- Orthodontic therapy can be performed at any age.
Today we have an increasing number of adult patients in therapy.
As the number of cells and blood supply to bone tissue decreases with age, therapy usually takes longer.
In recent years, an increasing number of adults have opted for orthodontic therapy either in full or before prosthetic work.
Adult patients come to us to “just straighten” their teeth, but most often these are more complex therapies that require the interdisciplinary cooperation of dentists, prosthodontists, periodontists and oral surgeons.
Unfortunately, there is still the opinion of the patient, but also of some dentists, that orthodontic therapy is not recommended for adults because it will cause greater bone and tooth loss.
That is FALSE!
One of the causes of periodontitis is a bad position of the teeth and consequently a bad bite. With a bad bite, the load on the tooth during chewing is unnatural, i.e. the tooth is not loaded along its longitudinal axis – which protects it from damage – but the force of chewing acts on it in other directions, which leads to tilting of the teeth, receding gums, bone loss and as the last degree of tooth loss.
Orthodontic therapy corrects the position of the teeth, puts them in the correct position and helps prevent the disease from progressing further. Normally, as the orthodontic force is transferred to the part of the root that is in the bone, in these cases you should be more careful and use weaker forces, extend the control intervals, etc. After the therapy, a fixed retainer must be placed and it is necessary to carry out prosthetic replacement of the missing teeth.
Given that the fixed appliance is visible from the front, more and more adult patients decide for “invisible braces” such as Invisalign or for a fixed appliance with aesthetic (“white”) brackets.
- It is the right time to provide your child with a healthy and perfect smile.
There is no need to wait for all the teeth to grow because many anomalies can be recognized earlier by an orthodontic specialist and acted upon in a timely manner and by choosing the right therapy plan. At the first meeting, the little patient is introduced to the orthodontic office, the teeth, dental arches, bite are examined and X-ray images are analyzed (orthopantomogram and other images if necessary). It is extremely important to gain the trust of the patient, because cooperation is one of the important factors for successful orthodontic therapy. Depending on the age, anomaly and X-ray images, a diagnosis and a therapy plan are set, which will be adapted to the patient’s age.