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My husband and I are on the debt free Dave Ramsey plan so we paid my braces in full over two months 5100us. It did cross my mind that maybe it was a bad idea to pay in full. I mean what if I had a major problem or if my ortho and I didnt see eye to eye or if they went under .
But I've known three people who had their ortho treatment at the same place and figured she wasnt going anywhere and the other three people were very satisfied with their end results. So far everthing is going good and the staff and ortho are very nice, helpful and great...
Got my braces off 9/20/07 after 19 months and 3 weeks. WOOOOOOHOOOOO!!
I paid up front too for the discount. The ortho's been around for a long time and got great referrals. At the time I hadn't even thought about the ortho closing shop and disappearing, so that's a good point. For me, I didn't want the burden of writing a check every month or having to think about the $ aspect that often. Paying up front also gave me a little more bargining power when it came to the final price and some of the items in the "contract", (early de-bracing, broken bracets, etc).
Damon 3s. On 2/15/2006. Off 2/21/2007!
Essix on uppers, Hawley on lowers.
Paid up front to get the discount. I'm trusting this guy with my dental health - that's a bigger deal than trusting him with mere dollars in my opinion.
I paid up front to get the discount also. I totally agree with Maryaten's comment above.
I did have quite a start when I read here not to do that...there is a clause in my contract saying that if I leave the practice before my teeth are finished, I will receive a refund of part of my cost.
About any trust issues I would have with the Dr. and my money, he's been in practice here in my town for quite a long time, I am quite comfortable that he won't be running off with anyone's money!!
What an interesting thread. The idea of paying up front never occurred to me. It certainly wasn't an option presented by my ortho. I don't know that I would have been real keen on the idea if it was. My ortho's office were very considerate about amounts and installment timeframe and if I was ok with everything. I paid AUD$1000 on the day of banding, and pay AUD$700 per quarter over a 14th period. I think I would have been slightly put off if they'd asked for the full amount upfront.
JumpTheDitch - I'd be surprised if many orthos would ask for the payment all up front. But it is often presented as one of a set of options for payment. For me it was:
1. Pay up front and get a discount
2. Pay a deposit up front and the rest in installments to the ortho (no interest)
3. Use financing through a major lender, arranged through the ortho's office
These were the same options given to me by my ortho with #3 incurring interrest payments I liked the idea of getting it out of the way. We'd had a good tax return that year so I just used most of that to pay for it.
That made it much easier to make monthly payments for my daughter's braces once that came along. (her ortho doesn't offer a pay up front option)
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I liked the idea of getting it out of the way. We'd had a good tax return that year so I just used most of that to pay for it. 
