Adult braces have become more popular in the last decades. Modern-day technology has settled into society over the last 20 years across multiple social media platforms that beg users to showcase their best life, best moments, and best looks. We love to see others’ best moments as much as we love to show our own, but for some of us, it’s a question of “To smile with teeth or not to smile with teeth?” For people who are self-conscious about their teeth, the go-to smile is usually a closed-mouth smile.
If you can relate to this, imagine what it would be like to have a smile you could be proud of. You wouldn’t fear laughing in a group setting, smiling in a picture, or speaking in public. What if you could laugh, smile, and talk freely and not feel limited by your teeth? You can, with the help of orthodontic treatments.
The Beauty of Orthodontics for All Ages
Thirty and forty years ago, teeth correction was reserved for the children of middle- to upper-class families who had an overbite, an underbite, extremely crooked, or overcrowded teeth. Kids who could have used braces for cosmetic reasons weren’t given the opportunity to wear them. This was either because their families couldn’t afford the braces or because dentists weren’t recommending them if they weren’t a necessity.
At Robison Orthodontics, we think braces are a necessity for anyone who is reluctant to smile because of their teeth. Confidence is important. For many people, braces and other orthodontic treatments are not only bite-correcting treatments, but they work as confidence-correctors as well.
Whether you are 10, 30, 60, or beyond, you are a candidate for braces or alternative corrective orthodontic treatments that can be life-changing. Everyone deserves to feel confident, and if braces could offer a boost to your self-esteem, why wouldn’t you take that opportunity you didn’t get as a child?
Braces for Adults
In fact, orthodontic treatment is for kids, teens, and men and women of all ages who are looking to improve their appearance, their confidence, and their quality of life. When you can smile confidently, everything changes, and it’s something that you have to experience to know its true value.
As an added bonus, braces are more affordable now than ever, and you might be surprised when you discover that the price of confidence and the value of the transformation you will experience is minimal in the scope of what smile correction treatments can offer. More adults are coming into our office to discuss options for cosmetic upgrades for their teeth. When they get here, they learn about all the other benefits they can experience with braces treatment at a lower cost than they’d anticipated.
Benefits of Getting Adult Braces
We had you at ‘new smile,’ but did you know that there are many other oral health concerns that can be corrected with braces, even for adults? While braces provide the cosmetic transformation many people are looking for, they can be life-changing in other regards as well.
For instance, bad breath is oftentimes a result of crooked or overcrowded teeth. When your teeth are jammed up against each other, creating unreachable spaces, it is sometimes impossible to get a toothbrush into every crack and crevice. Many of our patients experience relief from bad breath following braces treatments, and even most say they are more confident talking near others before treatment is even over.
Additionally, the way you speak can be affected by crooked or displaced teeth. Some adults go their whole lives not being able to speak clearly, never realizing it’s their teeth that are the root cause of their speech impediment. Straightening your teeth can correct lifelong problems with speech. If people are constantly asking you to repeat yourself or often have a hard time understanding you, the cause could be a misaligned bite that was never diagnosed as a child.
Here are some other common symptoms braces can fix:
- Plaque buildup on teeth
- Early gum disease
- Grinding teeth in your sleep
- Snoring
- Misalignments due to thumb sucking or other habits
- Discomfort in the jaw after chewing
- Clicking of the jaw
- Sharp pains in facial bones
- Painful flossing
- Biting your tongue or inside of your
cheeks
Adult Braces Improve Your Smile
Oftentimes, in conjunction with other treatments, braces can have corrective results in reducing wrinkles, plumping lips, filling in hollowed cheeks, and repairing the facial structure by adjusting a person’s bite. Furthermore, if you have gapped teeth, straightening your teeth will close the gaps, and this can make a world of difference in your overall smile.
There are other ways braces can improve the look of your smile, especially as you age. Over time and after years of use, your mouth is affected by facial bone and soft tissue loss and bone shrinkage, which can make your smile lose volume.
How Orthodontics Can Improve Your Smile
Our patients are shocked to learn just how much can be repaired cosmetically with orthodontic treatments. Teeth can become flattened and shortened from years of chewing but are also especially accelerated by bruxism, which is the grinding of teeth and clenching of the jaw. When your teeth are shorter, your bite collapses, and the result is a shorter face because the upper and lower jaws are closer together. This further causes teeth to shift over time as pressure is reallocated.
Eventually, the dental arches start to narrow, and the cheekbones, cheek skin, and lips lose support. This can cause the face to look hollow around the cheek area. Fortunately, there are many orthodontic options for the treatment of these effects.
