FIXING YOU SMILE

(Portland) Oregonian

(c) 1996 The Oregonian. All rts. reserv.

06852121 FIXING YOU SMILE Oregonian (PO) - THURSDAY, December 
17, 1992 By: ERIN HOOVER SCHRAW - Special Writer, The Oregonian 
Edition: FOURTH  Section: LIVING  FAMILY LIFE  Page: B01 Word Count: 
575

TEXT: The  new  braces  have  become  fashion  statements;  at least one 
kid says they're  like  having  "diamonds  in  your  mouth."  oodbye, 
Railroad Face. Getting  braces  no  longer  looks like you opened a 
hardware store in your mouth.

  And getting kids to wear braces is no longer like, well, pulling teeth.

   Until the 1980s, braces were made of three main parts: A stainless steel 
band  went  around  each  tooth  like  a ring. These bands each held little 
brackets. A wire was strung through the brackets, providing the pressure to 
pull teeth into line.

  The  result  was a mouthful of metal. Which is pretty hard to take for 24 to 
 36 months.

  Fortunately,  these  days  those  bulky  bands  have  been replaced by an 
adhesive that bonds the brackets directly to teeth. With the brackets about 
the size of an unpopped popcorn kernel, you barely notice them.

  You  can  even  get  transparent  brackets. But the wire is usually still 
stainless  steel,  says  Portland  orthodontist  Henry  Dennis, who doesn't 
recommend  the  plastic braces for kids. (They're harder than the stainless 
steel to keep clean.)

  A  funny  happened on the way to making braces less noticeable: 
Suddenly, they became cool.

  "Now the fashion is to have braces and show them off," Dennis says.

  Ashaki  Johnson,  16,  says  she  likes how the little brackets catch the 
light  and shine like jewels.

  "It  looks  like you have diamonds in your mouth," says Ashaki, a student 
at Evergreen High School in Vancouver, Wash.
  The  old kind of braces, she says, "used to be really big and bulky. They 
were very ugly."

  To really make a statement, kids use colored elastics to hold the wire in 
place. Every time they get their braces tightened, they get a new color.

  Red,  yellow,  purple, even fluorescent green -- it's a sign of the times for 
many teens. "They show up," explains Maria Tran, a senior at Grant High 
School in Portland, about why she chose blue.

  Combinations  of  wild  colors also brighten up the head gear some people 
must wear to help the braces do their work.

  The  multicolors  are  also used on the plastic mouthpiece of traditional 
retainers, worn for two years to make sure your teeth stay put. Or, you can 
have a small picture of someone encased in the plastic. Ashaki plans to 
use a  picture of her dog, Shasta.

  The  newest  retainers  on the market are actually a plastic mold of your 
teeth  that  you  snap on over your real teeth to keep them in place. These 
retainers  have to be worn only at night, but so far, they haven't come out in 
 colors.
  Despite  all  that's  new  in braces, however, one thing has not changed: 
Getting braces still can hurt.

  Though  gluing the braces to your teeth rather than using the bands hurts 
less, tightening the wire remains unpleasant.

  Maria's  sister, Mary Tran, 15, says it hurt for about two weeks when she 
had them put on, but only for a day each time she got them tightened.

  "I  complained  a lot," recalls Mary. "I let everybody know that I was in 
pain."

  But when she got the braces off last summer, Mary knew it was worth it.

  "I  had  a  really  bad underbite before and it looked really gross," she 
says. "I like it more now because it's nice and straight."

CAPTION: PHOTO,GRAPH

   2 Color photos by DANA E. OLSEN - of The Oregonian staff.
   Grapics -- Graph/BRACES 7 THE BUDGET.

   Graphics -- Graph/PICKING A STRAIGHTENER.

                Copyright (c) 1992, The Oregonian Publishing Company