It's over without childhood braces (guide to insurance covering your ascension)

[Ceoptism]

Importance of Childhood braces​

Childhood braces are the key to insurance based hardmaxxing. When you're in an awkward stage in puberty, usually you already have had or are currently having braces/invisalign (and possibly palate device depending on ortho and out of pocket investment) and this is a grey area when you can take advantage of it assuming you truly do have the skeletal deformities necessitating an insurance covered bimax.
While I can't speak for every single insurance company, I know that the US while fickle, will cover your bimax if you put in the effort, and this can help to save money for other aspects of life (cosmetic surgeries).
41% of people in the world have an overbite greater than 3mm, and within that 3.28 billion people, over a billion likely have a qualifying horizontal overjet (in either direction) of 5mm.
Underbites have a slightly different story, around 5-10% of the world suffers from an underbite, and a smaller proportional percentage of these (as compared to overbite) suffer from an underbite greater than or equal to 3mm. It should be noted that underbite percentages vary widely based on the population being studied and sits as low as under 5% for caucasians and as high as 15-26% in southeast asian populations.

Now that we've assumed that if you're on this forum and want an insurance covered bimax, you are likely in one of these percentages of people with a horizontal overjet in either direction. Next we have to navigate policy language and figure out how to jump through some hoops.

Most insurance policies have their bimax coverage in two sections, first is a bimax for reconstruction, done for the following:

A. An abnormal structure of the maxilla and mandible caused by any of the following:
1. Accidental injury
2. Congenital defect
3. Developmental abnormality
4. Disease
5. Infection
6. Trauma
B. Abnormal function of the maxilla and mandible exclusive of functional abnormalities of
the teeth and occlusion

(excerpt from blue shield CA bimax policy)

While language may differ coverage to coverage, the main meaning of this is that you can get insurance to cover a bimax if you were in an accident and want to return your appearance as close to normal as possible. This doesn't apply to the vast majority of people, and if you are in this situation, usually you're not just looking at a lefort I.

The second section is divided into usually 3 subsections, that are the main obstacles to you getting an insurance covered bimax, but thankfully theres ways around it. First, is that for insurance to cover it, the facial skeletal deformity/deformities are not correctable by nonsurgical methods. This is a pretty easy section to get checked off because the only way to fix skeletal problems past age 8 is through surgery (palate expanders wouldn't provide necessary functional improvement that surgery would).

The next section is the whole point of the thread, orthodontic treatment must be completed or is not required. If you had braces at some point in your life, and you're still struggling with skeletal deformities (even better if your skeletal deformities eventually reversed the progress made by braces after removing them) then you're basically in the perfect spot to get a bimax. Obviously its not as simple as having an overbite and having had braces at some point and walking up to your nearest surgeon, the best method is to go up the chain in your insurance, hit up your pcp, give him the laundry list of soft tissue sliding back, breathing problems, tongue lacking space, teeth crowding, gum agitation, the whole 9 yards of symptoms, but don't rattle them off like a script, the key to getting stuff through insurance is evidence, and these are problems that don't need the strongest evidence to argue them as long as you do have the skeletal deformities necessary. Often, your pcp doesn't want to deal with this, so they'll refer you to get scans and if you do have the correct skeletal deformities then you can continue up the chain.

forgot to add but section 3 is just proof of skeletal deformities

sorry for not giving specifics it just is really dependent on your provider.

Then you should start looking for surgeons within your state (or depending on how wide your coverage is nearby states) for surgeons that accept your insurance and are willing to take your case, which is as simple as calling their office and asking if they accept your insurance. Once you find a surgeon that accepts your insurance and you meet with them and they're willing to take you on as a case, you're basically golden from there, you made it to a free (after maximum out of pocket premium) bimax.

I know this forum has a huge problem with local surgeons but if you're able to get a surgeon at a good university (or health center) you're getting the surgeons that created the methods copied poorly by third world surgeons that cheapskates go to. If you've gotten this far in the process, there is no reason to dream about the turkey surgeon who will give you 1 extra mm, people strongly overestimate how far even the third world surgeons will go, and top jaw surgeons in europe can def provide an aesthetic look, but they're just a middle ground between the top US surgeons and some hair transplant specialists. Uni surgeons will absolutely listen to what you want, after they meet the insurance requirements to fix your face, and many of them will give you that extra mm or two that you want, as long as there is functional improvement with what they do, and its not risky to add mm that coincidentally provides cosmetic improvement, most surgeons have no reason to say no, and they often don't.

This method won't work for everyone, otherwise tourism to korea and turkey would be half of what it is, but for those who do qualify, it's absolutely a harm free thing to try. lmk if you have any questions and will try to answer them, apologies to people outside US not familiar with yall's healthcare systems so I didn't want to speak on them.

