Our experience has been nothing but splendid. Our baby's head was asymmetrical and flat, he came out with a cone head too, overall, it was noticeably obvious. We only paid for our deductible, which was fine with us. Micaela was absolutely amazing. He was 4.5 months when we started and he just graduated today. During the duration of his treatment, we already saw a huge difference and glad that we started his treatment at the time he did. Overall, we are happy . read more

Julie is absolutely fantastic. She has the perfect disposition for this job--always kind, reassuring, and positive. My baby boy loved interacting with her every visit. I only wish we had come sooner. We went to Hanger Clinic first and felt strung along, whereas Cranial Tech would have pushed our insurance through immediately. Samantha at the front desk was also wonderful--so kind and easy to work with. Obviously no parent wants their child to need a helmet, but if you find yourself in this position, I can't recommend Cranial Tech Irvine enough. read more

Our experience with Cranial Technologies was a nightmare. We definitely do NOT recommend them to fellow parents. * We used Cranial Technologies to helmet our baby at 5 months, for 12 weeks. Our orthotist was Julie and we are extremely dissatisfied with the service we received. * Our baby's head asymmetry DID NOT IMPROVE at all, even though we followed all the instructions, wore the helmet 23 hours a day, and kept all our appointments for adjustments. To make matters worse, the helmet damaged our baby's eye & created an indent on our baby's skull - and the neurosurgeons said they permanently damaged the skull bones & this was not a soft tissue issue. What to expect at Cranial Technologies: (1) *** COST *** Most insurance companies do not cover helmets, unless you have a severe case. Our insurance didn't cover under 12mm of asymmetry. Our baby had 8mm of asymmetry, and the insurance denied the claim. - Cranial Technologies charges $5000 to the insurance. Based on your deductible & copay schedule, you are likely to pay 40-50% of that out-of-pocket, even if insurance covers it. - If the insurance does not cover it & you decide to pay out-of-pocket (which is what we did), the cost of the helmet is $2500. Note that this is the cost PER HELMET. In most cases, Cranial Technologies recommends a second helmet (or a third - I even read stories about 4 helmets!). So if you want to continue treatment, you will have to keep paying this cost per helmet. (2) *** SCANS *** They provide head scans free of charge, but be aware that these scans are just to get your foot in the door. Once you decide to get a helmet, they will NO LONGER scan your baby's head to provide you with the asymmetry numbers. You might hope for improvement throughout treatment, but you won't have any evaluation or proof based on numbers. All you will have is their word... what a clever business model indeed! We had weekly appointments at first, and biweekly afterwards. All Julie did was put a sock on our baby's head, and assure us that it was improving. ALL YOU GET IS A VISUAL EVALUATION throughout treatment! And of course, they claim their helmet is working. When I (repeatedly) pointed out that my baby's head shape is not improving & you can clearly see that his flat spot is not getting any better, all I heard from Julie was: "I disagree, I disagree, I disagree...". Obviously I was right and she was wrong, but would never admit it. Everything these staff members tell you comes from a SCRIPT. Do some online research, and you will see that this is everybody's experience with Cranial Technologies. They are a corporate chain focused solely on profits, and nobody there cares about your baby's head shape. They will admit no wrongdoing and just keep repeating themselves. The only scan you will get is midway through the treatment - BUT WITH NO NUMBERS or NO REPORT. Again, this is just a VISUAL EVALUATION - which is your orthotist's opinion. She'll look at the scan and tell you it's improving. Even when the helmet is not working, there is nothing you can do about it. (3) *** RESULTS *** You get a final scan at graduation, and an accompanying report 2+ weeks after your graduation. Our baby's head shape did not improve at all after the treatment. See the exit report pictures attached. When we talked to our orthotist Julie about it, she said while the report shows ZERO IMPROVEMENT, the helmet treatment was still a SUCCESS (!!!). We were told the asymmetry numbers are there for insurance purposes only and they don't mean much. All we should care about is her visual assessment - and if she thinks it improved visually, we shouldn't question it. Julie also told us: yes she can see some very minor flatness behind the ear still - but that's "the most difficult area to treat, so what are you gonna do". -- This is why we got the helmet in the first place! We were told our baby had a flat spot on the side of his head & were promised that the helmet could fix it. And when we were prescribed the helmet, we were told it was MODERATE TO SEVERE, but once their helmet failed to treat it, the exact same asymmetry was suddenly "VERY MINOR". In other words, "we already have your money, and we do not care". 4) *** DAMAGE *** Our baby suffered: - Permanent eye damage, since the helmet squished his eye for 12 weeks straight. - Permanent skull damage, since the helmet pushed in and damaged the bones under the velcro. They claimed this is soft tissue accumulation, but it never went away. Final note: Even if your child has a severe case & needs a helmet, consider getting a second opinion from other clinics in the area - they also offer free consultations and free technologic scans. I should also note that the Neurosurgery department doctors at CHOC do NOT recommend Cranial Technologies, but they work with Hanger Clinic instead. These are the most prominent medical doctors in SoCal specializing in children's head shape, so they should know. read more

