We all like clear skies, clear water, and clear coast so why not clear braces? Fine for some, but not for Blue/Orange gator fans or Garnet/Gold nole fanatics. How bout Carolina Blue, “Dook” Dark Blue, Green Devil Green, Black for Goths, and Pink for chest issues? Had I listened to my 5-year-old daughter in 1970 who wanted Purple braces I would be a wealthy orthodontist, but I missed out on that old adage “find out what they want and give it to them”. Like the old Model T Fords, you could have any color so long as it was Black. Cars were just Black, tennis outfits were White and braces were Silver “and God saw that it was good”. But that was back then before color activists cried for equal rights for every hue. I’d be out of business if I didn’t offer colored braces to discriminating pre-adolescents and teens. So its clear we need color to accessorize our personality and it appears we also need something invisible because we all like to hide things – even ourselves at times (“and Adam and his wife his themselves from the presence of the Lord”).
So it’s also clear that we’ve got to hide braces in one of three ways.
- Hide them on the inside of teeth, which is difficult and expensive and requires high tech digital imaging and robots to pre-make all the very nice equipment.
- Camouflage the braces on the outside with clear glass brackets instead of traditional metal.
- Use the properties of clear plastic trays to push teeth into position instead of pulling them into position with fixed appliances.
So whether you want to be pushed or pulled with clear or color to achieve a beautiful smile – come see us to help you decide.
John B. Harrison DDS,MSc
