Ceramic braces do not stain on their own. The tooth-colored brackets are made of a polycrystalline material that resists discoloration, but the elastic ties that hold the wire can pick up color from coffee, tea, curry and red wine between visits. That single distinction explains most of what people hear
Yes, you can still get a cavity filled or a tooth pulled while wearing braces. Braces don’t prevent your general dentist or an oral surgeon from treating a tooth that needs a filling, extraction, or other dental work — the appliance may need to be worked around a bit, and
Overjet and overbite both describe how the upper and lower front teeth relate to each other, but they measure different things: overjet is the horizontal distance the upper front teeth stick out past the lower front teeth, while overbite is the vertical amount the upper front teeth overlap the lower
Yes, you can generally get braces or Invisalign while pregnant, and pregnancy on its own isn’t a reason to delay orthodontic treatment. That said, pregnancy does call for a few extra precautions, mainly around hormonal effects on gum tissue, appointment timing, and any X-rays that might be needed. Discussing your
Yes, certain medications can influence how quickly teeth move during orthodontic treatment or how your gums respond along the way, since tooth movement depends on a biological bone-remodeling process that some medications can speed up, slow down, or complicate. This doesn’t mean you need to stop a prescribed medication for
Yes, adults with missing teeth, dental bridges, or implants can often still get Invisalign, though the specific treatment plan needs to account for how those restorations behave differently from natural teeth. Implants stay fixed in the jawbone and don’t move with orthodontic force, while a bridge spans a gap and
Once braces come off, most patients transition into the retention phase with periodic checkups roughly every few months for the first year, gradually spacing out to once or twice a year as your bite and retainer wear stabilize. The retention phase isn’t a formality — the bone and gum tissue
A snaggletooth or rotated tooth — a tooth that sits at an angle, sticks out, or is twisted relative to the teeth around it — is typically corrected with braces, clear aligners, or a combination of both, depending on how far the tooth needs to move and what’s happening with
Most orthodontic adjustment appointments take between 15 and 30 minutes, considerably shorter than most patients expect. The visit is quick because the diagnostic work happened earlier, at your initial consultation and records appointment — a routine adjustment is mainly about checking progress, making planned changes to your wires or aligners,
