About Braces

Brackets are the small squares that are attached to the front and side surfaces of the teeth. They act similar to handles, they allow us to grab onto the teeth and move them. They are bonded to the teeth with an adhesive.

Archwire is a wire that connects all of the brackets and bands together. It does the actual work of aligning the brackets and aligning the teeth. Your Orthodontist will place bends in the wires, the teeth then follow and move corresponding to the wire position.

O-rings are small rubber rings that hold the archwire to each bracket. They are placed by stretching the o-ring around the corners of each individual bracket and over the archwire. They can be grey, clear or even coloured! These make braces much more fun.

Luckily if you’re ever stuck on what colour to choose, you can use the SmileBox Dental Spin-O-Ring! 

Elastics are rubber bands that are stretched from one bracket or band in the upper arch to a bracket or band in the lower arch. This helps to provide a force that moves the teeth, it allows enables the teeth to bite together better. They usually lose elasticity and need replacing often.​​

Spacers (or Separators) are small rubber bands that are used to make space between the teeth before getting your braces. They are usually utilised between molars that need to have metal bands placed around them. Teeth normally fit very tightly together. Therefore, in order to make space for the thickness of the metal band spacers are required for about one week.

Overcrowding is a common teeth misalignment which occurs due to lack of space in the oral cavity for the teeth. This makes the teeth grow to be crooked and/or overlap with each other. This creates an overcrowded atmosphere in the mouth and can lead to poor oral hygiene due to the inability to clean the teeth efficiently.

Fun Dental Fact: Crowding doesn’t happen because our teeth are too big for our jaws, it’s because our jaws are too small for our teeth.

This is where the upper teeth horizontally protrude past the bottom teeth, also called an ‘Overbite’. A common dental complaint we hear that relates to protrusion is ‘my front teeth are sticking out’.

The protrusion of teeth can cause speech problems and make it difficult to consume food, this is due to the fact it can prevent correct biting and chewing. 

Protrusion is a dental condition that is usually caused by skeletal issues with the lower jaw, mainly in those who have a growth deficiency. Overbites can cause irreparable soft tissue damage and also contribute to early tooth loss from excessive wear of the teeth. Besides overjets having functional side effects, they can also affect the aesthetics of the smile. Overall, it can look unpleasant to the eye, this can affect a person’s psychological and emotional state.

Protruded teeth commonly come in conjunction with patients with narrow arches, habits of tongue thrusting, swallowing and breathing improperly, phonetic problems – such as enunciating certain words and sounds like F and V, and allergies.

If we catch these issues early enough (as early as the age of 6), SmileBox can assist in correcting them using orthodontic treatment such as EF, muscle and jaw physiotherapy, and breathing exercises.

This is where there is spacing (gaps) present between the teeth. These spaces usually appear between the two upper or lower front teeth – this is known as a Diastema. A diastema usually happens due to reasons such as: 

• A mismatch of the size of the jawbone and the teeth.
• A high labial frenum attachment -if you have a high labial frenum attachment then you could be suitable for a frenectomy and then orthodontics afterward to resolve this.
• Missing or undersized teeth – when some teeth are missing or smaller than others this can cause a diastema to develop. This is common when the upper lateral incisors are miss??
• Thumb sucking as a child is also a common reason for spacing in between teeth and diastema, this is due to the teeth pulling forward from the unnatural force.

A diastema isn’t seen as a ‘dental problem’ they are usually harmless and need no correction. Some people see a diastema as a characteristic that adds personality to their smile, like Madonna for example.

However, with dental spacing, we usually hear complaints of food becoming stuck in between the teeth, or in some cases, people don’t like the aesthetics of spacing or diastema. In that case, orthodontic treatment can be done to correct this.

This is when the upper teeth bite down on the insides of the lower teeth, this can also be known as a negative overjet. Common dental complaints we hear that relate to a crossbite are “my chin protrudes out”, “my front teeth bite on each other” or “I can’t bite on my back teeth properly”.

A crossbite can happen on either side of the jaw and it affects both the front and back teeth. Crossbites usually occur due to a dental or skeletal problem, or both. These can be caused by habits, bone structure, airway issues, or genetics. Untreated crossbites can affect more than just the teeth, they can cause issues in the jaw. It makes the jaw muscles work at an uneven rate, which causes temporomandibular joint disorder, it can cause headaches and pain in the jaw, neck, or shoulders.

A dental midline shift is a condition where the centerline of the upper and lower teeth is not aligned properly with the center of the face. In other words, the midline of the upper teeth is not directly above the midline of the lower teeth. This can result in an asymmetrical appearance of the teeth and the face.

A dental midline shift can be caused by a variety of factors, including tooth loss, genetics, facial trauma, or improper dental treatment. Depending on the severity of the condition, treatment options may include orthodontic treatment, dental restoration, or even jaw surgery.

An open bite is a type of malocclusion (misalignment of teeth) where there is a gap or space between the upper and lower front teeth when the back teeth are closed together. This means that the front teeth do not make contact with each other when the mouth is closed, which can cause difficulty in biting and chewing food, speech problems, and jaw pain.

Open bites can be caused by a variety of factors such as thumb sucking, tongue thrusting, genetic factors, or abnormal jaw growth.