Recently, a famous saying, “orthodontic treatments are like plastic surgeries”, has gone wild on the Internet. There are many examples of celebrities who have experienced a surge in appearance after orthodontic treatments. With that, many have started to seek for the perfect treatments to make themselves look better, but obviously, some remain doubtful with it.

So, here comes our main concern today: Is the saying, “orthodontic treatments are like plastic surgeries” true? 

Let's have a look at our examples.

Angelina Jolie, a Hollywood actress, has the sexiest lips in the world. But, in fact, she had used to be suffering from anterior crossbite when she was young. Soon after, she decided to change the shape of her chin by undergoing an orthodontic treatment. That was the reason why she ended up with the most confident and perfect smile today.

We believe that everyone in this world likes the smile of Yui Aragaki. However, even though Gakki-chan possess the warmest smile now, she was actually troubled by her gummy smile when she had just debuted. After undergoing her orthodontic treatments, she finally gains the bright smile she has today. 

Yang Mi, a Chinese actress and singer, has changed the shape of her face from a square face shape to a heart shaped. Not to mention that her chin has looked more exquisite now compared to when she was in the past. The change of her face shape is so drastic that rumours have been saying that she has undergoing plastic surgeries, but truthfully, those were the results of tooth extraction and orthodontic treatments.

Jolin Tsai and Angelababy are the more symbolic examples for this topic. Other than undergoing orthodontic treatments, they had the experience of chin augmentation surgeries, which then lead to drastic changes of their appearances in the later stages. That was the reason why netizens have been arguing that these celebrities have had plastic surgeries over the recent years. 

After going through the examples, we can confirm that orthodontic treatments can somehow achieve similar effects as plastic surgeries. 

But the thing is, why will orthodontics bring such a huge change in one’s appearance? 

Dr. Tai Yi, a holder of a dental master’s degree in Wuhan University, mentioned that there are a myriad of deep facial muscles and muscles of facial expression in our craniofacial. These muscles are responsible for the outlines and curvatures of our faces. 

Meanwhile, orthodontic treatments are able to make adjustment to different parts of our oral cavities, including the position of the midline, the alignment between dental arches and teeth, the alignment of teeth, dental occlusion, and the others. Therefore, those treatments manage to improve our face shapes indirectly through adjusting the positions and alignments of our teeth. Some of the major changes we can observe are the shapes of jaws, noses, smile lines, etc.

Of course, the effects of orthodontics vary in different ages. Hence, if you look closer to the examples above, you’ll find that their age gaps before and after orthodontic treatments are quite large. That is why we emphasize the importance of undergoing an orthodontic treatment when we are young. After all, the skull and facial shapes of teenagers will show more significant effects in the onset of puberty under the influences of orthodontic treatments. 

In comparison with the teenagers, the bones of adults are harder to be adjusted. However, in specific cases, we can still move the surrounding bones of our oral cavities through certain orthodontic treatments.

As conclusion, orthodontic treatments are able to improve our appearance up to certain degrees. But then, there is one thing that we have to keep in mind – there is a difference between every individual’s oral situation, which is why they will experience different levels of changes after orthodontic treatments. In the end, we still have to refer to our dentists to find out the most suitable treatment plan for our conditions. 

Author:

Tay Cheng Ean