A Better Bite for Father

DENTISTRY

The kid with a mouthful of hardware to align his teeth and make his jaws close neatly together has become a familiar sight during the past 30 years. Now so many adults are going in for tooth straightening that the American Association of Orthodontists estimated last week that about one-fifth of its members' patients are grownups.

Many adult candidates for orthodontics are young married women who decide that the work will greatly improve their looks. Others are people aged 40 to 60 who should have had it done as children, when it was not available or their parents could not afford it. In the vast majority, the damage caused by a bad bite increases over the years, and adults must have the job done lest they lose all their teeth prematurely or suffer serious disease of the jawbones.

"Whenever possible," says Orthodontist Dwight A. Jackson of Winston-Salem, N.C., "we pick inconspicuous appliances for the adult. But we can't let the factor of appearance handicap the work. Fortunately, there are some procedures that need only inconspicuous appliances, and some mouths that respond to appliances worn only at night."

Children usually find orthodontics* easier than do adults, as their growing bones are more malleable. What many adults suffer from is the tendency of teeth to shift after a few have been removed because of decay. The shift changes the bite, and this in turn may lead to erosion of bone as far back as the hinge of the jaw. Just as damaging in the long run, is the weakening of the gums that results from a bad bite. Far more adult teeth are lost to gum and bone disease than to decay, dentists say.

*Formerly often called orthodontia--until orthodontists decided to straighten the name of their own specialty to match obstetrics, pediatrics, geriatrics, etc.

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