# what are braces?

Braces are fixed onto your teeth with brackets and archwires that apply gentle pressure for your teeth to move in the desired position. The process of braces treatment can be divided into 5 steps.

Step 1: Consultation

Here you take the orthodontist appointment where your issue is diagnosed and required treatment is fixed with parameters such as duration, braces type and cost.

Step 2: Bonding

This is where the orthodontist will place the braces onto your teeth. This involves the brackets, elastics and archwires with regard to traditional braces. For clear aligners, you only need to place your customised tray onto your teeth.

Step 3: Adjustments

This is the stage where each month there are regular adjustments and repairs are done. Braces are checked for any wear and tear and clear aligners are checked for their accuracy during the treatment.

Step 4: Debonding

Here, all the braces are removed and the teeth are cleaned and polished.

Step 5: Retainers

It is important to make the teeth stay in their new positions. This is where retainers help you. Here retainers are fixed to maintain the position of your teeth. These retainers are to be worn for a couple of years to avoid any relapse.

The two types of braces or clips for teeth are:

1. Fixed Braces

As the names suggest, fixed braces are glued to your teeth and can only be removed by your orthodontist.

2. Removable Braces

Removable braces, also known as clear aligners or invisible braces, give you the freedom to remove them while you’re eating, drinking or brushing your teeth. These are customised as per your jaw and give you the freedom to wear or remove them anytime.

Initially, braces may affect the way you talk as your tongue, lips, and cheeks adapt to the presence of teeth braces in your mouth. This is a temporary phase, and most people adapt to speaking with braces relatively quickly. As your mouth becomes accustomed to the braces, any speech changes typically diminish. Clear braces, as an alternative to traditional metal braces, may have a less noticeable impact on speech.

The two main components of braces are:

Brackets: These are traditionally made of metal, but can be made of porcelain or ceramic in case of ceramic braces & transparent braces. Brackets are glued onto your teeth individually and can only be taken off at the end of the treatment by your orthodontist.

Archwires: These are inserted into the brackets, acting as a connecting link between them.

Yes, braces can change your face! Braces work by placing pressure on the teeth and jaws to move them into a more desirable position. This pressure causes changes in the jaw shape and structure over time which will alter your facial appearance.

Braces can help give you a well-defined chin or firm jawline due to correcting misaligned bite patterns that cause issues like an improper jaw position or deep overbites or underbites. Such orthodontic improvement works to bring balance between the upper and lower halves of the face while strengthening weak areas of the lower half such as a receding chin or weak mandible definition (jawbone area). Ultimately, several corrections occur when wearing braces that contribute towards perceived changes in one’s facial features—including better symmetry/alignment of features, and stronger definition in lower face regions like chin/jawline area.

Brushing with braces can be a tricky task. The best approach for brushing with braces is to use three different steps:

Step 1: Brush thoroughly around the brackets and rubber bands. start by using a medium-soft toothbrush that has been designed specifically for people with braces. Start by placing the bristles of your toothbrush at a 45-degree angle near where the gum line meets your brace wires and gently work up in circles over each wire until you cover all areas around all of your brackets. Move to the next area on another wire until you have thoroughly cleaned all of them.

Step 2: Floss between each bracket. Using unflavored dental tape or waxed dental floss, slide it between each pair of neighbouring brackets while applying gentle pressure against both sides. This will help dislodge any food particles attached to them which could lead to bacteria build-up if left unchecked.

Step 3: Use an interdental brush or small toothbrush to clean the spaces in between your teeth. When brushing near spaces in between teeth make sure to reach those spots with either an interdental brush or even a small toothbrush so that they too are free from plaque accumulation as much as possible before their removal date arrives.

Yes, braces can affect how you talk. The most common way that braces can alter speech is by changing the shape of the palate, which impacts how certain sounds are made. As the brackets and archwires of traditional metal braces move teeth into their desired positions, this causes changes to the underlying bone structure, leading to the altered articulation of certain sounds.

Patients with braces may experience difficulty pronouncing words such as ‘s’ or ‘sh’ as these sounds are created in part through contact between the tongue and teeth - something that can be hindered by having a foreign object like a metal bracket in between them.

Fortunately, there are ways to make it easier for people with braces to get comfortable speaking again such as using wax on any parts where lips or cheeks touch metal components or practising specific exercises recommended by an orthodontist (e.g., swallowing repeatedly at different stages during pronunciation). Once these methods have been practised enough for comfort, speaking should return to its former clarity!

Yes, you can kiss with braces. However, that doesn't mean that it won't be uncomfortable or awkward!

Braces are designed to help correct and align your teeth, so when kissing with them on, there may be a higher chance of encountering some metal brackets or wires which may cause discomfort. To reduce the amount of discomfort during kissing while wearing braces, consider using an Orthodontic Wax to cover up any possible sharp edges on the metal parts.