Braceface: A Comparison of Types of Braces

Whether you our your child is deciding to get braces sometime soon, understand that in recent years, technology has improved so much that we have many different choices to choose from. Here are some new options provided for people who want straighter teeth.

First off before you even get braces, your orthodontist may decide to put spacers in between your teeth depending on how crooked our spaced out they are. Spacers are small, donut shaped elastic rings that will be placed between your teeth for a while in order to later put the braces on properly and make sure they don't rub on each other. If you even have to wear spacers, you most likely will only wear them for a week or two, as they are a temporary change. After you are done with the spacer stage, you are now ready to wear braces.

Metallic Brackets

Normal

These are the braces that will stand out the most on your teeth. They can be yellow, silver, golden, as there are a huge amount of colors to choose from. What happens here is that one bracket will be glued onto each of your teeth, and a wire will be thrust through them so that they can tighten and align your teeth all at once into a normal semicircular shape. These will provide the least comfort, as they were used in mass for the past number of decades. You will go to your orthodontist to tighten these every 6 weeks or so all the way until you are able to take them off. The reason these provide the most discomfort is that they are bulky, and the tension between each bracket is huge. Since they are rather big, they sometimes get in the way of speaking or eating, and they will most likely provide discomfort and may even cut your cheek or tongue for the first few weeks. After a while, the tissues inside of your mouth will become stronger, resulting in less problems. Even so, you will feel that these are an obstruction to your daily life, at least until you get used to them.

Damon 3

These types of braces are part ceramic and part metal. On their website, they state that Damon 3 works by utilizing 3 key components. First off, Damon 3 uses a different type of wire that has a longer memory, meaning you won't have to change wires, and you will need fewer adjustments. Second, the Damon technology braces are much more self litigating and require no adjusting. This means that unlike the normal metal ones, you don't have to tighten your wire. They also won't require you to have teeth extracted or require you to have expanders. The Damon 3 bracket has a sliding door mechanism, which enables the wire to be closed in upon when you need it to tighten and the ability to open the door up to remove the wire.

You can find out more here: http://www.damonbraces.com/q02.php

SmartClip

The 3M Company came out with a Smartclip line similar to the Damon. Unlike the Damon, the Smartclip does not have a sliding door; rather the wire is just clipped into place. This still is enough to release the tension on each tooth, as the wire is clipped into each bracket individually, thereby providing the bracket with the ability to straighten the root of the tooth individually, with less pressure set on moving the whole top or bottom of the mouth as a whole.

For more information on Smartclip: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/orthodontics/Unitek?WT.mc_id=www.3m.com/us/healthcare/unitek/

Metal brackets provide the most durability in braces. They are strong, rarely break, and tend to be less expensive (although you are sacrificing appearance). They also straighten in less time than other options, and since they are metal you won't have to worry about eating certain foods that stain their color - they are metal. The bad part is that these are bulky, abrasive, and they will irritate your gums and cheek a lot for the first few weeks or months.

Ceramic Brackets

Ceramic Brackets are clear, and they usually match the color of the tooth. The downside to ceramics are that they stain easily. Since they are clear to fit the color of your teeth, eating certain types of food like coffee or foods with a lot of coloring, they will slowly become stained and yellow. Of course, if your teeth are already yellow then this is a plus. On the contrary, you would think that ceramic brackets would have a much harder time staying on as a question of durability. This is wrong. They can stay on just as well as metal brackets, but ceramics will take you longer for treatment (by a couple of months). The last downside is that they are usually more expensive.

Invisalign

Only a recently developed technology, the Invisalign braces will work to straighten your teeth by covering them with a custom mold. Note that Invisalign is only usable for people with minor alignment problems, and is not for those who have coverage or too much spacing. The aligners are made from a durable plastic mold to fit your teeth and you will change them out for a new mold at every period in your treatment which could be a number of weeks. The pros of having Invisalign are that they are practically undetectable, they provide lots of movement and freedom as they are not bulky and you have the ability to remove them (although this may be tempting and may slow down your treatment). They are less irritating and won't cut your cheeks, although they may cost more than normal braces.

For more: http://www.invisalign.com.

So whatever type of braces you choose, know that you have to be careful what you eat so that you don't break them. Braces are an expensive treatment, but they will move the root of the tooth in order to align your teeth, and even though you will probably wear a retainer for quite some time, your smile will be worth the trouble.