Crooked and crowded teeth can take their toll on your confidence as well as your oral health. Fortunately, traditional braces remain a reliable way to straighten your smile; with time-tested brackets and wires, our team at Sweet Smiles Dental Design can help you overcome all kinds of orthodontic issues! If you believe that you or someone in your family might need braces, please don’t hesitate to give us a call.
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How Do Traditional Braces Work?
Traditional braces consist of multiple brackets and an archwire. The brackets are individually attached to each of your teeth; then the archwire is used to connect them. The pressure from the archwire is what causes the teeth to move, slowly causing them to shift until they reach the desired positions. Your braces will need to be tightened regularly throughout the process to ensure that they continue to exert the right amount of pressure on the teeth.
What Orthodontic Issues Can Braces Fix?
Part of the reason braces remain such a popular orthodontic option is that they can be used in a wide variety of situations. Below are examples of alignment issues that braces can potentially help with.
Bite Misalignment
Do your jaws not come together the way they should? Braces can help correct underbites, overbites, and other bite-related issues so that they no longer impair your ability to chew all kinds of foods and speak clearly.
Crowded & Crooked Teeth
Are you embarrassed to show your smile in public due to teeth that are overlapping or crooked? You can straighten your grin with traditional braces, thus improving your appearance while also making it easier to properly clean your teeth.
Gapped Teeth
Are the spaces between your teeth just a little too big? With traditional braces, you can close them so that they no longer attract unwanted attention.
Caring for Your Braces
Traditional braces are often the key to achieving the straighter smile that you’ve always wanted, and they represent a significant investment of time and money. It is therefore very important that you give your braces the care that they deserve. You can do so by:
- Brushing thoroughly every day.
- Using specialized flossers to clean the hard-to-reach areas under your braces.
- Staying away from foods that might damage your braces (which includes hard foods like popcorn kernels and sticky foods like taffy).
- Avoiding bad habits like biting your nails or chewing on your pencil, which could end up breaking your braces if you’re not careful.
- Keeping up with your biannual dental checkups and cleanings to ensure that your smile as a whole stays in good shape.
If you’re having any problems with your braces, please let our team know right away.
Understanding the Cost of Traditional Braces
Without a thorough consultation, we cannot identify the cost of traditional braces. Each case is truly unique, so your treatment plan will be vastly different than someone else’s. Fortunately, our team can help you better understand how much you can expect to pay, how you can maximize dental benefits, and what kind of financing options are available.
Factors That Affect the Cost of Traditional Braces
During the consultation phase, we will inquire about your dental history, take necessary digital images of your mouth, and complete a visual oral examination to get a complete picture of your smile. Not only will we be able to determine the following factors, but these will help us come up with a cost estimate you can review:
- How misaligned are your teeth? Are they crooked, overcrowded, or gapped? Do you have a significant bite misalignment?
- Do you require any preliminary treatments to address gum disease or existing tooth decay?
- Do you need additional orthodontic appliances, like rubber bands or a palate expander?
- Do both of your arches need to be realigned or just one?
Professional Braces vs. “DIY” Braces: Which Costs More?
It’s tempting to choose a solution that costs less when it comes to braces; however, you should not put your smile at risk. Professional braces offer greater results because of the oversight provided by a skilled professional at Sweet Smiles Dental Design. Also, these products are reliable, effective, and closely monitored.
With DIY solutions, you run the risk of problems forming that cannot be remedied without the help of a trusted and licensed professional (i.e., teeth shifting in the wrong direction). It’s not worth the money you might save with DIY, especially since you could potentially harm your smile and overall health.
Does Dental Insurance Cover Traditional Braces?
Each dental insurance plan is different, so the only way to know if your policy covers orthodontia is to call and ask or have a member of our team work with your insurance company on your behalf. While many do offer partial coverage, others do not. This means individuals should consider purchasing a supplemental plan early on if anyone in your family might require orthodontic treatment.
Options for Making Traditional Braces Affordable
If private dental insurance is not something you have, there are other ways to straighten your teeth with braces without breaking the bank. At Sweet Smiles Dental Design, we offer flexible financing through CareCredit. By splitting the cost of your treatment into manageable monthly installments, you can adhere to your budget and forget about paying everything upfront.
You can also join our Sweet Smiles Club, which is a monthly subscription that takes care of preventive services but also provides discounts on many different services.