Braces
The Ultimate Guide to Braces
Guide Guide
Been here before?
If you’ve read this before and you’re ready to get started – SmileLife Orthodontics has 3 locations providing braces in El Paso and Corpus Christi as well as the surrounding areas.
Schedule your free consultation for braces today and love your smile!
Braces work remarkably well.
Ask the average person on the street about braces, and they’ll probably tell you they help move teeth into place. Unless that person happens to be an orthodontist, they probably can’t tell though “how do braces work?“
That’s where we come through for you. In this guide, you’ll learn exactely how braces work, including the main three parts that make braces move your teeth into a healthier, straighter smile you’re going to love.
Braces Guide Contents
Corpus Christi & El Paso
— What makes braces work?
Braces have 3 main components.
An orthodontist may use any number of treatments or appliances to straighten teeth.
In this guide, we’ll walk through the three most important components of braces. We’re also going to explain how each part works to achieve the smile goals you’re wanting to see!
Brackets
Archwires
O-ties, Ligatures, or Clips
Additional Article: Our guide to common orthodontic terms can really help understand all the terminology before and during treatment. Get it here.
how braces work.
Now for the part you’ve really been wondering about…how do braces work?
How do they actually get teeth to move?
To help you understand how teeth are able to move, it’s first helpful to get a basic anatomy lesson. Let’s learn about the teeth, jawbone, and gums.
The roots of your teeth are surrounded by bone. When a steady and consistent outside force is applied to a tooth over a long period of time, the bone on one side of the tooth is removed by cells in your blood and new bone is laid down on the other side of the tooth. Your tooth essentially forges a new path provided by bone.
When a tooth moves, the bone, gums, blood vessels, and everything else travel along with the tooth to help it travel safely and securely into a new position.
Alright, now how do braces fit into this process?
The archwire, with the help of the bonded brackets, place consistent pressure on the teeth. This pressure signals the cells in your blood to start removing bone from the current position and building bone in the new position that the pressure wants your tooth to go.
The teeth will generally move about 1 mm per month as long as the pressure on the tooth is continuous. Whenever the pressure stops, the tooth will stop moving.
The important thing to know here is that tooth movement takes time, even with braces. At your first braces visit, you can expect a small wire that applies very light pressure to the teeth. This wire will be kept on for about 4-8 weeks. After this period of time, the pressure mostly goes away. On your second visit, a slightly stiffer wire is placed into position, and the teeth begin feeling pressure again, making new bone and moving along.
This cycle continues every 4-8 weeks until the orthodontist sees that your teeth have finally moved into the ideal position for a healthy and happy smile.
— We know you’ve heard stories.
Do braces hurt?
While the amount of pain one feels is often relative, you can typically expect to experience soreness early on. To understand why teeth sometimes get sore with braces, let’s compare this to running.
If you haven’t run in a long time, but one day go out and run several miles, your legs will inevitably feel sore and tight the next day. This is because the muscles in your legs were not used to the activity and movement created by long distance running.
But if, after several days or weeks, you have been running consistently, your legs will get used to it and lose that day-after soreness.
It’s the same way with braces and teeth!
The first time that your teeth begin moving (when you first get your braces on), the nerves around your teeth go through an inflammatory process. During the first couple of days that you get braces you will likely have sore teeth.
Is it the same process?
Adult Braces vs Kid’s Braces
The biology of tooth movement is the same for adults and kids. The only difference is that kids’ bodies are in “growth mode”, which means that things just happen more rapidly. Kids’ teeth, in general, will move more rapidly with braces than adult’s teeth.
Adult’s teeth will still move, but the rate of tooth movement will usually be a bit slower. So if you’re an adult who needs braces, you may have a few more cycles with brackets, archwire and ligatures – or you may not. See what we mean below…
01
How much correction is needed
02
If correction of the bite is required
03
How often you wear elastics, brush teeth, break brackets, etc.
04
Your age
As you can see, a patient’s age is only one factor of many that determine just how long braces take. Because adults tend to brush their teeth better and follow the instructions of the orthodontist, many times their treatment may be faster than a teenager.
Whether you’re an adult, child, or teenager there’s never a bad time to get started on getting a straight and healthy smile!