Traditional braces use brackets attached to teeth and connected with wires to shift crooked teeth into a straighter position. You can feel confident in your aligned smile’s appearance and see a reduced risk of other oral health problems after this orthodontic treatment. But you might also worry if these fixed oral appliances will prevent you from undergoing other dentistry during the treatment.
Straightening your smile may take months or years, but your dentist can work around your fixtures to give you the dental care you need. However, braces can sometimes affect your dentist’s approach to this oral health care. Read on to find responses to frequently asked questions regarding other forms of dental work in relation to teeth-straightening treatment with braces.
Can I Get Braces with a Dental Implant?
Millions of adults will suffer the loss of one or more of their permanent teeth. To replace these missing teeth, you can receive dental implants which provide the most comprehensive restorative benefits. This fixture uses a surgically inserted anchor in the jaw that fuses with bone there to support a dental prosthetic.
Due to the nature of this fusion process, an implant cannot be moved once inserted in the jaw. So if you want to straighten your teeth, braces will not affect your implant. Many people choose to undergo orthodontic treatment first before pursuing implant dentistry for this reason.
If you already have a dental implant, you should speak to your dentist about your teeth-straightening goals. A dentist might be able to place brackets around the implant to align the teeth surrounding the device.
Can I Whiten My Teeth During Braces Treatment?
Traditional braces and orthodontics can give you the straight smile of your dreams. But you might wonder if this treatment will stop you from other cosmetic dental solutions during the process. For instance, you might want to whiten your teeth, but can you do this with brackets on your smile?
Brackets from your braces cover a portion of your tooth that a teeth-whitening treatment will not be able to access. But a dentist can whiten areas around the braces. Consult with your dentist for a personalized approach to smile enhancement with braces.
A dentist can apply bleaching gel around the brackets to brighten your smile, though this will not affect unexposed parts of your teeth. Whitening toothpaste can have a similar aesthetic effect.
What If I Form a Cavity While I Have Braces?
Cavities, an early stage of tooth decay, affect most of us at some point in our lives. Braces will not stop tooth decay from forming. But fortunately, your dentist can still treat a cavity when you have braces.
A dentist can drill around the brackets from braces to get rid of decay and then fill the resulting hole with resin to restore your smile. But if you get a cavity close to the bracket, the dentist might need to remove it to fully access the decay and eradicate it. Then you must seek replacement of the bracket so that you do not disrupt your teeth-straightening treatment.