Cranial Tech in Austin vs. Star Cranial Center in San

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Hi All,

My 5 month old son has been diagnosed with Postional Plagiocephaly. The last

month we have seen a pediatric neurosurgeon been through xrays, ct scan etc and

are now cleared for a band. All the sutures are open.(I will share more on our

experience w that later.)

When Elijah was measured a few weeks ago by our ped neurosurgeon, she told us

that he was a full centimeter difference, measuring from back left to front

right and vice versa. She wrote us a Hanger prescription but we already had a

precription for Cranial Tech from our ped. We live in between San in

Austin, and she said it was up to us where we went. It is very important to me

to go to a place that specializes in cranial banding, so we went last week for

our CT evaluation appointment. We found out 2 days later that our insurance was

out of network and would only pay out at a lower percentage rate and only on the

much lower allowable amount. In efforts to try to get an exception made from

BlueCross to pay in network, I came across Star Cranial Center of Excellence in

San that just opened in April.

I called with lots of questions and the receptionaist had Darren Poidevin

return my call. He said that the doc band and Starband are very similar. He

has been doing cranial banding for 8 years and was most recently traveling and

training people on cranial banding. He wanted to answer all my questions and

was very helpful and friendly. Evidently he works closely with ped neurosurgeon

in SA. We go tomorrow for an evaluation. Oh and they are in network, and we

would save a lot going there. That being said, I am not going to base my

decsion on that.

Can anyone and everyone please give me their experiences, and more than that if

someone is knowledgable enough to help outline the differences in the docband

and starband it would be so appreciated. I know there is a lot of love out

there for the docband, but I feel like that has me brainwashed a little. I just

need to know the facts. Oh and CT said that my son would outgrow the docband in

8-12 weeks, and it is 50/50 on whether or not he will need a second. Amy at CT

said he is pretty severe. I've been told that the starband can be worn up to 6

months, so we would only need one band for sure. Does anyone know if the

progress is slower in the starband. I think that the foam is thicker. I do

like the Star Scanner. Evidently they do scans throughout the process to take

measurements and see 3d images of the progress. I keep hearing that with the

starband it depends completely on the experience of the tech or orthodist.

Thanks to all who can help me.

Shauna