It’s always a good time of year to get braces, but summer is an especially ideal time for teens to begin this life-changing treatment. Tweens and teenagers are in that great place between childhood and adulthood, when there is room to make major transitions both physically and mentally without much interruption to the rest of their lives. Starting teen braces in summer makes the entire process easier to accept and manage.
1. Room to Start the Process
When teens are out of school, they just want to chill. Of course, there are also summer jobs, volunteer activities, sports, camps, and family vacations but, compared to school every day all day, summer is easy. There is room to fit in that first visit to the orthodontist for the application of teen braces. One to two visits to the orthodontist for checkups and adjustments will follow in the summer timeline before school starts again. From there, you and your teen will know what to expect at every appointment.
2. Adjust on Your Own Time
Instead of going to the orthodontist one day and heading back to school the next day with teen braces, teenagers who get their braces in summer can take time to truly adjust to the change. They don’t have to worry about managing pain, discomfort, and this new look while dealing with peers, classes, homework, and extracurricular activities.
There is time to adjust to a good cleaning routine during summer and time to figure out the ins and outs of being a wearer of braces. By the time a new school year begins, braces will be old hat and brushing, eating, and smiling will all be so easy.
3. Manage Food Restrictions
For the kids who wear Invisalign Teen, there are no food restrictions. Simply remove the aligners and enjoy whatever meal or snack you like if your sensitive teeth can handle it. For the patients with traditional brackets and wires, the disruptions to diet may take some getting used to. Crunchy, sticky, and chewy foods like apples, nuts, jerky, fruit snacks, and especially gum are off-limits as any of these types of foods can damage hardware.
For teens, giving up their food favorites is an adjustment, but making the change during the summer means there is room to find new foods to love. Experimenting with other foodstuffs allows for easier packing of lunches and after school snacks come fall, even if that means more ice cream, pasta, cheese, yogurt, bananas, and soft meats and vegetables.
4. Enjoy Distractions
Some kids adjust well to teen braces and others need a little more help to usher in this new part of their daily life. Summer offers up plenty of distractions, sweetness, sun, and fun to take a teenager’s mind off their new braces. They won’t be sitting in class focused on how much their mouth hurts or feeling embarrassed about smiling at their crush, they can simply settle into their favorite summer activities that take their mind off the tough stuff.
Schedule a consultation with Dr. Roberts or de Marsche at Lawrenceville Orthodontics in Lawrenceville, NJ, to find out if your child needs teen braces. Get the journey started before summer arrives.