Tooth alignment in adults offers several benefits you should not ignore. In addition to improving your overall appearance and boosting confidence, properly aligned teeth are easier to keep clean. Aligning your teeth can lower your risk of cavities and periodontal disease. Fortunately, modern dentists offer a wide range of treatment options for adults who need tooth alignment. Understanding these options and their benefits and drawbacks is your first step toward making an informed decision. That is why you should speak to a competent dentist if this is what you need today.
Here are some of the options your dentist may recommend:
Traditional Braces
Misaligned or overspaced teeth affect your smile and confidence. This can affect how you socialize or feel about yourself. Teeth alignment offers several benefits, including boosting your confidence and restoring your beautiful smile. Traditional braces are a common way to straighten teeth and create a beautiful smile that can change your general facial appearance. An effective treatment with braces will enhance how you feel and look, contributing to your confidence. Improved confidence is beneficial in personal and professional settings.
Fortunately, traditional metal braces can fix most orthodontic issues, including teeth misalignment, overcrowding, and overspacing. They can also fix your bite and make your teeth easier to keep clean. Braces are also among the most affordable orthodontic treatments available today. Since they offer restorative and preventive benefits, your treatment can be covered by your insurance provider. This means that you do not have to pay for the entire treatment out of your own pocket.
Some of the advantages traditional braces offer include:
They Offer Strong Support and Control To Your Teeth
Traditional metal braces provide strong control over your teeth through metal brackets and wires that move misaligned teeth into their rightful positions. The metal braces and wires remain in place for the duration of treatment and can only be removed by the dentist. In case of a problem, your dentist can correct it during periodic checkups that must happen every four to six weeks.
Metal Braces are Strong
Traditional braces are very strong and can remain the same regardless of the pressure they are subjected to. Once you get accustomed to having them, you can eat your favorite foods with minimal worry. You can chew and bite without worrying about breaking or damaging your braces.
They Are Fast and Effective
Metal braces work effectively within a reasonable period to restore or align your smile and boost your confidence. Generally, the treatment period lasts 2 to 2.5 years.
However, you have to take very good care of your braces and teeth to lower your risk of cavities and periodontal disease. This is because metal braces are permanently fixed on your teeth. You cannot remove them when eating or brushing your food. They can trap food and encourage the growth of harmful bacteria in the mouth.
Metal braces are also noticeable. Everyone will know about your orthodontic treatment as soon as you wear the braces. This makes them unsuitable for patients who prefer discrete dental treatments.
Once you have them placed, you can only have them removed by a professional dentist. You may have to put up with discomfort for a while, until the treatment period is over.
Lingual Braces
Tooth alignment for adults offers many health benefits. In addition to improving your appearance and boosting your confidence, tooth alignment is good for your oral and general health. If your teeth are overly spaced, your gums may become irritated when you eat or brush. If your teeth are crooked or crowded, it becomes challenging to reach all the areas when brushing or flossing. This can encourage the growth of harmful bacteria and plaque, which causes cavities and periodontal disease. If you develop an oral or dental problem as a result, it will eventually affect your general health.
Lingual braces can avert such problems. Although they work much like traditional metal braces, they differ in some ways and offer more benefits. Lingual braces are placed on the back side of your teeth to make your orthodontic treatment discreet. Since they are less noticeable, they do not affect your appearance or confidence during treatment.
Here are some of the benefits they offer:
They Are Discreet
Having misaligned, crowded, or overspaced teeth affects your general appearance, and so does wearing traditional metal braces. This could be the reason why many adults prolong their tooth alignment. However, lingual braces offer the discretion you need to enjoy a treatment that will eventually restore your smile and confidence. Remember that the braces are placed at the back of your teeth. This makes them unnoticeable to the people you meet every day.
They Are Strong
Lingual braces are also very strong. They apply enough pressure on your teeth to encourage them to move to their rightful position on the gum. That is why they are very effective in aligning natural teeth. Additionally, they are not easily damaged. You can continue eating, biting, and chewing your food without worrying about damaging it.
However, lingual braces are more costly than traditional metal braces. If you are on a tight budget, you may not be able to afford a discreet orthodontic treatment. Their high cost is mainly due to the specialized training required to place them. Also, the braces used are more expensive than the metal brackets and wires in traditional braces.
Lingual braces are also very restrictive. You may need to avoid certain foods, especially hard foods like nuts and candies, to prevent damage to your braces.
Clear Removable Aligners
Your teeth do not remain the same after childhood. In most cases, children have almost perfect teeth. However, this changes over time. Although it is believed that teenagers benefit more from orthodontic treatment, adults can also benefit from realigning their teeth. If your teeth have changed as you grow older, you should consider tooth alignment. If you are concerned about your appearance during orthodontic treatment, consider Invisalign or clear aligners.
