Dental braces: types and prices

Beautiful smile as well as healthy and straight teeth are very often an effect of a long-term and expensive treatment. Modern orthodontics offers a great variety of different malocclusion treatments. Unfortunately, we have to pay for some of them.

There is a song which teaches children that in order to have healthy teeth it's enough to "just eat well and drink well [..], play safely and clean well". Unfortunately, songs for children don't reveal all of the truth. Not everyone can have a glamorous smile. Patients with malocclusion have to struggle with necessary treatments and, what follows, great expenses.

Phases of orthodontic treatment
The treatment always starts in an orthodontist’s office. The orthodontist classifies your type of malocclusion and then discuss the treatment and its duration. During the next visit, your orthodontist will carefully examine your occlusion, make a study model, take X-ray imagines of your face and occlusion as well as gather your medical documentation, especially your X-ray images (a panoramic radiograph and a cephalogram)

After discussing possible treatment methods, the patient (or the parent of a minor patient) choose the type of the braces, which are made by a specialist on the basis of the study model. During the next visit, you will either receive removable braces or the doctor will put the fixed braces on your teeth.
Both cases require regular orthodontist appointments during the whole treatment process. During the visits, the orthodontist modifies your braces according to the treatment progress. After the treatment, there come the retention phase. Usually, the patient receives another braces – the dental retainer, which may be either removable or fixed.

Types of braces

- Removable braces – most often it is used to treat malocclusion by children who still have milk teeth (alternatively who already have some permanent teeth). For a successful outcome the braces need to be worn over a dozen hours a day. It is advisable to wear the braces during the whole night and a couple of hours during the day. The treatment last for about 2 years.

- Fixed braces – only the orthodontist can put it on as well as remove it. It is attached to the outside surface of the teeth. This kind of braces is usually used in order to correct dental arch. It can also stimulate jaw expansion.

- Fixed lingual braces – it is also put on by the orthodontist and it is attached to the inside of the teeth, and therefore invisible.

- A retainer – it can be either removable of fixed. It is designed to hold your teeth in their new position after the treatment.