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This review is for Julie. My son needed a helmet and got his first one at 3 months. My son's head was considered severe so he did end up needed a second helmet. It was a long process, he's almost 10 months and just finished today. His head has improved a lot, it's not easy, it's hot it's smelly and it's work to keep it clean, keep them cool and content but it's worth it for your child to not have deformities later in life. Julie was my person who met me at every appointment and took care of me and my son. He has super super sensitive skin and we had a lot of days where we couldn't use the helmet because he would get heat rash and she just always took the time to see us and find solutions to help. He needed a lot of moleskin in his helmet to prevent the heat rash and it finally worked. She replaced it every appointment for us and she was just so kind. She made me feel so much more at ease during this process and I'm just so grateful for her for taking so much time to figure out how to make the helmet more comfortable for my son, I truly appreciate her mannerisms. As for the helmet, yes it's work, my son's head wasn't 100% fixable but it looks so much better you can't even really tell. I don't think anyone's head is 100% perfect but it's so much better than when he came in. I felt like it was the right decision because my physical therapist said it could deform other parts of their face like eye sockets and jaw which could cause problems later on and I just didn't want him to be teased or self conscious so I'm glad we made the decision, again it's work and it's been a long journey but it's worth it for our kids. Thank you Julie for being on this journey with us ******EDIT: I just posted my review and noticed a negative one which I don't ever want to undermine anyone else's experience. Their experience is theirs and their feelings are valid however, I do want to say that if this was my first time coming and I read their review I think I would be hesitant and I don't want someone to be hesitant on something that could actually help their child so I just wanted to clarify some things based on MY personal experience because I would hate if someone didn't give their baby a fighting chance based on fear. I personally have insurance. Yes the doc band out of pocket is expensive. With insurance I personally paid $220. Everyone's insurance and approvals are different so out of pocket yes is upwards of 3k. I did not have to pay that, I know of people that have but that person didn't have insurance either. The helmet has a Velcro closure. Yes that makes an indentation on the side of your kids head where it closes. I was also concerned and brought that up. I was told it's soft tissue and would go away and it's like the equivalent of a rubber band making an indentation on a wrist. It DID go away while we were waiting for helmet 2 to be made and it didn't come back as strong on the second helmet but it does go away when I have him out of it. It was not permanent on my baby but it did concern me at first, I feel better about it now that I know and have verified it goes away. They DO take scans just not every appointment. They take them in the beginning, the middle and end. What they do at every appointment is check for marks on your babies head incase they have too much pressure somewhere, adjust the inside of the helmet for your babies head growth and measure the head and do visual comparisons based on the first images done. This is done with a stocking over your babies head so they can see the actual shape easier. You have an appointment every single week to every other week based on your babies age and the changes are small and slow so they do a check in the middle to see the progress but not every single appointment. They are attentive to make sure it's comfortable for baby and make adjustments as needed Again everyone's experience is different, my babies head can't be improved 100% but it looks SO much better and I can see the visual change. I'm grateful I did this read more

Cranial Technologies - Graduation certificate given from fhe team - Orthotics Near Me - Irvine, California

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Scam artists. I'm so mad right now. I asked for report with numbers today from helmet company. Turns out, Michaela lied to us. In appointment she said he has moderate to severe condition but report actually shows its mild to moderate. On top of that the scale they use is skewed in their favor so it looks worse than it actually is and convinces you to get helmet. Compare the report numbers to table provided by instagram account Infant Insights We came home from appointment so concerned. I did so much research on how to correct and all to find out I was lied to for their profit. Please do your research. If it's mild to moderate you can likely correct without a helmet. Do not let these people scare you and take advantage of you wanting your baby to be perfect read more

They are great!!!!! Highly Recommend this facility! We are on band number 2 and very happy with our results so far! read more

Cranial Technologies - Jojo posing for her second docband!!! - Orthotics Near Me - Irvine, California