There is so much information out there about braces and orthodontics that it is sometimes difficult to separate fact from fiction. As new patients come through my office, some have misconceptions about braces that may have been true 30 years ago, but are no longer true. Often times, these misconceptions were never true in the first place. Below I highlight the top 10 myths about orthodontics and healthy teeth braces.
1. The tighter the better—A common comment I get from patients is, “Make it tighter, doc. I want to get my braces off faster!” You may think that tighter adjustments and heavier forces will move your teeth faster. While a certain level of force is necessary to move teeth, a force level that is too high may start to damage the bone and surrounding tissues. Orthodontics is a delicate balance of forces. Too much force may cause some teeth to move the wrong way and increase overall time you need teeth whitening braces.
2. Braces have to hurt or feel tight to work—No pain no gain right? Well, not exactly. In the old days, only stiff wires were available. When tied to the dental braces, these stiff wires exerted heavy forces leading to more pain and discomfort for the patient. Now, with new technologies and flexible wires, there is significantly less discomfort associated with tooth movement. These days, you can have straight teeth with minimal discomfort. However, there are always some patients that complain about not having any pain because they think that without pain, their teeth are not moving. Remember, “It does not have to hurt to work!”
3. Wires need to be changed every visit—Super-elastic wires of the present day can be bent into all different shapes and still spring back into their nice U-shaped form. If you have crooked teeth, the super-elastic wire can be connected to your crooked teeth and provide a steady light force to straighten them without needing to change the wire very often. With the limited wires of the old orthodontia days, if a wire was used that put too much pressure on a tooth, the bracket would either pop off the tooth or the wire would be permanently deformed and not move your teeth at all! That is why in the old days, orthodontic patients got many wires with incrementally higher stiffness, and these wires were changed more frequently.
4. My wisdom teeth are making my teeth crooked—You may think that wisdom teeth cause crowding. However, there is very little evidence to support the fact that wisdom teeth cause crowding. If this was true, then your teeth would never get crowded after your wisdom teeth were extracted. In fact, people who never developed wisdom teeth or who had their wisdom teeth removed may still see their teeth get crooked over time. Teeth just tend to drift forward over time regardless of whether or not you have wisdom teeth.