Summer 2010 presents a wealth of opportunities for people that wear braces on their teeth to express themselves muses respected orthodontist Dr Bryan Altshuller. Why not celebrate your love of the game by honouring the World Cup finals in South Africa by sporting braces in the color of your favorite team.

Depending on your personality, nationality or preference you could opt for white braces in support of New Zealand, alternating pale blue and white for Argentina, orange for Holland or go bold with yellow and red for Spain. Either way this is sure to be a talking point in the office or next social event.

We decided to ask the expert, Dr Bryan Altshuller an experienced orthodontist from our nation’s capital, to gauge the popularity of this kind of practice. Dr Bryan Altshuller confirmed that it is particularly popular among teenagers to change their brace color every month. The variety of colors available has led to some particularly creative examples, particularly around Halloween. “Since this practice often results in a positive impact on self esteem we encourage our patients to be creative” commented Dr Bryan Altshuller.

So, why not express yourself this summer, World cup colors or otherwise, ask your orthodontist for details .

Our teeth can be rather unpredictable in terms of how they develop and grow, as orthodontists such as Dr Bryan Altshuller will tell you. For many children and adults, the teeth do not exactly develop into a perfect aesthetic appearance. Specifically, the teeth may appear crooked or misaligned. While this is a serious problem, it is not one that cannot be corrected. For those in need of a solution to the problem, visiting a quality orthodontist is the right course of action to take to correct the problem. Granted, the level of complexity in treatment performed on the teeth will vary depending upon the individual case. That is why choosing the right orthodontist is a must. When you work with the right orthodontist, the odds of effectively successfully treating the problem increase.

This does raise the obvious question as to how one goes about selecting the right orthodontist. Based on some basic conventional wisdom, here are a few steps you can follow to select the right orthodontist:

Look at the dental school that the Orthodontist has graduated from. If the dental school is one that has a solid and well established reputation, you can feel confident that you will be visiting a highly skilled orthodontist.

Acquiring recommendations for a valued orthodontist would certainly prove helpful. The recommendation can come from your primary dentist or someone that may have been a patient of the orthodontist. They key here is that the source providing the recommendation is a credible one that can guide you onto the proper path.

Does the orthodontist’s office offer flexible treatment hours? This is one of the most important things to consider when selecting an orthodontist’s office. Remember, you will want maximum flexibility in terms of the times in which you can book your treatment sessions.

Be sure that the orthodontist is within your range of affordability. That means you will need to take part is a little cost comparison work when weighing your selections for an orthodontist. Also, you will need to see if the orthodontist offers flexible payment plans and what type of insurance will be accepted. All these factors need to be considered when looking to select an orthodontist.

Of course, nothing is more helpful in the process of selecting an orthodontist than your own personal experience. To get a feel for whether or not you are selecting the proper orthodontist, it may be best to set up a consultation with the orthodontist. This way, you can discuss treatment procedures and the overall process that is to be performed. Such a consultation session would aid in boosting your confidence for accepting treatment from the orthodontists. Again, it is certainly advisable to look towards a consultation – with a specialist like Dr Bryan Altshuller — to decide whether or not you are making the right decision

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.

Bryan Altshuller has operated a successful orthodontist practice from a custom designed spacious medical clinic in Orleans on the outskirts of Ottawa for nearly 20 years ago. All of Bryan’s patients come to his practice by referral and a large number of Ottawa dentists refer their orthodontic cases exclusively to Bryan. Bryan is one of only a handful of Orthodontists that has completed a Masters degree in Orthodontics, which he received from the University of Western Ontario in 1992. Bryan is an active member of the local community in Orleans and a proud sponsor of many local events and community organizations.