Getting Started
How Long Will I Wear My Braces?
The most frequently asked question at a consultation appointment is, “How long will I have to wear braces?” We want to minimize your time in braces and we will give you the best estimate we can for your treatment time. Rest assured, that if there were issues to come up that would lengthen your treatment beyond our initial estimate, the fee for your braces won’t increase with the longer treatment.
Most braces take between a year and a half and two years. Some milder cases can be a year or less and other, longer, more complicated treatments can be two and a half or three years. The length of your treatment will depend on a few things– how much we have to move your teeth and if there are issues with how the upper and lower teeth fit together. For example, a single tooth that is far from its normal position is going to take longer to move into position than moving a number of teeth a shorter distance. Sometimes, we have to start your braces at a younger age to get things moving because of an issue with one or two teeth and then we have to wait for other teeth to catch up.
With the braces I’m using now, we find that treatments are going faster, as well as more comfortably. In many cases we are seeing dramatic changes in the first six to nine months so we can be ahead of schedule. Estimating the length of your braces is becoming easier and more predictable, but surprises can still occur.
Your help with your braces is the biggest part of how long you wear braces and how close we are in our estimate. Wearing your elastics, keeping your braces on your teeth and your wires in place and seeing us regularly for the checkups and adjustments all work together to give you the best result, in the most comfort, and in the fastest way.
We’ll let you know if your treatment is on track to be on time or ahead of schedule. And if it isn’t, let’s work together to keep things on track – to get you that great smile as soon as we can.