Why can’t they just surgically uproot your teeth and glue them back in the correct places? I get that there are rubber band like ligaments, but why can’t they take them out and bend them the right way and put them back (or something)?
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Edit: you can’t edit post titles for some reason, so: Why ~~isn’t~~ aren’t there faster alternatives to braces?
In: 3
Not a dentist so listen to one of them if they get you an answer, but let’s just assume they “could” just surgically go in and rearrange everything (I doubt it, but hey it’s a hypothetical). Why would you do something so invasive and intensive when there is a perfectly good low impact solution already available.
An overblown example to get the idea across would be ” why give someone cholesterol meds when you can just transplant a new heart”
I think the answer is going to be that you could, but it wouldn’t stay.
You have to get retainers after braces because your body will try and realign the teeth to how they were, and unless you force them to stay, they’ll end up as bad as if you’d never had braces.
You could surgically arrange them, but it would be insanely painful to keep the retainer on, and you’d have to wear it for the rest of your life, rather than just for a couple years after having had braces.
Poorly explained, but maybe it gets the idea across.
Surgery is very possible, and it is done for accident victims. But it is scary for many people, expensive, and can easily lead to complications like infections, and will take weeks or months to heal, while the patient is “eating” through a straw.
There are faster alternatives, but braces are mainly used because it’s the best way for your body to adapt to the change. You have a lot of musculature around your mouth and teeth. With braces you need to displace this “balance” that your body has created to make your teeth align better. This all takes a lot of time. Your body likes where things were to begin with, so changing it just takes time
Note: I am not a dentist or orthodontist
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