Many Americans were lucky enough to have their teeth straightened when they were teens. But if you aren’t among them, you might be trying to decide when is the best time to actually straighten your teeth.
The honest truth is that it’s better to straighten your teeth now. Here’s why.
Your Oral Health Is Better
Over the long term, braces improve your oral health. In fact, they can drop your risk of gum disease by as much as 50%! However, in the short term, braces can be hard on your oral health. Braces provide many more places for food and oral bacteria to collect, and they make it harder for you to clean your teeth. The combination can lead to an increase in gum disease while you’re wearing your braces. Even Invisalign can be a challenge to oral hygiene.
To minimize the impact of this, it’s best to get braces or Invisalign when your oral health is best. Since gum disease risk increases steadily as we get older, your oral health is likely better now than it will ever be again, which is why now is a better time to get your teeth straightened.
Your Bones Are Ready Now
Moving your teeth depends on your body’s ability to remodel the bones around the tooth roots.
Unfortunately, the ability of our bones to do this remodeling also diminishes with age. Many people develop osteoporosis with age, as well. In response to osteoporosis, people start taking bisphosphonates, which change the way your body maintains the bones. Bisphosphonates can slow tooth movement down, and introduce a tiny risk of serious complications.
It’s best to avoid this issue altogether and get your teeth straightened before you are in a position to consider osteoporosis and bisphosphonates.
Your Teeth Are Still Moving
Teeth that are crooked now usually won’t stay in the same position in the future. Teeth that are crooked are usually being subjected to imbalanced forces. These imbalanced forces will continue to drive your teeth out of position. It will make them more crooked, crowded, and rotated.
This means that the longer you wait to straighten your teeth, the harder they will be to straighten. You will end up spending more time in braces, which can make your treatment more expensive, and can lead to more impacts like gum disease and cavity risk.
Starting sooner means not just finishing earlier, it means finishing faster, and that’s a great reason to straighten your teeth now.
Give Yourself More Time to Enjoy the Benefits
But it’s not all about avoiding negatives: there are positive reasons to get your teeth straightened now. The sooner you get your teeth straightened, the sooner you can enjoy the benefits of straight teeth.
Some of the benefits are related to health. As we mentioned above, straight teeth improve your oral health over the long term. That’s because they’re easier to clean, and less likely to trap food. In addition, straight teeth are easier to chew with. You can enjoy more foods that are challenging to eat.
And straight teeth give you many benefits in your personal and professional relationships. When it comes to looking for a date, both men and women cite an attractive smile as the number one thing they’re looking for. And while straight teeth may not be the number one thing hiring managers are looking for, they say that they are more likely to higher candidates that have straight teeth–and more likely to offer them a higher salary.
This means that getting your teeth straightened earlier can potentially mean more time with that special someone you’ve been looking for and more time earning a higher salary.
Learn about Your Options for Straightening Teeth in Spokane
Technically, you’re never too old to straighten your teeth. As long as you’re in good health, it’s safe and effective to straighten your teeth at any age. So you have the option of postponing braces and doing them later
However, there are also very good reasons why now is the best time to straighten your teeth. Why spend another year unhappy with your smile? Please call (509) 532-1111 today for an appointment with a cosmetic dentist at Collins Dentistry & Aesthetics.
