A valentines article I stumbled upon recently….Bryan Altshuller
According to the American association of orthodontics 86% of moms reported that braces are cooler today than back in their day and anecdotally Dr Bryan Altshuller confirmed that valentine’s day is when teenagers make the most of this new form of expression. According to a straw poll of blogging sites, pink and red are the most popular choices of colour for braces during valentines. Which fits nicely into the “go loud, be proud” category, though the choice of colors available today are seemingly limitless.
We consulted Orthodontics expert Dr Bryan Altshuller to find out what he has observed in recent trends amongst the brace wearing community. Basically there are two schools of thought.
- Go loud – Take the extrovert view that if you have to wear braces you might just as well be proud of the fact. The advantages are that these colors tend to be darker or brighter and contrast with the individual teeth color making them look whiter ( the exception being gold which makes teeth look more yellow). The other factor is that they are more visible and accentuate the braces, which can be either positive or negative depending on your point of view.
- Unassuming – Take the introvert approach and make the braces as invisible as possible choosing tones that are either camouflaged to the tooth color or transparent. Some bloggers reported that transparent braces temporarily adopt the food color of the most recent meal, imagine spaghetti sauce, but many would regard this as a trade off worth making for near invisible braces the remainder of the time.
I expected the latter to dominate, which may well be the case in adult brace wearers, but according to Dr Bryan Altshuller generation Y are more self assured and since their braces are changed every month have a vehicle for self expression that wasn’t available back in the day. There are even websites available to help choose which color braces to choose, though I have yet to find one with a realistic tooth color.
So regardless of age or personality type why not go bold this valentines day. See your orthodontist for details.
Tags: Bryan Altshuller
