How do braces work? How do braces move the teeth?
Braces consist of brackets (mini-handles) bonded (glued) on to most of the 12 or 14 teeth in each jaw. A thin highly flexible wire is fastened to each bracket on each tooth. Suppose a tooth is incorrectly positioned; let us assume it is a tooth that is depressed inwardly and we want to bring it forward. When we fasten (attach) the wire to all the teeth with brackets the wire flexes in to attach to the depressed tooth. Since the wire is flexible (resilient) it “wants” to “bounce” back to the shape it originally was (straight). So over a long period of time the wire gradually moves the incorrectly positioned tooth in to the desired (corrected) position, that is, in line with the other teeth. As long as the pulling is done gently over a long period of time the teeth will move through the bone without harm to the tooth, or any other teeth, and gums and bone. It can take between 4 weeks and 3 months to move a tooth 1mm (about 1/32nd -1/16th of an inch) depending on whether the tooth is a lo
