I can tell you hundreds of reasons which can cause you to have crowded or ugly teeth. Nearly, each one of us has a tooth or group of teeth that need to be corrected; either in shape or in position. We all deserve another chance to have better smile, why not?
Now, dental braces open the gates wide to those who need to straighten their teeth and change their appearance. Can you imagine having the smile you’ve always dreamed of?
Orthodontic treatment is that branch of dentistry specialized in correcting the position of mal-posed, crowded or even rotated teeth; this can be successfully done for children as well as for adults. Dental braces are special dental devices inserted in patient’s mouth to perform orthodontic treatment. Dental braces exert physical pressure on the teeth causing them to move in the bone and correct their position in the jaw, but why do the teeth move? What don’t they fracture instead of changing their position?
Actually, this is due to a process called bone remodeling. Though bone is hard, it is elastic; usually pressure exerted on the bone in a certain direction causes a continuous process of old bone resorption and new bone deposition around teeth in a specific direction; this significantly results in correcting the alignment of such teeth. When dental braces are used for adults, movement of teeth usually take longer time than when used for kids; because jaw bones of adults are more dense than in children, so much more prolonged pressure needs to be added to gain the required movement of teeth. The good news is that teeth always move and orthodontic treatment usually succeeds in most cases.
There are two types of dental braces; fixed and removable.
Fixed (non-removable) dental braces:
This type of dental braces uses bands, wires, brackets, and ligatures to achieve the desired teeth movement.
Fixed dental braces are used to correct the most complicated orthodontic problems of teeth, such as rotated teeth; because they can cause bodily movement of teeth (which means that the entire tooth moves in jaw bone in a certain direction). The orthodontic treatment with fixed braces takes from nine months to a couple of years to achieve desired improvement. After fixed braces are removed, usually, the patient is asked to wear a retainer only at night to keep the teeth in their new position.
Usually, brackets used are clear or white in color for good esthetics, sometimes metallic brackets are used too.
Removable dental braces
Spring-loaded or invisalign is an example for removable dental braces.
This type is frequently used in the treatment of minor orthodontic problems which don’t involve teeth rotation, like simple crowding or malposition of teeth. You will have to wear them for at least eighteen hours each day; they can be removed when brushing or eating. Usually, removable dental braces have to be re-adjusted every few weeks, or changed with a new kit to achieve required movement of teeth.
Despite fixed type is the most efficient, it is the least popular due to its bad esthetic in oral cavity. When it comes to embracement, fixed dental braces comes in the first place. Fortunately, myriad solutions are offered to solve this annoying problem, like ceramic braces (having the same color of natural teeth), and lingual braces (fixed on the lingual or inner surface of teeth)