Am I too old for braces?

At Tagawa & Curtis Orthodontics, nobody is “too old” for orthodontic treatment! And, with Invisalign and Damon Clear braces, you can achieve your fabulous new smile with "clear" alternatives to metal braces.

We read a fascinating statistic recently that you might be interested in. Adults undergoing orthodontic treatment has actually jumped 24 percent in the last 14 years! Of course, orthodontics helps to make your teeth aligned, healthy and strong, but there may be another reason for the increase. People want to look and feel great and with the "clear" options that are available, adults are choosing to invest in orthodontics.

Orthodontic treatment with Drs. Tagawa and Curtis can be successful at any age. In fact, our oldest patient started treatment at age 84! So, if you’ve been thinking about getting that perfect smile, we would love to have you visit for a complimentary consultation. Please give us a call at (714) 990-5414! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at Tagawa & Curtis Orthodontics!

Why We Need Orthodontists

The Week, December 9, 2011

Mankind's embrace of agriculture may be the reason so many of us have poorly aligned teeth. Anthropologist Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel, at the U.K.'s University of Kent, analyzed human skulls from 11 cultures around the world. Those that belonged to farm-fed societies, she found, had short jaws filled with crowded, overlapping teeth, whereas members of groups that hunted and foraged had longer roomier mandibles. The difference, she says, is diet, not genetics. "Presumably, the children growing up in these different situations have different chewing behavior," Van Cramon-Taubadel tells DiscoveryNews.com. People living in agricultural societies are more likely to eat starchy, cooked meals of rice, corn, and bread that require only light chewing -- and previous studies have shown that jawbones grow shorter when they lack exercise. Hunter-gatherers are more likely to consume a chewier diet of wild game, nuts, and raw vegetables, and thus give their jaws more of a workout every day. "Our behavior can have such a dramatic effect on our biology," Von Cramon-Taubadel says. Children who chew tougher foods, she says, tend to have straighter teeth when they grow up.