First guide, could use formatting advice I know that people don't like to read more than a sentence at a time. Thanks for reading!

also too lazy for images, but if anyone has suggestions for another topic to cover that isn't done ad nauseam, let me know

 

[Ceoptism]

bump

 

[Ceoptism]

b

 

[alexias]

Importance of Childhood braces​

Childhood braces are the key to insurance based hardmaxxing. When you're in an awkward stage in puberty, usually you already have had or are currently having braces/invisalign (and possibly palate device depending on ortho and out of pocket investment) and this is a grey area when you can take advantage of it assuming you truly do have the skeletal deformities necessitating an insurance covered bimax.
While I can't speak for every single insurance company, I know that the US while fickle, will cover your bimax if you put in the effort, and this can help to save money for other aspects of life (cosmetic surgeries).
41% of people in the world have an overbite greater than 3mm, and within that 3.28 billion people, over a billion likely have a qualifying horizontal overjet (in either direction) of 5mm.
Underbites have a slightly different story, around 5-10% of the world suffers from an underbite, and a smaller proportional percentage of these (as compared to overbite) suffer from an underbite greater than or equal to 3mm. It should be noted that underbite percentages vary widely based on the population being studied and sits as low as under 5% for caucasians and as high as 15-26% in southeast asian populations.

Now that we've assumed that if you're on this forum and want an insurance covered bimax, you are likely in one of these percentages of people with a horizontal overjet in either direction. Next we have to navigate policy language and figure out how to jump through some hoops.

Most insurance policies have their bimax coverage in two sections, first is a bimax for reconstruction, done for the following:

A. An abnormal structure of the maxilla and mandible caused by any of the following:
1. Accidental injury
2. Congenital defect
3. Developmental abnormality
4. Disease
5. Infection
6. Trauma
B. Abnormal function of the maxilla and mandible exclusive of functional abnormalities of
the teeth and occlusion

(excerpt from blue shield CA bimax policy)

While language may differ coverage to coverage, the main meaning of this is that you can get insurance to cover a bimax if you were in an accident and want to return your appearance as close to normal as possible. This doesn't apply to the vast majority of people, and if you are in this situation, usually you're not just looking at a lefort I.

The second section is divided into usually 3 subsections, that are the main obstacles to you getting an insurance covered bimax, but thankfully theres ways around it. First, is that for insurance to cover it, the facial skeletal deformity/deformities are not correctable by nonsurgical methods. This is a pretty easy section to get checked off because the only way to fix skeletal problems past age 8 is through surgery (palate expanders wouldn't provide necessary functional improvement that surgery would).

The next section is the whole point of the thread, orthodontic treatment must be completed or is not required. If you had braces at some point in your life, and you're still struggling with skeletal deformities (even better if your skeletal deformities eventually reversed the progress made by braces after removing them) then you're basically in the perfect spot to get a bimax. Obviously its not as simple as having an overbite and having had braces at some point and walking up to your nearest surgeon, the best method is to go up the chain in your insurance, hit up your pcp, give him the laundry list of soft tissue sliding back, breathing problems, tongue lacking space, teeth crowding, gum agitation, the whole 9 yards of symptoms, but don't rattle them off like a script, the key to getting stuff through insurance is evidence, and these are problems that don't need the strongest evidence to argue them as long as you do have the skeletal deformities necessary. Often, your pcp doesn't want to deal with this, so they'll refer you to get scans and if you do have the correct skeletal deformities then you can continue up the chain.

forgot to add but section 3 is just proof of skeletal deformities

sorry for not giving specifics it just is really dependent on your provider.

Then you should start looking for surgeons within your state (or depending on how wide your coverage is nearby states) for surgeons that accept your insurance and are willing to take your case, which is as simple as calling their office and asking if they accept your insurance. Once you find a surgeon that accepts your insurance and you meet with them and they're willing to take you on as a case, you're basically golden from there, you made it to a free (after maximum out of pocket premium) bimax.

I know this forum has a huge problem with local surgeons but if you're able to get a surgeon at a good university (or health center) you're getting the surgeons that created the methods copied poorly by third world surgeons that cheapskates go to. If you've gotten this far in the process, there is no reason to dream about the turkey surgeon who will give you 1 extra mm, people strongly overestimate how far even the third world surgeons will go, and top jaw surgeons in europe can def provide an aesthetic look, but they're just a middle ground between the top US surgeons and some hair transplant specialists. Uni surgeons will absolutely listen to what you want, after they meet the insurance requirements to fix your face, and many of them will give you that extra mm or two that you want, as long as there is functional improvement with what they do, and its not risky to add mm that coincidentally provides cosmetic improvement, most surgeons have no reason to say no, and they often don't.

This method won't work for everyone, otherwise tourism to korea and turkey would be half of what it is, but for those who do qualify, it's absolutely a harm free thing to try. lmk if you have any questions and will try to answer them, apologies to people outside US not familiar with yall's healthcare systems so I didn't want to speak on them.

First guide, could use formatting advice I know that people don't like to read more than a sentence at a time. Thanks for reading!

also too lazy for images, but if anyone has suggestions for another topic to cover that isn't done ad nauseam, let me know

Childhood braces ruin alot of your development, it's better to get it after teenage years likely you wouldn't need braces if you have proper nutrition

 

[Ceoptism]

Childhood braces ruin alot of your development, it's better to get it after teenage years likely you wouldn't need braces if you have proper nutrition

I mostly agree, however malocclusions are often congenital and hereditary (especially ones greater than the average overjet), and often you don't have a choice in whether you get braces or not it depends on your parents and dental coverage. So this is more of an encouragement to maximize a less than stellar position, not to encourage childhood braces because many orthos simply focus on straight teeth at the cost of everything else.