My kids growing up, I’m able to watch them as they grow up and kind of treat them. And I’m able to see when it’s time that we can do braces. Don’t typically do braces on children whenever they still have baby teeth. If you do them while they still have baby teeth, they’re in the braces a lot longer. If you wait till they get all their adult teeth in, they wear them for a year, two years, whatever amount of time you need for that. If you’re in baby teeth, you’re gonna be in them for probably three years or so.
Kids, they do well at first, they’re real good with braces, but they get tired of them after awhile and they may not take as good of care and more likely to get decay in all around them. So we try to limit the time they’re in braces by doing that the right time. That’s why me, as a general dentist, I do do braces. I’ve been doing them for 24 years plus, took additional training, of course, for it and I really enjoyed it. In fact, I was gonna be an orthodontist before I decided to become a general dentist. Dr. Smith, that I bought the practice from, he talked me into becoming a general dentist. He said, “You can still do ortho, braces, but you don’t have to do that all the time.” You can, in this chair you’re doing braces, in this chair you’re doing fillings, in this chair…it kind of makes the day go better.
That’s another thing, we can change the way people smile, the way they look, the way they function. A lot of times it’s not just looks, it’s also how their teeth come together. They’ve got a deep bite, their smile, you’re only seeing the top teeth. You open up with braces and see the bottom and top teeth. It makes a much bigger smile. Straightening them also causes, a lot of times as your teeth are crooked, they wear bad, they’re harder to clean. They can have joint problems from the bite being off. So it’s not just aesthetics for braces, it’s function, it’s health-wise, it can change the way your health is and, of course, improve your smile.