Night Guards
Night guards, for example, are a great way to protect teeth from grinding, and if you have any form of corrective treatment, a night guard is essential in protecting your restoration as well. These appliances can be custom fitted to your teeth and mouth. Consistent use can even correct facial bone shifts over time, such as lifting the cheekbones and opening the eyes.
Dental Implants
Dental implants are often a good choice for our patients over 50. Just one lost tooth can have a dramatic impact on the rest of the teeth, both cosmetically and medically. Tooth loss can cause shifting of other teeth, which results in a domino effect of consequences that can just be detrimental to a person’s smile and self-esteem. The success rate of modern-day dental implants is near perfect, and they provide astonishing results.
Dental Contouring
Dental contouring is another common treatment that can be used to reshape teeth and correct minor imperfections like worn or jagged edges of teeth, uneven tooth length, slightly overlapping teeth, sharp angles, small chips, and even bite issues. Teeth can be shaped to look more masculine or feminine by squaring or rounding the tooth edges.
How Orthodontics Can Improve Your Life
We’ve made it clear that by correcting your smile, you also correct your self-confidence, but how much of a role does that really play in your daily life? The answer can depend on your career, your activities, and your lifestyle. If you don’t have a career, having renewed confidence in yourself can help you get a job. It can also help you garner new business if your current job requires you to sell something.
You’ll be more likely to persuade someone with your confidence in yourself that will carry through to whatever it is your job requires of you, whether it be in sales, marketing, education, or any other field where communication is key. A confident smile can even improve virtual interactions and those in which you don’t necessarily meet your colleagues face to face. When your self-esteem is high, it is noticeable even when you’re on the phone. It can be heard in your voice.
Another area in which a confident smile can improve your daily life is your social life. As your activities will likely increase, you’ll be likely to go out more often, attend social events, and go on dates. You might even dress better because you’ll feel better about yourself, and you’ll opt for a nicer outfit from the closet. You may even be more social because you won’t be afraid to talk more, laugh more, and smile more. This change can optimize your overall well-being and attract more meaningful relationships in every aspect of your life.
Smile correction is a sound investment, whether you consider it an investment in your career, your social life, or self-care. Smile correction is a beauty secret that many adults have sought to improve one area of their appearance and found that it improved a lot more than they expected. Our clients are excited when they come in for a consultation and learn all the ways braces can improve their smile, as well as the added benefits of many of our other orthodontic treatments.
The Orthodontic Transformation
When treatment is complete, and our clients see their transformation for the first time, it is an emotional moment. The difference is something patients can see externally and feel internally, which really makes the big reveal moment meaningful for us and our clients. The before and after photographs even surprise us sometimes!
While the physical changes make a huge difference, another major component of the transformation is the confidence we see making a return to our patients' faces. We love it when our patients can't stop smiling. We know we did our job when we see our patients show their teeth when they smile.
Prolonging Your New Smile
It is important to follow the doctor’s orders after your braces come off. If you don’t, your teeth will return to their prior position, and you will lose all that effort, time, and new smile. If you do lose your new smile, you’ll have to get braces again to readjust your teeth. Fortunately, it is easy to prevent this from happening.
Keep brushing and flossing after meals – preferably four times per day. You may need in-office treatment to improve any discoloration from braces. Also, you’ll be fitted for a retainer, and wearing your retainer according to the doctor’s instructions is imperative in “retaining” your new and improved smile. If you lose or break your retainer, make an appointment immediately to get a new one. Going too long without a retainer will result in your teeth shifting back out of alignment.
You should schedule an orthodontic check-up appointment between six and eight months after your braces are removed. At this appointment, your orthodontist will ensure your alignment is still in place, check your gums, and ensure the progress of your treatment has been maintained. You may also need a retainer adjustment. You’ll also want to continue getting your teeth cleaned every six months with your regular dentist.
Learn More About Adult Braces in Gilbert, AZ
Contact our office to schedule your appointment.
Dr. Tyler Robison is an alum of Mesa’s Mountain View High School. He graduated from Brigham Young University before being accepted to the “Top Ten-nationally ranked” University of Louisville in Kentucky, where he earned his Doctorate in Dental Medicine and a Master’s Degree in Oral Biology. He graduated with honors in the top ten percent of his class. Dr. Robison continued at the University of the Pacific in San Francisco, where he received a second master’s degree in dental science and his orthodontic certification.
