Adult Braces

Windy Arbour

There is no upper age limit. Healthy teeth can be moved at seventy much as at seventeen, and a growing share of our patients are adults.

What matters is not your age but the condition of your teeth, gums and supporting bone. Gum disease has to be stable before treatment starts, and existing crowns, bridges and fillings need planning around.

More on our adult braces page.

Yes. The biology is the same at any age: steady pressure, bone remodelling, teeth moving. Nothing about being an adult prevents that.

What differs is the surrounding detail. The jaw has finished growing, so bite problems caused by jaw position cannot be corrected by influencing growth the way they can in a child. Those are treated by camouflage with braces or aligners, or by surgery in significant cases.

For most people, yes. Straighter teeth are easier to clean, which matters over decades, and a corrected bite spreads chewing forces evenly rather than wearing particular teeth.

There is also the simple fact that people who have wanted it for twenty years are generally glad they stopped putting it off.

What it is not is a good idea if the motivation is somebody else's. It is a two-year commitment and it should be your decision.

Sometimes a little, but less than people expect. Adult bone is denser and the periodontal tissues respond slightly more slowly, so some movements take longer than they would in a teenager.

The bigger factor is usually the case itself. An adult with years of drift and existing dental work simply has more to sort out than a fourteen-year-old with straightforward crowding.

Most adult treatments still run eighteen months to two years.

No more than for teenagers. The teeth are tender for three or four days after fitting and briefly after each adjustment, and that is the whole of it.

Adults often report the first week as the awkward part, mostly the brackets rubbing the lip and cheek rather than the teeth themselves. Orthodontic wax deals with that until the tissues toughen up.

Very few people are ruled out entirely, but there are situations where we would not start.

Active gum disease is the main one. Moving teeth in bone that is already being lost makes things worse, so that has to be treated and stable first. Untreated decay needs sorting with your dentist beforehand. Poor cleaning is a genuine reason to delay, because plaque around brackets permanently marks enamel.

Certain medical conditions and medications affect bone turnover, so tell us what you take. We would rather postpone than start something that will not go well.

They are visible, they need careful cleaning, and hard or sticky food is out for the duration. Plaque left sitting around a bracket permanently marks the enamel, which is the one genuine risk worth taking seriously.

Treatment also takes time, eighteen months to two years, with an appointment every six to eight weeks.

And it ends in retainers, indefinitely. Anyone who tells you the result holds itself is not being straight with you.