Happy New Year - Swords Ortho wishes you a year with plenty to smile about!

The other day I wrote about when’s the best age to wear braces. It’s a long answer to a short question.

There’s also a shorter answer.

The best age to wear braces is a combination of when you get the most effective treatment and you want that treatment enough to make it effective.

• Most of the time I get parents that want their child to have the treatment that’s best for them and the child doesn’t mind wearing braces
• Some braces work best when patients are growing at their fastest rate
• Sometimes the parents and the child know they want braces but they’re not ready …

A while ago I was talking about IOTN — the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need — and I thought I’d go a little bit deeper into the topic today.

And that means we need to go back in time

Sweden, 1974

Saab stopped producing the Draken fighter aircraft, around about the time that it became the first Airfix model I built.

Sweden was also in the middle of changing its constitution. The new arrangements would make the role of recently crowned King Carl XVI Gustav even more ceremonial — so no invading Denmark unless it goes to a vote. 

Olof Palme was Prime Minister. Twelve …

It’s a pretty classic question, fairly obvious to ask so I usually explain it before a patient asks me…. but after I know what sort of treatment they need.

It’s a bit glib, but it depends. I think readers might be looking for more than that, and patients certainly need to know more than that, so I thought I’d go into it with a bit more detail. How long treatment takes will depend on a few different things and some of them are more predictable than others.

Firstly, there are different types of treatment for different problems so depending on what’s wrong with the teeth …