Seeing an Orthodontist - What Are The Benefits?

We all know how important it is to see a dentist on a regular basis, but what benefits can an orthodontist offer? Long term orthodontics work can be expensive and many people wonder if all that time and money is really worth the results. If you’re thinking of getting braces for your child, or have reached a point in your life where you’d like to fix your own teeth, here are some of the benefits you can reap from long term orthodontics treatment.

Obviously, the clearest reason for seeing an orthodontist is to improve the appearance of your teeth. For most people, it is the look of a snaggletooth or the shame of a gap between two lower teeth that gets them into the office for the first time. Perhaps it is their parents, knowing that they would have wanted the same thing if they could go back in time. Either way, one can hardly deny the effect braces can have on a set of teeth. No longer does a patient need to hide their teeth in shame when posing for photographs. But while it isn’t exactly wrong to look at braces as a cosmetic treatment, there are sustainable, real-world health effects as well.

Braces and other treatments offered by the orthodontist can correct problems with the teeth that lead to early decay, gum disease, TMJ, and other ailments that can plague an individual with crooked teeth and jaw alignment issues. Taking care of these problems when the patient is still a child can prevent worse problems from cropping up when they are an adult. While adult braces have grown in popularity, there’s no questioning the fact that it is easier and less inconvenient to deal with the hassle as a child or as a teenager. Not to mention that peers expect you to have braces at that age and you don’t have to spend half your time explaining it to the uninitiated.

Braces today are different than they were in years past. Kids of yesterday might have felt somewhat self conscious about having two strings of metal in their mouth and they attended school and tried to make friends. While there’s not quite any such thing as invisible braces, they are certainly less intrusive than they used to be. White and clear colors allow the braces to blend into the teeth and aren’t nearly as noticeable. With these advances, anyone who wants to straighten out their teeth should do so without worrying about temporary embarrassment. It’s minimal, and most people—even teens—understand that it is a part of life.