Properly aligned, straight teeth have an enormous impact on the beauty of your smile and, therefore, your self-confidence. However, professional dental procedures to correct teeth are expensive, sometimes painful, and uncomfortable. Yet, millions of adults and children undergo procedures to straighten their teeth yearly.
Specialist dental braces in Singapore are not just for starting a treatment to straighten teeth from scratch. They are also helpful for those who had braces in the past but are experiencing some issues with the same. This is because teeth alignments can shift naturally over the years, including in scenarios where tooth extractions have occurred.
The best part about dental braces is that they are helpful for both children and adults, including older people. Usually, braces are not prescribed for small kids as their teeth are still growing. However, braces are advised to be best for kids from 9 to 14 as this is the span of life when maximum corrections are possible. That said, there is also no age limit for getting braces.
The doctors who deal with dental braces for all are called orthodontists.
The benefits of dental braces take different periods of time for different persons. For adults, it can take upto two years. These braces help mainly to straighten your teeth and correct other orthodontic issues such as crowded teeth, crooked teeth, gapped teeth, etc.
How do they work?
Dental braces help shift teeth into correct positions over time by using constant and mild pressure. How this happens depends on the kind of braces and the patient's age.
Types of braces
There are multiple kinds of dental braces. Your choice will be based on the sort of your tooth problem and your personal preferences.
Metal braces
They are the traditional tools. They use bands of stainless steel, wires and brackets to straighten your teeth over time. The orthodontist will attach a bracket to the individual tooth, followed by flexible and thin wires over the brackets. The wires stay in place because of ligatures, which are small, elastic bands.
Metal braces are quite visible when you smile. So, you can choose from non-obvious colours to festively coloured ligatures.
Ceramic braces
Also referred to as clear braces, they are similar to metal braces except that their ligatures, wires and brackets are permanently coloured like real teeth; this makes them blend naturally with your smile and be less noticeable. But the downside is that they are more delicate than metal braces.
Lingual braces
They are like traditional braces, but the difference is that they are attached to the back of your teeth. Therefore, these are popular with customers who wish to hide the fact that they are wearing braces.
Self-ligating braces
They differ from traditional braces because they use a built-in system to keep the arch wires steady rather than elastic bands or ligatures.
Clear aligners
In place of wires and brackets, these aligners use a collection of tailor-made trays to straighten your teeth over time. These are also called invisible braces treatment.
Benefits of braces
If you desire good-looking, healthy teeth, you can enjoy the following benefits of dental braces:
Improves oral health
Those with crooked, crowded or misaligned teeth are more likely to develop gum diseases. One reason is that it is more challenging to clean such teeth properly. Flossing is incredibly arduous. Thus, your chances of losing teeth to damage or decay are likelier in this scenario. When your orthodontist recommends braces, you can accept it since there is the possibility of poor oral health in the worst-case scenario. Besides, your oral health also impacts the health of your cardiovascular system; this implies that an improved set of teeth will also help in caring for your health.
Improve eating habits
Besides combatting oral health issues like tooth decay and gum disease, you can avoid eating issues like poor chewing and swallowing. Though the human body can quickly adapt to changing situations, proper digestion begins with how you chew your food and swallow it. Hence, you can do well by focusing on your dental health today to avoid health issues with misaligned teeth in the future.
Effective remedy
The main reason why orthodontists recommend dental braces is because they are highly effective and provide authentic remedies to health problems. Millions of people have straightened their teeth using these braces. Following the orthodontist's guidelines, especially for maintenance aspects, you can enjoy the magical results of a row of straight teeth.
Select from a variety
You can get the help of your orthodontist regarding the specific type of braces from the several options that can be considered. Metal braces are made of fine-grained stainless steel, and the wires are attached using rubber bands. Ceramic braces have a natural colour that blends with teeth colour and are liked by users who wish their braces to be less noticeable. Self-ligating bracelets are less painful.
There is also a choice of varied colours and patterns. Persons using pretty visible metal braces can express their individuality through the selection of various colours of the braces.
Improvement in smile and self-confidence
A straight set of teeth does more than provide you with a beautiful smile. It keeps the jaw and mouth working complementary while straightened teeth enhance the smile. Getting an aesthetically pleasing look for your smile will also go a long way to improve your self-confidence in both personal and professional interactions. An attractive smile will boost your performance in both these spheres and thus add to your physical, emotional and mental well-being.
Saving long-term costs
A poor set of teeth (crowded/misaligned) and poor oral health implies that you will get into potential dental problems. Because such teeth are challenging to clean and take care of, you may encounter health issues like gingivitis (gum disease) or TMJ (Temporo Mandibular Joint) disorder caused by bite issues. With braces, you can correct TMJ issues, reducing discomfort and pain.
Braces can also minimize the wear and tear of teeth and the cost of correcting such issues in the future. Investing in teeth alignment today can save much money in the future due to aggravated tooth and mouth problems.
In sum, dental braces enhance your personality with an attractive set of teeth and have many functional benefits ranging from saving future expenses to improving self-confidence. They are an excellent way to combat issues of your pearly whites.