These brackets are bonded to the front of your teeth. The wire is shaped into the ideal position of your teeth, then threaded through the brackets. You should see a nice, straight smile after 18-24 months (though this time period can be shorter or longer, depending on the severity of your problem). Once your braces come off, you will wear a retainer for six months to a year to keep your teeth from shifting and your new smile in place.
What are Ceramic Braces?
Ceramic braces are tooth coloured brackets that are used to straighten teeth. They are preferred by most adults, who often want to avoid metal braces. Ceramic braces are much less noticeable than metal braces. In fact, most people do not notice them unless they are up close to a person. Small ceramic brackets are bonded to each tooth, and a wire is placed across the top and bottom teeth.
Advantages of Metal Braces
- They tend to take the least amount of time among all the types of braces.
- You can choose a darker ligature, which will not show curry, smoking, or black coffee stains.
- Self-ligating brackets do not contain rubber ligatures, so staining will never be a problem.
- They are strong and rarely break.
Disadvantages of Ceramic Braces
Appearance: The ceramic braces are much less visible than other kinds of braces. (The ceramic braces do not stain, unlike plastic or composite brackets, but the clear elastic ties that are used to attach the wire to the braces do stain (from smoking, drinking coffee, tea or other dark liquids, tomato sauce, etc.
Breakage: The nature of ceramic material is that it is brittle, so these braces do have the tendency to chip or break. We recommend against these braces if you are involved in contact sports. If you do experience breakage with these braces, additional visits may be required to replace them.
Difficulty in removal: Ceramic braces used to be extremely difficult and often painful to remove. There also was an increased risk of damage to the tooth with these braces. The latest generation ceramic braces come off much easier than previous ceramic braces, but they can break in a way the manufacturer did not intend and leave a piece stuck to the tooth. In this case, the brace needs to be ground off using a handpiece and diamond bur. This doesn’t hurt, but it does make the removal visit longer.
Treatment time: In cases where the teeth are to be moved by sliding the brace along a wire (most cases), it takes longer (sometimes much longer) to treat a case with the ceramic braces.
Braces in Wantirna South
Call Wantirna South dentist on (03) 9800 2338 or book your appointment online.
We are located at 287 Stud Road in Wantirna South.