This is a type of orthodontic treatment that uses clear, removable aligners to move misaligned teeth into their proper position in the gums. Clear aligners are customized for a perfect fit to ensure that they apply sufficient pressure on misaligned teeth. They work within a specific period to move misaligned, crowded, or overspaced teeth, creating uniformity and improving your facial appearance. Like metal braces, clear aligners also work gradually. This means you must strictly follow your orthodontist’s treatment plan to achieve the desired results.
Some of the benefits clear aligners offer include the following:
They Offer a Discreet Treatment
If you need tooth alignment and are worried about how you will look when wearing metal braces, clear aligners could be a better option for you. The aligners are practically invisible because dentists use clear plastic aligners for the treatment. You can socialize throughout the treatment period without worrying about your general appearance.
Clear Aligners are More Comfortable
Clear aligners also use plastic aligners, which are more comfortable than metal braces. They are also removable, so you can take them out when eating and brushing your teeth for added comfort.
They Are Easy to Clean
Remember that clear aligners are removable. This means that you can easily keep your teeth and your gums clean. This lowers your risk of cavities and periodontal disease.
However, it is difficult to maintain proper discipline with clear aligners, which could affect your results. Since they are easy to remove and wear back, you could be tempted to leave them off longer than recommended. Generally, dentists encourage wearing your aligners for at least 22 hours every day to achieve the desired results. If you fail to maintain discipline, you may not achieve properly aligned teeth after the treatment period.
Although clear aligners are highly convenient, they can be inconvenient for snacking. Remember that it is in your best interest to remove them when eating and cleaning your teeth. If you regularly snack, this can be very inconvenient, since it means removing and putting them back on several times a day.
Ceramic Braces
Tooth alignment also helps with bite issues. You have a bite problem when your upper and lower teeth cannot perfectly fit together when you bite down. A perfect bite offers several dental, oral, and general health benefits. For example, it protects you from jaw problems, like TMJ disorders. If your teeth are not well aligned, you strain your jaw every time you chew or bite down. This can eventually cause problems and be detrimental to your jawbone.
Fortunately, you can fix your bite issues with ceramic braces. These are very similar to metal braces, except they are made of ceramic rather than metal. Ceramic braces can also be clear or tooth-colored to offer the discretion an adult would need when aligning their teeth. Thus, this can be a perfect option for you if you are already self-conscious about your teeth and general appearance.
Some of the benefits ceramic braces offer include the following:
Discreet Treatment
Ceramic braces are more discreet than traditional metal braces. Your orthodontist can customize them to match the exact color of your teeth, making them invisible to those around you. Although they can be noticed by someone very close to you, they will not change your appearance or affect your confidence as much as visible treatments do.
They Are Strong
Ceramic braces are also very strong. They provide enough support for your teeth throughout the treatment period. They also exert enough pressure on your teeth to move them to their proper positions on the gums.
Ceramic Braces Work Faster than Removable Aligners
If you need an orthodontic treatment that works faster than Invisalign, you can choose ceramic braces. They provide faster results than removable aligners.
However, ceramic braces are larger than lingual, traditional, and clear braces. They could be uncomfortable and difficult to keep clear. This could increase your risk of tooth sensitivity, cavities, and periodontal disease.
Ceramic braces are also not as strong as metal braces. They can break easily, especially when subjected to increased pressure during chewing or biting.
The ceramic material used in making these braces can easily stain. If you love coffee, tea, wine, and other staining foods, your braces can stain and alter the general appearance of your teeth.
Self-Ligating Braces
These types of braces look and work the same way as traditional metal braces. However, they use sliding devices instead of elastic bands to secure the wires in place. They are also permanently placed on your teeth to ensure they exert continuous pressure on your teeth, which moves them to their proper position in the mouth. Some of the benefits self-ligating braces offer include the following:
- They are more comfortable and less irritating than metal braces, especially on your cheeks and soft gum tissues. This is because they do not use elastic ties on braces and instead allow the wires to slide freely.
- Self-litigating braces are also very easy to keep clean, which lowers your risk of cavities and periodontal disease. Since they do not have rubber bands, they do not trap food as easily as metal braces, making it difficult for harmful bacteria to thrive.
- Adjusting self-litigating braces is much easier, which translates to fewer visits to the dentist’s office. Also, there are no elastic bands to replace, which would reduce the need for regular checkups during treatment.
However, the cost of self-litigating braces is considerably higher than that of traditional metal braces. The sliding devices can also easily break, necessitating an urgent repair to keep your treatment on track.
They are also visible braces, which makes them unsuitable for adults who prefer discreet orthodontic treatment.
Find a Skilled Orthodontist Near Me
If your teeth are misaligned, crooked, crowded, or overspaced, and you need orthodontic treatment in Hawthorne, an experienced orthodontist can help you understand the various tooth alignment treatments available today, their pros and cons. This will help you make an informed decision.
We can help you choose the most suitable treatment according to your needs, preferences, and budget at The Hawthorne Dentist. Our skilled and experienced dentists have all the information you need to understand the treatment process and after-treatment care for your teeth. Call us at 310-775-2557 to discuss this at length.
