The average length of time that children need to wear braces is from one to three years, depending on several factors unique to each child’s situation:
- For mild treatment cases, braces may be needed for as little as six months up to one year.
- Moderate treatment cases average one or two years.
- More complex cases can take up to three years.
If you want to find out how long your child may need to wear braces, please call Ironwood Pediatric Dentistry at (480) 422-4544 or use our contact form.
What Affects the Duration of Wearing Braces?
What follows are some of the considerations orthodontists account for when creating braces treatment plans. The more these considerations come into play for your child, the longer the overall plan duration will likely be.
The Extent of Your Child’s Oral Health Issues
The more numerous and complex the mouth and jaw problems your child is experiencing, the more likely the orthodontic treatment plan will take more time to complete.
Here are some of the oral health issues that may need to be addressed when your child needs orthodontics:
- Crowded teeth that may require extractions
- Jaw alignment issues
- Significantly misaligned and impacted teeth
- The mouth is too small and needs to be treated with a spacer or palate expander
- Bite conditions like open bite, overbite, underbite, cross bite, and deep bite
- Tooth decay, tooth enamel erosion, and gum disease issues that need to be treated in advance of braces
- The age of your child can affect whether comprehensive or two-stage orthodontic care is needed
Are Other Appliances Besides Braces Possible?
Milder forms of oral health problems may not require traditional braces.
In these cases, an option like Invisalign clear plastic aligners may be practical. Clear aligners have some significant advantages compared to braces, one of which is that treatment times can be shorter.
In particularly mild cases, using elastic rubber bands or a retainer alone (instead of using a retainer after braces removal) may also be possible, with a significantly shorter treatment time required.
Is Pretreatment Needed?
On the opposite side of the complexity scale, sometimes, your child’s oral health problems may pose severe issues that need to be addressed before braces can be placed. In this case, a palate expander, spacer, or even oral surgery may be needed to prepare the mouth for braces.
In cases where pretreatment is required, this extended treatment time will take longer, including a longer period of braces and the possibility that additional orthodontic devices like headgear will be needed.
What Can You Do to Speed Up Braces Treatment?
While many of the key factors are not in your control, there are some things you can encourage your child to do that can complement braces work and avoid possible complications that could lengthen treatment time.
Encourage Good Oral Hygiene Habits
Keeping teeth clean while wearing braces reduces the possibility of other oral health problems, such as tooth decay and gum disease, complicating the orthodontic treatment process.
Encourage your child to brush at least twice daily with a soft-bristled toothbrush and floss regularly to help keep dental work free of food particles that can contribute to plaque buildup and tartar formation.
Encourage Good Dietary Habits
Braces, especially traditional metal braces, are robust, but they are not indestructible.
Certain kinds of hard, crunchy, or sticky foods can put too much stress on the hardware, causing broken wires and broken or loose brackets. When this happens, an emergency trip to the orthodontist is needed to make repairs, and this can not only mean a longer overall treatment time but possibly additional cost to you as well.
Your orthodontist can recommend foods that are most compatible with braces while maintaining your child’s nutritional needs.
Encourage Your Child to Follow Instructions for Treatment
Especially with clear aligners, your child will need to exercise some self-discipline for them to work as intended. You can help encourage compliance with the orthodontist’s instructions for their proper use and maintenance.
Clear aligners use multiple sets of trays, each lasting about two weeks. Each new set is custom-designed to build on the progress made from the previous set and move teeth from their old positions to their new positions.
For example, to be effective, your child should wear clear aligners for an average of 22 hours a day.
The longer aligners are left out of the mouth, the more likely it becomes that your child’s mouth will not be ready for the next set of trays. This means that it may become necessary to adjust the treatment plan with new trays, delaying treatment progress and potentially increasing treatment cost.
Clear aligners must also be kept clean regularly to avoid bacterial and plaque buildup on the trays, which could lead to dental hygiene issues that can complicate and delay treatment progress.
See Your Dentist and Orthodontist Regularly
Integral to orthodontic treatment are some of the same routine dental hygiene maintenance activities you would do for your child without braces. These include dental checkups and cleanings twice a year, and regularly seeing your child’s orthodontist to ensure that the braces are kept in proper adjustment to follow the treatment plan.
An Orthodontist Can Help You Know How Long Braces Are Needed
At Ironwood Pediatric Dentistry, we recommend that you bring your child in regularly so we can identify issues as early as possible that may require orthodontic treatment.
The younger your child is when braces treatment begins, the easier it is to correct tooth misalignment and jaw-related problems. Because your child’s teeth, jaws, and gums are not yet fully developed, realignment and repositioning are easier to accomplish compared to adult braces treatment.
We will work closely with you to solve your child’s orthodontic problems, with a minimum amount of braces time needed to change crooked teeth into a healthy bite and a beautiful smile.
Call us at (480) 422-4544 to speak with one of our pediatric dentists or orthodontists.