Don’t wonder if it’s too late to earn your beautiful smile with braces or Invisalign treatment. We give the facts to you straight!
We tend to see teens and children with a mouthful of metal brackets, wires, and colorful elastics. To many people, that means that braces are only useful for middle and high schoolers, and at a certain age, they just don’t work. However, is this really the case? Not at all, though there is some small bit of truth to this. Pre-teens and teens are the most common braces users because braces work their best when you’re younger.
By the time your child is 7 years old, many of their baby teeth are falling out, and their permanent ones have or will soon begin coming in. At this point, their Bellflower pediatric dentist will take a series of comprehensive X-rays and exams to determine whether their smile is developing as it should. If we find that there are problems on the near horizon, our orthodontists will suggest your child receive braces sometime in the next few years. For most children, ages 8 to 14 are the best time for them to start orthodontic work. Their smiles are still developing and coming together, making them much more pliable than adults’.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that you’ll suddenly hit an invisible wall once you reach a certain age, and you won’t ever be able to get a beautiful, straight smile. Just because your jaw structure isn’t as malleable as when you’re a growing child doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything about your bite and alignment issues.
Is It Normal For Adults To Get Braces?
Even if you miss the best window to get braces, you don’t have to resign yourself to a crooked smile or uneven bite. Adult braces are exceedingly common, and they’ve only become more popular with the invention of Invisalign and clear aligners in the last few decades. Our adult patients usually don’t want to advertise their braces work. They often go with the nearly invisible braces option of clear aligners. With these aligners, it’s usually the case that no one is aware that their coworker, friend, or family member is working to straighten their teeth.
However, it’s not just Invisalign that adults are getting, either. Since Invisalign can’t always tackle the full structural problems that come with a severely misaligned bite, bracket braces are necessary instead. Many adults choose to forego the completely unobtrusive look of clear aligners in favor of a dazzling smile down the road. Even Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise has rocked ceramic braces on the red carpet before. At the time, the actor was 40 years old, proving that there’s no “wrong time” to improve your smile.
Invisalign vs Braces
Here at Bellflower Dental Group, we offer a full range of orthodontic treatments to shape your smile how you want it. But when it comes to the different appliances we have, what are the pros and cons of each? What sets Invisalign apart from braces?
Metal Braces
Traditional braces use metal brackets affixed to the fronts of your teeth and dental wire threaded through them to push your smile into its proper alignment. During every visit, your orthodontist will tighten your wire, adding a gentle pressure to your teeth that moves them exactly where we want. You should pay close attention to the foods you eat with bracket braces because they can run the risk of wires bending or brackets popping off if you’re not cautious.
Ceramic Braces
Ceramic, or clear, braces are another type of bracket braces like traditional metal ones. The main difference, however, is how we craft your brackets. Instead of metal, clear braces bond tooth-colored or clear ceramic brackets to the front of your teeth. This allows your teeth braces to blend in much more naturally with the rest of your smile.
Invisalign
Invisalign uses clear aligner trays that we custom design based on impressions and molds your orthodontist takes of your teeth. As you exchange your current tray for the next in the series, you’ll gradually shift your smile into place without any pain or discomfort. These aligners are completely removable and only need to be worn 22 hours each day to be fully effective. This means that, unlike bracket braces, you or your child can take them out when eating meals or cleaning your teeth.
What Type Of Braces Work The Fastest?
Invisalign treatment is often the fastest when it comes to straightening slight to moderate orthodontic problems. Most Invisalign patients only have to wear their clear aligners for 12 to 18 months. For simple cases, we’ve had patients finish their Invisalign treatment in as little as 6! Metal and clear braces take an average of 18 to 36 months to complete because they go root-deep when adjusting your smile and take on the toughest and most complex alignment problems.
No matter which orthodontic treatment you choose, you will need to wear a retainer to keep your smile as-is. Your retainer should be worn as close to 24/7 as possible for the first few months up to a year. During this period, your smile will not have fixed themselves in place as solidly, and they will want to begin moving back to their old alignment. After your orthodontist gives you the okay, you can start wearing your retainer only at night to maintain your current smile.
What Are The Best Braces For Kids?
For younger children, our pediatric orthodontics team usually recommends traditional or clear braces. Bracket braces are permanently fixed to their teeth throughout their treatment, making it impossible for them to skip a day of their treatment. With Invisalign, our experienced orthodontics team has seen how difficult it can be for kids to remember to wear their clear aligners. That means they often go between 7 to 10 hours some days without orthodontic treatment. Since Invisalign aligners need to be worn at least 22 hours each day, a forgetful child can significantly lengthen their treatment time. Even when they don’t forget to wear their aligners, children have also lost their Invisalign trays, making frequent replacements a headache for parents.
Plus, while adults may not want the obtrusive look of braces, some kids love it! This may seem strange, but the colorful elastic bands your child chooses during every orthodontist appointment give them a chance to show their style and personality. However, if your kid doesn’t particularly want a personalized smile, we can also use clear braces to correct their smile. These braces can cover the same range and severity of alignment issues, and ceramic is resistant to staining. This means your child won’t have to worry about ruining their treatment’s hidden look.
Must My Teeth Be Removed Prior to Braces?
Sometimes there isn’t enough room in the mouth for teeth to freely move around like we need them. In others, an impacted tooth can’t be moved since braces or aligners can’t reach them. Maybe there’s asymmetry in your bite, such as too many or too few teeth. The tooth might be too severely injured from tooth decay or gum disease. Even with early orthodontic work, we can’t always stop these problems before they develop. Still, we can get to them before they get any worse. In these cases, our orthodontists at Bellflower Dental Group will need to extract one or more of your or your child’s crowded, asymmetrical, or impacted teeth.
We may also suggest an extraction if your wisdom teeth are starting to come in. Impacted wisdom teeth aren’t the only ones that can cause major problems for your smile’s alignment, after all. Emerging wisdom teeth may further crowd and ruin your smile’s alignment if left to their own devices. Preventative removal can also keep your incoming wisdom teeth from crashing into and damaging your other teeth as they erupt. Once these troublesome teeth are removed, we can begin your braces or Invisalign treatment and get the rest of your smile in shape.
How Much Do Braces Cost?
Metal and ceramic braces as well as Invisalign cost about the same. Metal braces may be only a little bit more economical than its siblings, but alternative teeth straightening methods have become much more affordable in recent years as their popularity rises. Nowadays, the only real factor is how long your treatment is going to be. As you might guess, the longer your procedure lasts, the more it will cost. There are frequent adjustments that need to be made with bracket braces, and Invisalign requires a new aligner tray every two weeks.
If you have any questions or concerns about the cost of your orthodontic work, from dental insurance coverage to our Bellflower office’s financing options, please don’t hesitate to call our office at (323) 486-6579. We’ll be happy to schedule you a consultation with one of our orthodontists.
