Braces

Braces are applied to teeth for various reasons, including poorly aligned jaws, crooked, over-or under-bite, crowded and missing teeth, or a bad bite (called malocclusion). Various things can cause teeth to become crooked or jaws misaligned. Some conditions are inherited or it can be caused by traumatic injury or even thumb-sucking. Children between the ages of 10 and 14 are typical candidates for braces as their facial structures are still developing. Adult braces usually need additional procedures as their faces are already fully developed. Orthodontics is a field of dentistry that deals with corrections involving jaw and teeth alignment. This is a specialized field of dentistry and a dentist who specialized in this field is called an orthodontist.