Dental braces no tool to boost self-esteem - Study

A new UK study has reported that wearing braces for correcting tooth problems in the childhood do not help in boosting the mental well being or the over all self-esteem in the later life.

According to an online edition BBC, around thousands of children worldwide go for orthodontics to correct their teeth alignment or crooked teeth through braces as there is widespread belief in the dental profession that braces help in improving self-esteem and psychological well-being.

The researchers of the study at the end found that there is little positive impact on the future psychological health due to orthodontic treatment.

Bill Shaw and researchers at the University of Manchester studied around 1,000 Welsh school children from 1981, when they were 10 or 11 years old to 2001, when they were in their 30s.

It was found that the people who had opted for orthodontic treatment had good teeth and were contented with it but it doesn’t mean they had better emotional health or much higher self-esteem than the children who didn’t opted for the treatment.

The same team has published previous research and found that not having orthodontic work done as a child did not have an adverse effect on future dental health.

The study has been published in the British Journal of Health Psychology.