From her accent, I would say she, like me, is English.
In England, kids get "free" braces on the NHS, and she would probably have and no choice in her treatment!
I think most NHS hospitals with an orthodontic department tend to have their own labs: this means that treatments can be optimised to reduce chair time (so they can see more patients) - and one way to do that is to use removable appliances (which can be fabricated "offline", and quickly installed) rather than using and equivalent fixed appliance, that takes longer to fit.
