If you’ve been thinking about your smile — and wishing your teeth were straighter — there’s great news: many orthodontic patients today are adults! The team at Pearson Orthodontics is ready to help you achieve a smile that you feel proud to show the world. Here’s what you need to know about getting braces as an adult.
Braces for Adults: Not Just for Teens Anymore!
Although many people think of braces as something that’s a teenage rite of passage, that’s not the case these days. In fact, a significant portion of braces patients at Pearson Orthodontics are adults now. While there are some differences in getting braces as an adult versus doing so as a child or teenager, you can still get great results. As an adult, your jaw is already fully developed so you may need a different approach to straightening. Dr. Pearson can help you be happy with your smile at last.
Why Should Adults Get Braces?
There are a number of reasons that you might need braces as an adult. Your teeth may start to move at any age. You may have had straight teeth as a young person and then developed bite problems in recent years. It’s never too late for braces!
Avoiding Health Problems
If you have bite or orthopedic issues like overbite, underbite, open bite, crossbite, or crowded mouth, having your teeth properly aligned is important because it helps you avoid serious health problems. When your teeth are properly aligned, you’ll have less plaque accumulation, and that means less tartar buildup. When tartar gets below the gums it can eventually cause tooth loss, bone loss, and even whole-body health problems like heart disease when the bacteria gets into your bloodstream. Simply straightening your teeth with braces could potentially help you protect not just your oral health but also your whole body health.
Improving Appearance
One of the main reasons that many adults opt for braces today is that they can do wonders for your appearance. If you’ve been hesitating to smile, or only smiling with your lips closed for far too long, braces can finally give you the straight smile that you’ll flash with pride.
Of course, having a nice smile can make you feel more confident and this is a huge benefit to look forward to when your treatment is complete. If you’d like to straighten your teeth in a more subtle way (without the obvious metal brackets) you can opt for ceramic braces.
The Types of Braces Available
Adults who get braces have two options to consider. The traditional braces are metal ones with high-grade stainless steel brackets and wires. Ceramic braces are a newer option that was designed mainly to improve the look of braces. They’ve got tooth-colored brackets that are hard to see, so you can smile freely.
Although the brackets of ceramic braces are a bit larger than those of traditional metal braces, they work in the same way that metal braces do. The major difference between the two types of braces is the aesthetic factor — and, there’s also cost to consider as ceramic braces are more expensive than metal ones.
Timeframe
Both metal and ceramic braces are very effective, and adults generally wear braces for 12-24 months, depending on what sort of bite correction is needed.