost about the same as our last car!

My daughter is just starting phase 2 of orthodontia work. We paid for phase 1 out of pocket, but with slightly better dental insurance will see some of phase 2 covered (about half). Braces aren't optional for our daughter, but were for my son who chose not to do it. Although there has been a lot of discomfort physically for my daughter, I don't think braces necessarily are a detriment in the adolescent years anymore; in fact just about everyone in my daughters grade has them.

My 15 year old has braces and it does not seem to bother her socially. It is very common now for the kids to have them. We used a 0% credit card to pay for them. It was good for 8 months. We divided it up over that time and paid it off without interest. Our dental office offers a 10% discount for pre-payment so it was a $400 savings.

My 4th and 6th grade daughters have had braces. We did the first round last year. They both had issues that had to be resolved early.

Our oldest was going to have to have adult teeth pulled if we didn't have them moved early. The braces solved that problem. She still hasn't lost all her baby teeth so we can't do the final round until she loses them all....and until we can afford it! Right now she just wears a retainer and headgear at night...she hates them but she's happy it's not during the day.

Our youngest was going to have to have her jaw broken if we had waited till she had all her adult teeth, severe underbite. We did the first round and were onto a retainer when the front tooth she lost in a bike accident (and we spent a fortune repairing and replacing) had to be pulled out again. She was going to have to have a missing front tooth until she got to high school.

But since she is an overachiever, she lost all her baby teeth by age 9 as well as getting her 12 year molars! So the ortho let us put the braces back on to work on making a space to put a fake tooth back into the spot until she's old enough for an implant tooth.

Our dental insurance stinks (Delta Dental). If you have a choice that sounds better, go for it! Delta paid for half of the first round of braces for the girls. Now we are paying for the second round for both of them (that's why only one of them can have braces at a time now!)

Neither of the girls are phased by the braces. My 11 year old can't wait to have them back on....easy for her to say, she's not paying for it!

Thing 1 has had a retainer for almost a yr. He is going to have to have braces and we go for the consult in March. We are lucky that insurance will pay 50% for the braces. I am a bit nervous because he plays sports and I have this horrible fear of him getting hit in the mouth. I did see where they make a special mouthguard for kids to wear to protect the braces. I think we will be investing in one of those for him.

We currently have 2 kids in braces, ages 13 and 11, to the tune of about $12,000. Our dental insurance also is pitiful, it paid $1000 each. Our orthodontist allows interest free payments, so we make monthly installments. Our kids have handled them really well, even the 11 year old who has had a palate expander (a device to widen the palate, and has "key" that you use to "crank" it open wider, ouch!). Most of the kids at their schools have braces, so I don't think there's a social problem at all any more.

My youngest daughter who is 15 has braces. We do have insurance that paid some of it. Then we did the same thing as other people said. The no interest payment plan. My daughter had a cleft palate when she was born. Getting braces has helped her self esteem greatly. She is alway smiling and she shows everyone her braces.

I never seen a kid so happy to have braces on. When she is at the orthdontist it shows. She does everything she is to do. She wears the head gear and uses the toothpaste they recommend.

My husband said it was the best thing we ever spend $10,000.00 on. She will have to wear retainers for the rest of her life. But that is ok with her.

My son, age 16, is due for braces. I plan to get them started this summer. I had them, too, and they were necessary. Our insurance will cover some; we'll have to make a plan to pay the rest. If we spread it out, we can do it.
I wanted to add a smiley to this post, but there isn't one with braces!