Dental Brace Guide

One time while I was in class, a good friend of mine asked me “Am I going to wear retainers after braces?”

The answer is YES.

Why you ask? Our periodontal ligaments and bone might take months or years to recall or get used to the new position of the teeth and stay in place. The retainer is a big help in forming the new positions. You should follow the instructions of your orthodontist regarding on how frequent you should use your retainers because if you won’t do that, your teeth may go back to its old self. Isn’t sad if you spent three years with your braces on but ended up looking the same because you don’ want to wear the retainers?

Kids and teens who wear braces do so to correct problems with alignment that can cause anything from simple chewing issues to more serious conditions. There is however a very prevalent problem, kids who have finished braces treatment fail to wear their retainers leaving them with more problems than when they started.

This alarming news causes a huge amount of failure for braces treatment due to the teeth returning to their previous positions when treatment started. Whatever reason teens and kids may have for not wearing their retainers, dentists are getting tough on them for this may mean success or failure of the very expensive treatment they’ve just gone through.

Heard of Occlusal Splints? These are dental appliances that can be removed. It is carefully designed to fit the upper or lower arches of the teeth. It can also be called as bite planes, bite splints or night guards.

Occlusal splints are used to protect the tooth and restoration surfaces. It also manages the disfunction of mandibular or jaw. It also makes space for further restoration procedures. . There are some people who are prone to nocturnal bruxism, or nighttime clenching. They must wear occlusal splints (or fondly called night guards) at night.

Children often use soft splints because of their unstoppable growth. Occlusal slints are composed of acrylic resin.

As the market for clear braces boomed, in-fighting between manufacturers follows as they try to maintain their monopoly of the market. Invisible braces, namely Invisalign and ClearCorrect, are fighting over the market in terms of patent infringements and other proprietary technological implementation. The technology relies on heat sensitive plastic that is designed to slowly coax misaligned teeth back in place with ever so smaller adjustments as each dental visit. A far cry from the metal-mouth look of yesteryear when you looked more like an alien from another world that was not only ugly but uncomfortable.
Both manufacturers produce invisible braces which have allowed adults and teens alike to gain better teeth alignment without the use of traditional metal braces. Metal braces of past included extractions and painful realignment with the use of wires that pulled the teeth together using heat sensitive wires pulling them into alignment.

That is a question that many ask to those who have them for they can go either way, on one side for beauty on the other for more serious health reasons such as poorly aligned teeth that may have resulted from disease or poor care early in life. Dental braces used to be associated more with teens in years gone by but today, statistics show that more than 30% of all users are adults. They are a form of dental care that makes teeth better looking and perform better eliminating gaps in the bite and many other problems that may result from lack of care.
Dental braces began their life in the early 1900′s and it has evolved in time into smaller and smaller appliances that can be removable for minor treatment to more permanent ones attached to the teeth or gums for more serious corrections. The area of orthodontics is more associated with cosmetic surgery but as said, it can have some health related benefits. Poor alignment can result in pain and dietary deficiencies that with proper treatment are easily corrected. As with any treatment, there are several alternatives and treatment varies from one patient to the other so proper analysis and consultation is in order for the best possible treatment possible.