Posted by Janet Harriett on Dec.31, 2009

©iStockphoto.com - ChristopherBernard

Crooked teeth aren’t just a cosmetic problem. Bad tooth alignment can affect digestion, dental health and even your cardiovascular health. The good news is, even if you didn’t have braces as a teenager to fix dental alignment issues, it’s probably not too late to fix your smile for both your health and your looks.

Health Benefits of Getting Braces

Crooked teeth make chewing less efficient. A healthy diet, full of leafy vegetables, raw fruits and veggies, whole grains and lean proteins takes a lot of effort to chew properly for efficient digestion. Though chewing is certainly possible without perfectly straight teeth, bad alignments can cause teeth to wear unevenly. In bad cases of malocclusion, some teeth may not be used for chewing at all, leaving the burden on fewer teeth that wear faster.

Crooked teeth are also more difficult to clean. Crowding may make flossing impossible. Even if you can floss, flossing may be so difficult or painful that you don’t do it every day. Standard brushing techniques may not reach all the tooth surfaces if the tooth is torqued. All of these leave areas of your teeth ripe for bacterial growth and gum inflammation.

Plaque and difficult dental cleanings aside, gum inflammation from not being able to properly clean your teeth can put your heart at risk. Though the mechanisms of the relationship between oral health and heart health aren’t fully understood, multiple studies have shown strong correlations between periodontal (gum) disease and heart attacks, the leading cause of death in younger women.

Weight loss as a benefit to getting braces is generally oversold. While properly caring for braces does eliminate some unhealthy foods like sticky candy from your diet, after the first few weeks of getting used to the appliances, most adults with braces find they can eat more or less the way they did before. Most of my own dietary changes, resulting in absolutely no weight loss, have stemmed from the difficulty in cleaning things like chunky peanut butter or melted mozzarella cheese off the hooks. The braces do provide a handy excuse for turning down fried appetizers at parties, though.

Cost

Even though braces have some important health benefits, don’t expect dental or health insurance to cover the costs for adult orthodontics, which average around $3,000 - $5,000, with more complicated cases costing more. Orthodontists generally allow patients to spread the payments out over the full course of the treatment, usually at least a year and a half, making the monthly payments much more affordable. If your health insurance includes a health savings account (HSA), payments to the orthodontist are qualifying medical expenses that can be paid with tax-preferred HSA funds.

Health Concerns

While braces have health benefits, like any medical intervention, they’re not completely without concern. Orthodontists will explain all of the worst-case scenarios about tooth damage. The most common health concern for those living a green lifestyle comes from spending a couple of years sucking on nickel-titanium and stainless steel 24-7. Studies have found that brackets leech a minute but measurable amount of metal into the saliva, usually in the first few months of treatment. If you are concerned about nickel exposure, consider hypoallergenic brackets and wires that are less prone to leeching nickel. Most of the ligature bands are made of latex, so latex-sensitive individuals will need to ask about non-latex bands or self-ligating braces that don’t require bands at all.

Life as an Adult with Braces

Orthodontic technology has made great strides in becoming unobtrusive in the past couple of decades. Patients with minor alignment problems may be candidates for Invisalign, a metal-free technique that uses clear plastic trays to nudge teeth in place. Some orthodontists may be able to attach braces to the back sides of teeth (lingual braces) to hide them entirely. This is a specialized process that not all orthodontists do.

More difficult cases that require moving teeth longer distances or adjusting the bite as well as tooth alignment will still require the bracket-and-wire braces. Newer bracket designs are a lot smaller, and clear or tooth-colored brackets blend in with your teeth. Coated “high aesthetic” wires are lighter than the straight nickel-titanium ones and are less obvious. While clear brackets and aesthetic wires will still be obvious up close, they don’t overwhelm your face.

On the other end of the aesthetic spectrum, options are open for treating your braces as a fashion accessory. WildSmiles has brackets in star, heart and other fun shapes. Gold-tone brackets look like jewelry for your smile. Colored bands can coordinate with your wardrobe for a special occasion, though you do have to plan ahead for that, since the you can only change colors every few weeks at an adjustment.

Whether you play down or play up your braces, adult orthodontics are becoming so common that if people notice them, they rarely comment. I have clear uppers and metal lowers, and haven’t ever had anyone mention them. During the first month or so, I felt like all people could see was the mass of wire in my face, but as with so many things, perceived blemishes are far more noticeable to the person with them than others. Once you adjust to how you look and how to speak clearly with brackets rubbing the insides of your lips, you may forget they’re even there. Confidence goes a long way in overshadowing your orthodontics, so if you decide to get braces, whatever you get, own them.

Finding an Adult Orthodontist

Adult orthodontics aren’t that much different than orthodontics for kids, and orthodontists that treat children and teenagers can generally treat adult patients, as well. Though you can go to the same orthodontist your kids’ classmates go to, finding an orthodontist that specializes in adults, or who has a large proportion of adult patients, can make your treatment time more pleasant.

Some techniques used with kids don’t work on adults. For instance, headgear is almost never used with adult patients. Treatments may need to be on a slower schedule to accommodate slower tissue regeneration in adults. Orthodontists specializing in adults have more experience with the nuances of moving teeth when the jaw growth is fixed.

Adult-specializing orthodontists are also more sensitive to the aesthetic concerns of adults with braces, and some of the lifestyle concerns. All orthodontists are used to explaining the dietary restrictions of braces, but ones with primarily underage patients may not be as adept at questions like how braces affect intimate relations (by the way, the answer is “not much”).

If you’ve ever considered braces, or had a dentist push you to get bracketed, consider the health benefits. Fixing your smile can benefit your whole body.

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Posted under Beauty, Natural Beauty.