How Adult Braces Can Have Anti-Aging Benefits

Adult with braces

Did you know that you can have a wider, fuller smile without plastic surgery or injections?

Just as standing up straight adds inches and subtracts years, straightening your smile creates a wider, fuller smile and makes your entire face more symmetrical and pleasing.

When Dr. Gellerman straightens teeth, she is also addressing the aesthetics of her patients’ faces. She’s making sure that when their treatment is done, the teeth, jaws, cheekbones, and lips are in the correct proportion to each other. The soft tissues over the cheeks and lips confirm to the new alignment of the teeth and jaw. As a result, small tight smiles become wider, lips appear fuller, profiles are improved, and you look like your best self!

How can a treatment from an orthodontist can make such a difference?

Imagine the face of a person who is missing teeth—their mouth collapses inward, just a little bit, but enough that their face looks off-balance. Or imagine what happens when the front teeth are facing towards the inside of the mouth—that person may have an oddly-shaped profile, even if their face is pretty when you look at them directly.

When the teeth are not sitting properly on the jaw, or when the upper and lower jaws don’t match up properly, the face looks odd. Often this is because of a narrow upper jaw, which leads to an asymmetrical smile that makes the face look off-balance.

When the arch of the teeth is narrow and in a “V” shape, it’s next to impossible to have a full and wide smile. There also may not be enough room for all of the adult teeth. One solution for young patients is to use a palate expander, which slowly opens the archway.

Severe overcrowding and spacing issues can actually cause your face to be out of balance and your smile to be uneven. The unevenness may be slight, or extremely noticeable, but regardless of the degree, it can be fixed!

When Dr. Gellerman designs a smile, it becomes the perfect “U” shape, widening the smile and exposing more of the lips, which look fuller as a result. She can design a treatment plan with braces or clear aligners, depending upon the patient and the treatment they need.

By creating a treatment plan based on patients’ faces and not just the teeth, your braces move your jaw and teeth, millimeter by millimeter, to achieve precise results that will improve your entire face. As your teeth and jaw move into place, so does the soft-tissue skin around your teeth, including your teeth and your cheeks.

Achieving symmetry is one of many benefits to orthodontic treatment by a board certified orthodontist. There are anti-aging benefits for adult patients too.

Teeth change throughout adulthood. Teeth, especially those in the back, become flatter and shorter because of the force of chewing. If you grind your teeth or clench your jaw, that change happens faster. When the teeth are shorter, the bite collapses, and the lower jaw moves closer to the upper jaw. These are slow and small changes that occur over time and you might not even notice it or, if you do notice it, you might not know why it happens.

Another change of aging teeth and jaws are a movement inward, which cause the cheeks and lips to shift and making your smile to look smaller.

With a smile designed by Dr. Gellerman, the teeth and jaw can be moved into the right places to keep your face youthful and your smile beautiful. Call us at 631-427-8444 to make an appointment for a free consultation today!