Is 21 too old for braces?

Dental health and the right time to get braces

It’s always the right time to think about your smile and dental health!  Although many people in London associate orthodontic care with teenagers and young adults, nowadays there are a lot of grownups who spend time in an orthodontist’s chair. Our orthodontic dentists at Whites Dental are here to help create a beautiful straight smile for you. We provide a range of braces and cosmetic treatments such as composite bonding and veneers in London Waterloo.

When it comes down to your dental well-being,  as long as your teeth are healthy, you are not too old to start orthodontic treatment using braces. Crowded, overlapping and misaligned  teeth are often difficult to clean, increasing the risk of dental decay and also gum issues. Malocclusion,  a term used by dentists when your teeth don’t properly come together when you close your lower and upper jaws, can cause swallowing and chewing problems. Misaligned teeth can also put excess stress on the muscles of your jaws and face, causing oral pain and also making it harder sometimes to pronounce some sounds. Its true that childhood and early teenage years are “ideal” to change the position of your teeth as the facial bones are still relatively soft and therefore malleable stage, more and more adults in London are lately opting for orthodontic brace treatment and achieving excellent outcomes. If you are considering having treatment to fix teeth alignment, bite issues or the effects of tooth loss, you ought to keep some factors in mind –

• The facial bones in adults stop growing after a certain age, therefore, structural changes may need to be addressed via surgery, brace may not be the most appropriate option.
• The entire process might take longer for you than for a child or adolescent. Treatment time on average last about 2 years, however it varies from patient to patient.
• Before starting your treatment, you may also need to see a periodontist as well as your general dentist near me and orthodontist to ensure that the treatment is not complicated by bone loss resulting from gum disease.

These devices rely on the use of brackets attached or bonded to the tooth surfaces. The arrangement of the wires can be customised to apply different pressures to individual teeth. On occasion, springs or elastic bands are used – they are attached to the arch wire to focus the directional pressure on the teeth. It typically takes 1-2 on average to place brace on your teeth. You’ll probably observe discomfort and soreness at the beginning especially during the first few days after getting brace and having adjustments made, but an over-the-counter painkiller, like ibuprofen, can help.

Innovations in braces—pros and cons
Today’s brace are more comfortable and less invasive than those of the past. They’re smaller and use fewer brackets. The wires are less noticeable and more effective than those used before. Because they are efficient and economical, stainless steel brackets are still commonly used even now. Some induvial, especially teens, opt for coloured wires and elastics for a bolder look.

Others go the other way, opting instead for tooth-coloured ceramic or clear plastic brackets because they are less visible. However, these have some drawbacks- they tend to cost more than their metal friends. Ceramic brackets can easily break, and they may not be as comfortable on lower teeth as metal brackets are, which tend to be smaller. In addition, because ceramic brackets are stronger than tooth enamel, they can wear away the enamel. For these reasons, some patients choose ceramic brackets for their top teeth and metal brackets for their lower teeth. Plastic brackets are not as strong as stainless-steel brackets and can stain over time. Plastic and ceramic brace can sometimes create additional friction between the brackets and wire as compared to metal brace, which can sometimes mean that your teeth move a little more slowly, causing a little bit of  delay to the treatment time.