Most identification cards require your picture, preferably with your teeth on full display. Say you don’t have any identification card yet, so you head over to a photo studio to have your picture taken. But once you’ve claimed all the pictures, you notice that you have crooked teeth. So off you go to a dentist, and they tell you that you should have your teeth fitted with braces.

First, you’ll want to know what the pros and cons of teeth braces are and how they can help you in the long term.

What Are Some of the Pros of Teeth Braces?

Once you go to an orthodontist, they’ll likely mention to you the following advantages of having your teeth fitted with braces:

  1. Braces correct the alignment of your teeth.

You wouldn’t want your crooked teeth to stay that way for the rest of your life as they can give you more severe dental problems that can be difficult to treat. Thus, you should have braces fitted to your teeth to help get them back into proper alignment and prevent any further dental issues.

2. Braces can reduce the risk of acquiring gum disease.

When your teeth aren’t properly aligned, the likelihood of succumbing to gum disease becomes greater compared to when you’ve got normal teeth. Wearing braces somehow forces you to become more careful with oral hygiene procedures that most people with normal teeth easily forgo. You’lllearn how to more properly brush your teeth and floss to lower your chances of having gum disease.

What Are Some of the Cons of Teeth Braces?

All the advantages of teeth braces listed above aren’t complete without some disadvantages to balance them out, some of which are:

  1. You can’t eat hard and crunchy foods anymore.

The very minute that your orthodontist has successfully fitted your teeth with braces means that you’ll have to say goodbye to eating some kinds of foods like popcorn, nuts, gum and corn chips, to name but a few. It doesn’t mean that you’ll have to throw everything in you eat in a blender though, as you can simply slice and dice other hard foods like meat and fruits into bite-sized chunks, so you can chew them better.

2. The interior of your mouth might get irritated or injured.

Regardless of whether you’ve had metal or ceramic braces fitted to your teeth, they’re foreign objects that can send you howling in pain if they get damaged.

  • A loose wire or broken ceramic part of your braces can cause any other part of your mouth’s interior to bleed or develop sores.
  • Thus, if you’re feeling some sharp pain in your mouth after having your teeth fitted with braces, you should go back to your orthodontist and have your braces either repaired or replaced with a new set.

How Can Teeth Braces Help You in the Long Term?

If it’s your first time having your teeth fitted with braces, the first few weeks of wearing them might get annoying for you as you’ll have to adjust your routine to accommodate them. You’ll make changes like avoiding certain types of food to exercising extra care when brushing or flossing your teeth. But all those troubles that initially come with wearing teeth braces are temporary, as they can help you in the long term in the following ways:

  1. You can regain the confidence that you lost after getting laughed at because of your crooked teeth. Some people find crooked teeth cute. But for others, they’re ugly to look at, which can lead them to laugh at you when you pass by and try to smile at them along the way. Having your teeth’s alignment corrected through braces can get you a perfect smile that you can flash at all those people who laughed at you before. You can also ease your way more easily into social gatherings as you won’t get funny looks now that you’ve got a perfect smile.
  2. You can start fixing the way you speak: Your teeth are involved with generating every sound that comes out of your mouth. However, if you’ve got crooked teeth, people may have a difficult time understanding what you’re trying to say to them. You can’t afford to play mute to hide your speech defect as a result of having crooked teeth. By having your teeth fitted with braces, you can learn how to pronounce words, phrases, and even full sentences more clearly so that people can understand you better.

According to the American Association of Orthodontists, more than one million adults in the United States are wearing braces. You can take comfort in the fact that wearing braces is a more common dental procedure than some people realize. But before getting your teeth fitted with braces, you should take note first of these pros and cons of teeth braces and how they can help you in the long term so that you can decide whether to wear them or not. Always get a professional dentist like the one here to get them fitted for you if you do decide to get them.

Gregory Tan

Gregory Tan is a contributor for Markhoul Dentistry, where he shares his passion on health to his readers. He always strives to add a creative spin to his articles, which he hopes is beneficial to his reader’s interests. He loves playing chess, especially with his peers.