Dental braces may straighten crooked teeth, but they’re unlikely to alter your self-esteem and satisfaction with life, revealed by UK researchers.
In a 20-year study that followed more than 300 British children into adulthood, researchers found that those who’d had their imperfect smiles corrected with braces were not happier or psychologically healthier than their peers who went without braces. Self-esteem in adulthood, the study found, was far more dependent on quality of life and similar factors than on orthodontics.
Dental braces (also known as orthodontic braces or brackets) are a fixed appliance used in orthodontics to correct alignment of teeth and their position with regard to bite. Braces are often used to correct malocclusions such as underbites, overbites, cross bites and open bites, or crooked teeth, or perfect teeth and various other flaws of teeth and jaws, whether cosmetic or structural. They can be used on either upper or lower sets of teeth, or both, depending on the problem they are being used to treat.
“This runs contrary to the widespread belief among dentists that orthodontic treatment improves psychological well-being, for which there is very little evidence,” study co-author Dr. William C. Shaw, an orthodontist at the University Dental Hospital of Manchester, England, said in a statement.
He and his colleagues report their findings in the British Journal of Health Psychology.