The American Associate of Orthodontists typically recommends that the first orthodontic consultation is completed at age 7. While only a small percentage of children need treatment at that age, certain problems, or “red flags,” can be detected. Your orthodontist will decide how often your child should return to check on those problems – anywhere from 6 months to two years or more.

Braces help align the teeth for improved long term oral health, and they also improve the bite, or “occlusion” so that your teeth, bones, and muscles function optimally.

Please schedule a consultation with our office to find out our fees. Every individual has a different set of needs when it comes to their treatment plan and personal goals, and our fees are customized and tailored accordingly.

No, not at all! You make feel like there is a lot of activity going on – lots of sounds from the saliva suction, plastic instruments to keep your cheeks and tongue to the sides (we need to keep a dry work environment), and a lot of movement, but it is more or less a pain-free process.

Braces start working immediately after they are placed. Typically, you will start feeling pressure about 12 hours after they are placed. We recommend a soft diet for the first week after they are placed. Each time you have the braces adjusted, you will also feel some pressure for the first week.

Power chains are an orthodontic auxiliary specifically designed to close spaces. If there is no space left to close, or if your current wire is not strong enough for a power chain, the chain can have negative side effects such as mis-aligning the teeth, moving teeth the wrong way, and collapsing the wire. We know some patients like the way the chain looks and request it for the color, and we always try to accommodate requests, but sometimes we cannot use them. Power chains are used more often in the middle and end of treatment, as your orthodontists prescribes.

Braces fix an overbite by pushing the bottom teeth up and back, and the lower teeth down and forward. If you are concerned with your overbite, please discuss with your orthodontist, as the term “overbite” is often misunderstood and misused. You may be trying to describe an issue other than the “overbite.”

Braces move the teeth by gently pushing on them. This allows the bone around the teeth to remodel, and the teeth move into new positions.

Rubber bands have many functions. The most common reason for rubber bands is to improve the bite, or the way the teeth come together to meet each other. Rubber bands can also help close spaces, move teeth in certain directions, and pull teeth towards each other.

Braces can change the face. However, if there is a significant change, it is most often because there is something extra that was done in addition to regular braces. That something “extra” can be an appliance or device that modified growth, in which case growth changed the face (most often in growing children), or something like jaw surgery, done with the help of an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. Sometimes taking out teeth can also affect the face – affecting the fullness of the facial profile and the ability of the lips to close and relax over the teeth. For the most part, changes to face with braces are alone are modest. When patients request changes in certain facial features, our orthodontic abilities to change the shape and structure of the face have limitations.

Braces rarely cause a lisp. Sometimes, but not always, braces can help improve a lisp. Aligners, however, will routinely cause a lisp for the first few weeks of treatment. If there is a lisp that develops during treatment, the tongue and lip muscles simply need time to re-learn how to form certain sounds. You can train your muscles by reading magazines and newspapers out loud. If a newly formed lisp does not go away with time, an evaluation by a speech therapist may be needed to understand the cause of the lisp, and treatment options to minimize the lisp.

There is no such thing as being too old for braces! As long as your teeth are in good health with good bone levels, we can talk to you about what your options are, and whether treatment would be recommended. If you are not sure how healthy your teeth are, we will discuss this with you at your consultation, and let you know the next steps.

Sometimes, the teeth are too big to fit the total amount of space in an individual’s mouth. This results in crowding. For those individuals with mild crowding, space can be gained from more conservative techniques such as slenderizing the teeth themselves, or expanding the circumference of the teeth within bone. However, there are biological limits to slenderizing and expansion. Thus, when crowding is moderate to severe, the next best option is to take out teeth to gain space to align the remaining teeth. The teeth that are removed for orthodontic purposes may be perfectly healthy teeth; if possible, we try to modify the plan to accommodate removal of less healthy teeth – those with cavities and other prior dental work – but this accommodation cannot always be made for a good orthodontic result.

If you have never heard of anyone taking out teeth to make space for crowding, we understand how scary it sounds! However, it has been a common orthodontic practice for decades to extract teeth to make space for crowding, and orthodontists are dental experts in extracting and closing spaces. Some individuals actually need 4 premolars removed and their wisdom teeth removed – that is a total of 8 teeth to remove! If you are having doubts, be sure to discuss with your orthodontist. It may seem counter-intuitive, but the side effects of not extracting can be very high-risk, whereas extracting a tooth for orthodontic reasons and having an orthodontist close the space in a timely and healthy fashion is very low-risk.

Braces are removed when you and your orthodontist are satisfied with the progress. On average, most comprehensive orthodontic treatment plans go on for 18-24 months. More complex treatment plans can last 36 months or more, though in those special situations there is a specific reason for the extended time.