Treatments & Appliances

9 min read  •  By Dr. Kevin Baharvand, Diplomate, American Board of Orthodontics

More adults start treatment here than most people would guess. Roughly one in three of our new patients is an adult. Some are fixing a bite problem they have had since childhood and finally have the time and money to deal with. Some are getting ready for a wedding or a career change. A fair number had braces as teenagers, stopped wearing the retainer at some point in college, and watched their front teeth drift back over twenty years.

The questions adults ask are different from the ones teenagers ask, which is why this page exists separately from the traditional braces page and the Frisco location page. Teenagers want to know about colors. Adults want to know what it costs, how long it takes, and whether anyone at work will notice.

What is clinically different about treating adults

Your jaws have finished growing. That one fact changes three things, and most patients never get them explained before starting.

Teeth move more deliberately in denser bone

Bone density increases with age, so tooth movement is slower and requires different force levels. This is predictable, not a complication. Adult treatment is rarely dramatically longer than teen treatment for a comparable case, but it is not faster either. If someone quotes you a very short timeline for a complex adult case, ask them to explain how.

Braces cannot move jaws anymore

In a growing child we can guide how the jaws develop. In an adult we cannot. If your upper and lower jaws sit in genuinely different places, braces can camouflage that by tipping teeth to compensate, and for mild discrepancies that works well. For large ones it does not, and the honest answer is orthognathic surgery coordinated with an oral surgeon. I would rather tell you that at the consultation than eighteen months in.

Gum health is the gate, not age

Moving teeth through bone that is already losing attachment makes things worse. If there is active periodontal disease, that gets treated first and we start once it is stable. This is the actual limiting factor in adult orthodontics. Age by itself is not.

Your options, and how I actually choose between them

Four realistic paths for adults: metal braces, clear ceramic braces, and clear aligners, which for us means either Invisalign or Angel Aligners. Most people say Invisalign generically, but that is one brand of clear aligner among several.

Here is the part that surprises people. I do not think aligners are better than braces. They are different. Aligners win on appearance and on being able to take them out for a work dinner. Braces are typically more predictable for bite correction, rotating stubborn teeth, and closing larger spaces, because the force is on the tooth all day whether you cooperate or not. A fair number of our adult patients in professional roles pick metal braces once they realize the workplace reaction they were dreading mostly does not happen.

How long adult treatment takes

Any practice that hands you a firm timeline before examining your bite and looking at records is guessing. Ranges are honest. Promises are marketing.

What it costs in Frisco

Across the Frisco market, adult metal braces generally run about $3,500 to $6,000, and clear ceramic braces and aligners generally run about $4,000 to $6,500. Most practices charge a premium for aligners.

We price on case complexity instead of on which appliance you pick, so aligners cost the same as metal braces here. I did it that way because I did not want the appliance conversation to be a money conversation. You should choose based on what actually suits your case and your life.

Adult orthodontic coverage exists, but it varies more than any other part of dental insurance. Employer plans through Delta Dental, Cigna, Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and United Healthcare often include an orthodontic lifetime maximum somewhere around $1,000 to $2,500 that applies at any age, frequently paying 50% up to that cap. Whether adults are included at all comes down to your specific plan document, not the carrier.

Call the number on your card and ask two specific questions: does this plan cover orthodontic treatment for adults, and what is the lifetime orthodontic maximum. Those two answers tell you almost everything. We verify benefits before your consultation so you are not guessing.

Approval requires documentation of severe medical necessity. I would not plan around it.

Health savings and flexible spending accounts are the underused option. Orthodontic treatment is an eligible expense, and paying with pre-tax dollars is effectively a discount equal to your tax rate. If you have an FSA with a use-it-or-lose-it deadline, timing your start date around it is worth a conversation.

Crowns, implants, and gum health

This is the part that genuinely separates adult cases from teenage ones. By forty, most people have some dental work, and every piece of it affects the plan.

Crowns and veneers can be bracketed, though the bond to porcelain is less reliable than to enamel and we use a different adhesive. Expect a bracket on a crown to come loose more often. Implants are the bigger constraint. An implant is fused to the bone and simply will not move, so it becomes a fixed anchor point that the entire case has to be designed around. Sometimes that is useful. Sometimes it means a compromise. Either way I need to know about it before we plan anything.

Missing teeth, old bridges, and worn-down edges all matter too. If you are planning restorative work anyway, the sequence matters, and it is usually better to straighten first and restore afterward so your dentist is working with teeth in their final positions.

Frequently asked questions

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