FAQs

By applying light, continuous pressure. Brackets are bonded to each tooth and joined by a wire that wants to return to its own shape. As it does, it carries the teeth with it.

The movement happens in the bone rather than the tooth. Pressure on one side of a root causes bone to be removed there and rebuilt on the other side, so the tooth migrates through the jaw. That process has its own pace, which is why treatment takes months and why forcing it harder does not speed it up.

The honest answer is that an examination is the only way to know. But there are signs worth acting on: teeth that overlap or twist, gaps that bother you, front teeth that stick out or do not meet, a jaw that shifts to one side when you bite, difficulty biting or chewing, or floss that will not pass between certain teeth.

Plenty of people have mild irregularity that needs nothing at all, and we will tell you that rather than finding work to do. Book a consultation at our Ballinteer Road clinic.

Most comprehensive treatments run eighteen months to two years. Simpler cases finish sooner, and a short front-teeth course such as Braces Lite is usually six to nine months.

What sets the timescale is how far the teeth have to move and whether the bite needs correcting, not which appliance is used. Cases involving jaw surgery run longest, two to three years across the whole course.

You will get a realistic estimate at your consultation rather than a best-case one.

Every six to eight weeks with fixed braces, usually around twenty minutes. Clear aligner reviews are less frequent, every eight to ten weeks, and shorter again.

Appliances such as expanders need more frequent visits at the start while they are being adjusted, then settle into the normal rhythm.

Emergency appointments, for a broken bracket or a poking wire, are seen as needed and are included in your fee.

Not in the way people fear. Fitting braces is not painful at all, since nothing is being drilled or injected.

What you get afterwards is tenderness, starting a few hours later and lasting three or four days. Teeth feel bruised and biting into anything firm is uncomfortable. The same happens more briefly after each adjustment.

Soft food and ordinary painkillers deal with it. It settles, and it does not come back in the same way later in treatment.

No. The brackets are bonded to the tooth surface with an adhesive, which involves no drilling and no anaesthetic. Most people are surprised how uneventful it is.

The appointment takes about an hour, and the main complaint is keeping your mouth open that long.

The tenderness starts later that day, once the teeth begin to move.

The first week, without much competition. The teeth are tender for three or four days after fitting, and at the same time the lips and cheeks are getting used to the brackets.

After that it gets easier. Adjustments cause a day or two of tightness rather than the same soreness, and by a few months in most people barely notice them.

The end is straightforward. Taking braces off is not uncomfortable.

It depends entirely on which one. Mild crowding or spacing may cause nothing worse than teeth that are harder to clean. A deep bite, a crossbite or a large overjet are different, because each causes progressive damage: enamel wear, gum recession, or a jaw habitually displaced to one side.

The honest answer is that some bite problems are worth living with and some are not, and only an examination will tell you which you have. There is more on our problems we treat page.

Three to five days after fitting, and usually one to two days after a routine adjustment.

If teeth are still genuinely sore after a week, or a particular tooth hurts sharply rather than aching, ring us on 01 296 3638. That is not the normal pattern and is worth checking.

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.

For most people, yes, though the reasons are worth being honest about.

The health case is real: straighter teeth are easier to clean over decades, and a corrected bite spreads chewing forces evenly instead of wearing particular teeth. Where there is a deep bite, a crossbite or a large overjet, treatment prevents damage that would otherwise accumulate.

Where teeth are mildly irregular and the bite is sound, it is a cosmetic decision, and that is a perfectly legitimate reason too. We will tell you which of those situations you are in.

None of them is meaningfully faster than the others. Treatment time is set by how far your teeth have to move and by biology, not by the appliance. Bone remodels at the rate it remodels, and pushing harder does not speed it up.

Where real differences appear is in how predictably an appliance handles a particular movement. Fixed braces often finish complex cases sooner than aligners simply because they get there more directly.

The genuinely quick option is a short front-teeth course such as Braces Lite, and that is quick because it treats less, not because it works faster.

Sometimes, subtly, and usually for the better. The clearest changes come where the front teeth were markedly protruding or the bite was deep, because lip support and profile shift as those are corrected.

Where extractions are part of the plan, the profile can flatten slightly, and that is something we consider deliberately rather than by accident.

What braces do not do is reshape the jawbone or sharpen a jawline. Anything claiming otherwise is overselling. Real skeletal change requires surgery or, in children, appliances that influence growth.

Usually because you are seeing them properly for the first time. Crowded or overlapping teeth hide part of each crown, and once they are aligned the full tooth shows.

Sometimes the gum line is uneven after treatment, which exaggerates the effect. That often settles over the following months as the gums adapt.

If it persists and bothers you, your dentist can reshape the gum line slightly. Mention it at your review rather than assuming nothing can be done.

Usually nothing that affects your result. The old belief that wisdom teeth push the front teeth crooked has not held up. Lower front teeth crowd with age in people who never had wisdom teeth at all.

What they can do is cause their own problems: pain, infection or damage to the tooth in front where they come through at an angle. That is a matter for your dentist or an oral surgeon rather than for orthodontics.

Either way, keep wearing your retainer. That is what holds the result, not the absence of wisdom teeth.

Book a consultation. You do not need a referral from your dentist, though we are glad to receive one.

At that appointment one of our specialist orthodontists examines your teeth, jaws and bite, takes any records needed, and explains what treatment would involve, how long it would take and what it would cost. You leave with a written plan and no obligation to proceed.

Ring 01 296 3638, message us on WhatsApp at 083 896 9996, or book online.

Both move teeth, but they do it differently. Fixed braces are brackets bonded to the teeth with a wire across them, working around the clock with nothing to remember. Clear aligners are removable trays worn in sequence, which come out to eat and to brush.

Braces give more control, particularly for severe rotations and substantial bite correction. Aligners are far more discreet and need no food restrictions, but only work while they are in your mouth.

Neither is better in the abstract. The right one depends on your teeth, and we will say which we would recommend and why.