BRAVE NEW BRACES Philadelphia Inquirer (c) 1996 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. All rts. reserv. 03058070 BRAVE NEW BRACES PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER (PI) - SUNDAY October 27, 1985 By: Patricia McLaughlin Edition: FINAL Section: FEATURES INQUIRER MAGAZINE Page: 43 Word Count: 723 MEMO: LIFE/STYLE TEXT: BARBARA KAPLAN grew up with dazzlingly white, perfectly straight teeth. They were striking, something people noticed and remembered about her. She was "that girl with the beautiful teeth" - until somewhere in her early 30s, when she noticed that her once-straight teeth were beginning to shift a little. A couple of months ago, her 13-year-old daughter, Elissa, had her braces taken off, just for a week, for her bat mitzvah. Elissa's straightened teeth "looked so beautiful, it kind of gave me the urge," Barbara Kaplan remembers. Then, when the bat mitzvah photos came back, she could see how crooked one of her teeth looked and how their whiteness only made it more obvious. Thus, at 38, Barbara Kaplan made her first appointment with an orthodontist and quickly became, according to American Dental Association statistics, one of close to a million American adults who have braces on their teeth. The ADA estimates that 4.4 million people - a total that has doubled since 1971 - are being treated by orthodontists and that 20 percent of them, a higher percentage than ever, are adults. Reasons for the upsurge cited by an ADA spokesman range from economics (100 million Americans now have dental insurance, which puts orthodontic care within reach of more people) to technology (the use of clear or tooth-colored plastics in place of metal, and the development of braces that attach to the backs of the teeth, can make treatment less obvious) to the lifting of the stigma that used to attach to braces. Apparently, wearers of braces no longer have to endure schoolyard taunts ("Metal Mouth! Tinsel Teeth! Yah-yah, yah-yah-yah!") and aren't even afraid to smile. The ADA's Rick Asa sees the proliferation of braces as part of a broader national self-improvement movement; he says wearers of braces now find "a high degree of acceptance and support - it's viewed like jogging or dieting to lose weight." Even so, having your teeth straightened is still no picnic. "The medicine an orthodontist uses is force," says James Ackerman, DDS, former chairman of orthodontics at Penn's Dental School. Ackerman, who is Barbara and Elissa Kaplan's orthodontist, says attaching braces doesn't hurt the way it used to. "Now, you just glue the stuff on; there's no more hammering and pounding on the patient." But the next day, when your teeth feel themselves being pulled in directions they have no real desire to move in, you can hardly fail to experience some discomfort. Pain aside, orthodontic treatment puts adults at risk of periodontal disease. You have to work "very carefully with a periodontist to make sure the gums aren't being totally mucked up," Ackerman says. Adult teeth are also natural recidivists. Braces can make them go straight, but, take the braces off, and the teeth can't wait to go back to a life of crookedness. Even though the crookedness of her teeth was relatively minor, and will be corrected by only four months in braces, Barbara Kaplan, like many adult patients, will have to wear a retainer at night for the rest of her life to guard against relapse. She doesn't mind, and that's typical. Ackerman says that one of the rewards of working on adults is the excitement they feel about the results - whether they're people like Mrs. Kaplan who "come in for a little body and fender work" or people with severe jaw deformities that require surgery as well as braces. The only people who resist braces, he says, are young adults who are trying to establish themselves in careers. Says Ackerman, "An attorney who's made a name for himself is no longer afraid to go into a courtroom in braces. But younger people are afraid they'll look like teenagers. They'll say, 'What will my clients think? How can they take me seriously?' " This didn't worry Barbara Kaplan. A month ago, she visited Elissa at camp where, she found, "everybody has braces." Indeed, the kids in Elissa's bunk laughed every time she opened her mouth: the incongruity of it! A mother who looked like a kid! They even showed her how to chew bubble gum without getting it messed up in her braces. It isn't only kids, either. "My friends say it makes me look younger," she admits, sounding as if she doesn't mind a bit. CAPTION: PHOTO (1), 1. Barbara Kaplan and her daughter, Elissa. (PHOTOGRAPHY BY CLEM MURRAY)