Clearing Up
5 Myths About Wearing Braces
For
many youngsters, braces are part of growing up. With a smile considered one of
the building blocks to developing self-esteem and self-confidence, parents make
the investment to straighten their child’s teeth. Nearly 4 million young people
between the ages of 6 and 18 wear braces, according to the American Association
of Orthodontics.
Also,
statistics show more adults than ever before are wearing braces. But as the
field of orthodontics changes and advances, candidates of all ages for braces
can face confusion trying to sort fact from fiction.
“Orthodontics
is so common now that some think they know all about it, but what they think
isn’t always necessarily true,” says Steven J. Moravec (www.stevemortho.com), owner of Moravec
Orthodontics and author of Going
The Extra Smile: Merging Technology And Expertise For A Lifetime Of Smiles.
“Many
others, such as parents of children needing braces, aren’t up to speed with the
changes. They know some basics – what braces do, what you can and can’t do
while wearing them – but there are a lot of myths out there that are so common
that they’re just accepted as fact.”
Moravec
clarifies five common orthodontic myths:
- You need a referral from the dentist to see an
orthodontist. “You do not need a referral,” Moravec says. “They think
that because most people now belong to medical insurance plans or groups
that require a referral from their primary physician to visit a
specialist, and they think the same relationship exists between dentists
and orthodontists. It doesn’t.”
- You don’t need to see your regular dentist while in
braces or clear aligners. “You definitely do,” Moravec
says. “You need to see your regular dentist at least every six months, or
as often as you did before starting braces. In fact, I’d say it’s even
more important to see your dentist for routine cleaning and gum
inspections when you are in braces than when you aren’t. Having braces
makes your teeth a little more challenging to clean, and nothing beats a
professional cleaning at your dentist.”
- Braces are painful. “Here,
technology comes in, making braces more comfortable than ever before,”
Moravec says. “It used to be that the bands that went around the teeth had
to be pushed on up into the gum line, and this would hurt. Today, we
painlessly glue brackets onto the front of the teeth.”
- Invisalign or clear aligner treatment takes longer than
braces. “For most patients, this is not true,” Moravec says.
“The movement of teeth is a physiological process. For most cases, the
time to treat is very similar for clear aligners and braces. The biggest
exception is patients that have deep bites, where the front teeth overlap
and cover up the lower teeth. Correction of this
does take longer with clear aligners.”
- Orthodontics is always expensive, costing at least
$5,000 to $6,000 every time. “The cost depends on the
difficulty of the case,” Moravec says, “and many cases aren’t that
difficult. The cost of treatment for minor cases can be as low as $2,000.
If you have a more involved case, plan on a fee of between $5,000 or
$6,500. But you are investing in a smile you will have for decades. How
much did you pay for your car, and how long did that last?”
“Teeth
are no different than any other part of the body; they change with age,”
Moravec says. “What hasn’t changed is the importance of straightening them at a
young age, but as many adults have seen, braces now work for them, too.”
About Steven J. Moravec, DDS, MS, MA
Steven
J. Moravec (www.stevemortho.com) is the owner of Moravec
Orthodontics and the author of Going
The Extra Smile: Merging Technology And Expertise For A Lifetime Of Smiles. He
graduated from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and earned an MS
in Orthodontics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He’s a
board-certified Specialist in Orthodontics and a guest lecturer for the
University of Illinois Department of Orthodontics and SureSmile.