A: The American Association of Orthodontists recommends 1st Orthodontic consultation at the age of 7. This is a pre screening visit to recommend any Preventive measures that can decrease the probability of developing a traumatic or mal aligned teeth in the future. Most important, we can modify the growth pattern of bones of the jaw if there is any discrepancy visible at this stage. Later in life after completion of growth, we would be having limited choices to correct the bite/ smile or we may have to seek surgical options to correct the bite/ smile.

Adults requiring or seeking Orthodontic treatment may consult at any time. The newer techniques and light forces had made possible to correct the bit/ smile at any age. The eldest patient undergoing treatment at our centre is just 79 year old.  

A: Few of the signs that should set the alarm bells ringing in your mind are:

• Early or Delayed loss of milk teeth
• Permanent teeth erupting behind milk teeth or double teeth
  
• Crowding, Spacing or Zig Zag pattern of teeth
• Frequent instances of cheek bite or your lower front teeth hurting your palate i.e. roof of the mouth
• Space between the upper and lower teeth on biting or You cannot make a bite in pizza with your front teeth
• Protuding or big front teeth that are not in proportion to your face
• Children having habit of thumb/ finger sucking or bottle feeding beyond the age of 6
• Submerged or blocked teeth due to lack of space
• Chin is very protuding giving you a older look or it is very small giving you a bird like face
• Teeth most often the canine teeth at corner of mouth erupting high in gums
• Clicking sound on opening and closing of mouth
• You shows too much gums on smiling i.e. gummy smile
  

ORTHODONTIC PROBLEMS

A: Few of the benefits are:

• Smile: Straight teeth in a perfect curve gives you the most sought Smile. It adds value to your Personality, builds your Confidence, Remove your hesitance  to speak and/ or laugh whole heartily in public functions or get together.
• Health: Chewing is the 1st phase of making the food easy on your digestive system, taking maximum benefits of what you eat and most important to enjoy the taste. Crooked teeth decrease your efficiency of chewing and indirectly your health. A good bite is must for good body.
• Avoid dental problems: More food get stuck in between Zig zag teeth that increases the chance of developing cavities, Periodontal disease in future. Stuck food also get rotten after some time giving bad smell to your breathe. A good bite helps you to keep your teeth and gums clean and healthy with routine oral hygiene maintaining tips.
  
• Avoid developing breathing problem: A bad bite may be associated with deep palate or high roof of your mouth. Deep palate decreases the nasal space making you snore loudly or sometimes more severe problem of Sleep apnea. 

Along with the above mentioned benefits of good bite/ smile, few of the advantages in seeking orthodontic treatment at the earliest are:

• Easy to guide the growth of young bones, reduces the severity of bad bite/ smile later in life
• Easy to guide erupting teeth in proper position
• Easy to control the bad habits as thumb sucking and preventing the damage done to bite/smile
• Easy to Expand the jaw bones if required
• Prevent the space loss due to early loss of milk teeth with the use of Space maintainers
• Gives an opportunity to make a lot of changes if required as in Adults we always have restrictions in terms of force applied and the amount of teeth shift that can be done.

A: Orthodontics works on the simple principle that slow forces applied over a period of time brings about a predictable change in the structure of bone and position of teeth. Basically there would be either lack of space or there is excess of space that respectively cause Crowding or Spacing in the permanent teeth. You may be advised to get few teeth Extracted in case there is severe deficiency of space and there is no way we can get the protuding teeth back without making some space. The various methods to set the teeth in perfect arch are:

• Interceptive Orthodontics: If  we can visualize a problem early in life by the age of 7-9 year, an early phase of orthodontics is advised where we try to channelize the growth of jaw bones in such a way that we have a less traumatic or basically only dental problem that needs to be tackled at later stage. As mentioned before if we delayed the treatment, Skeltal or bone discrepancy limits the final result with braces or we may have to seek surgical options. The various methods include head bows, Twin blocks etc.

• Serial extraction: This is also a part of Interceptive Orthodontics. It is recommended, When there is evident lack of space for all permanent teeth and the permanent teeth are erupting eccentrically.  One may be having the milk teeth although the permanent teeth are erupting. In such cases after detailed investigation, child may be recommended to get few milk teeth extracted in particular sequence and also 2-4 permanent teeth, so that there is enough space for rest of the permanent teeth and the Time, efforts to align them becomes a lot more easy. 

• Habit Breaking appliance: If the child has some habits as Thumb sucking, Lip biting, Tongue thrusting; before going for full fledged Orthodontic treatment, a habit breaking appliance is recommended to stop the habit. This make the final orthodontic treatment much faster and result oriented and the final result are more stable.
• Removable Orthodontics: you may have seen children removing the orthodontic plates before eating their food. This is one of the modality of correcting the misplaced teeth in proper arch form. As it depends a lot on the compliance of the child, results are much more slower but this is economical than the fixed orthodontics/ braces. 

• Fixed Orthodontics/ Braces: This is the most popular and most successful way of treating malocclusion or crooked bite/ smile. Every one knows Braces, the tiny metal devices stuck to one's teeth. Although there are lot of systems in this category, we use Edgewise or Straight Wire Technique. This proved to be more Comfortable for the patient; Results are more Controlled, Predictable and Faster.
  
• Types of Brackets:There are 2 main options of having either metal brackets or you can have more Esthetic, invisible Ceramic Brackets. Ceramic brackets are clear brackets and are not very evident as you smile, Saving you from that Metal in Mouth feeling.
  
• Colored Braces: If you have seen a lot of colors in your friends mouth, that is the color of module used to keep the wire in place. You can choose from a range of colors, if you want that.
• Lingual Braces: This is reinvented technology, where the brackets are placed on the inner surface of teeth, virtually making them invisible to other people. It is mostly recommended for Adult working Professionals.

•  Retainers: These are the last but most important step in your orthodontic treatment because it insures that you donot have a relapse of what we had corrected over a period of time. Nobody like  a change, So does your body. Retainers are given to be worn full time for a certain period and then discarded gradually. These are to make the teeth more stable at their final position, to make the bone hold on your teeth stronger. Some times We may advise Fixed retention in which a set of teeth are Bonded together at the back, so that these does not shift apart and you are saved from wearing full mouth retainer appliance. 

A: After getting the braces on your teeth, you need to follow certain precaution.

Do's:

• Brush your teeth 2 times a day, preferably with orthodontic toothbrush
• Use fluoridated mouthwash before going to bed
• Eat a healthy diet
• Keep your next appointment

Don't:

• Eat hard candies, sticky food, chewing gum that can break or bend the wire
• Bite in raw fruits like apple, carrots etc
  
• Engage in fight with your friends as blow to your face can bruise your cheeks due to braces
• Engage in sports like boxing, wrestling etc
  
• Be Demotivated with a little pain and discomfort in the starting

A: No, Braces is a Elective procedure like most of the treatment in Dentistry. But as answered before, it can give you a lot of benefits in long term in terms of Money, Mind and Smile.

Time taken to correct one's bite depends alot on the Severity of malocclusion and the expected final result to be achieved. On a wider scale it can take anywhere between 1 year to 3 year. You may or may not having braces on your teeth all the time as the line of treatment may need interceptive orthodontic treatment and also time & type of retainers.

Money: There is no ball park figure for Orthodontic treatment. The fees for an Intial Consultation is Minimal. You will be explained the net amount it is going to cost entotal with various options. The fees depends on many factors like severity of malocclusion, Line of treatment, Time taken for full treatment, any appliance used during the treatment. Well timed Orthodontic treatment is often less costly than the additional dental treatment required for the dental disease developed over a period of time due to Bad bite/ smile.