Braces are no longer the nerdy piece of teenage ephemera everyone tries to avoid. Thanks to myriad dental innovations, braces have become the beauty treatment adult women are clambering for. Hattie Crisell goes in search of the perfect smile...

These days, for every physical flaw, there’s a procedure to fix it – or to put it another way, the arrival of each new procedure makes you aware of another flaw. In recent years, with a particular treatment being mentioned increasingly frequently, something has come jarringly to my attention: my goofy, wonky front teeth.

We are living in the era of adult braces. According to WhatClinic.com, the number of Brits getting adult braces has risen by 46% in the last year. Currently, two of my closest friends have braces, and others are considering it. The designer Henry Holland tweets about his braces on a regular basis. Once an oddity among anyone who’d left their teens, this treatment is now positively popular with the 30-something crowd – and older.

"The dramatic rise in the popularity of braces is largely due to the fact that they’ve become much more discreet"

‘There’s no longer a stigma attached to wanting to improve yourself,’ says specialist orthodontist Dr Chaw Su Kyi. ‘In the past, you’d be more likely to get veneers, and then you’d always have to destroy a bit of enamel. Now you can keep your healthy teeth.’

The dramatic rise in the popularity of braces is largely due to the fact that they’ve become much more discreet. If you opt for train tracks, you can now get a clear version that’s less noticeable; alternatively, you might have ‘lingual’ braces, which are hidden on the inside of your teeth. Another option would be something like Invisalign, which really is almost invisible – a transparent frame that fits over your teeth, holding them in place.

Celebrities have always embraced dental work – Gwen Stefani, Tom Cruise and Faye Dunaway are among those who have been pictured with train tracks – but now famous people can keep their braces a secret. Cosmetic dentist Dr Uchenna Okoye has many high-profile patients. ‘There are so many people on the red carpet at the moment wearing braces,’ she confirms. ‘10 years ago they would all have had veneers – because if I told an adult they were going to look like Ugly Betty, they’d say ‘You must be mad.’’

Today, the reluctance has gone. Lauren Stevenson, head of PR and Communications at Harrods, is evangelical about her experience. Like many of the adults who are now fixing their smiles, she had braces as a child but didn’t wear her retainers afterwards – so her teeth slipped out of line. When she was 31 she went to Glow Dental and was fitted with Clearstep braces, which are similar to the better-known Invisalign: she had a mould made of her teeth, then used a series of clear aligners to gradually move them over the course of two years. 

She describes herself as ‘really, really happy’ with the result. ‘It’s so clever what they can do. Since I had mine done, about six of my friends have had braces, of various different types – they’re all so pleased with it.’

This gives me hope for my own teeth, which are slightly overcrowded and protrude at the front. I’ve started to notice that photos taken from a side angle make me look like a braying donkey. Inspired by Lauren’s enthusiasm, I book an appointment with Dr Kyi at the West London Centre of Orthodontics.

On arrival, I find myself in the uncomfortable position of having to describe what I dislike. There’s something so intimate about the way we feel about our teeth, and in the dentist’s chair, talking about my insecurities, I feel like I’m on a therapist’s couch. Dr Kyi’s manner is gentle and sympathetic.

She examines me, then suggests two possible courses of treatment. She could use braces to straighten my teeth so that they all line up neatly, she says, but this wouldn’t change the horsey slope at the front. In order to push my front teeth back into a vertical position, she’d need to create space at the back by removing four of my teeth, two at the top and two at the bottom. This is a shock, and I know immediately that I’m not willing to sacrifice healthy molars for a cosmetic improvement; Dr Kyi agrees that under the circumstances, it’s probably not warranted. 

I decide to visit Dr Okoye’s clinic, London Smiling, for a second opinion. She examines me and takes some mortifying close-up photos of my teeth; we look at them together while I quietly cringe. Dr Okoye is someone who will give you the frank opinion you need, but in the warm tone of a friend. She points out that my smile includes ‘negative space’ at the sides, where you can’t see my molars – whereas someone like Cheryl Cole or Halle Berry has a much wider, fuller smile.

In contrast to the previous advice, Dr Okoye suggests braces on the top and bottom, arguing that they would tip my molars outwards to give a wider smile, and expand the gaps between my teeth so that the orthodontist could then shift back the goofy ones at the front. She recommends lingual braces for the best and fastest result. I’m relieved that there is no talk of extraction.

Then we get to the most painful part: the cost. Dr Kyi’s clinic quoted me between £3,500 and £9,000 (traditional train tracks are cheapest, lingual braces are the most expensive, and Invisalign fall somewhere in the middle). Dr Okoye gives me an estimate of between £5,000 and £10,000. ‘But the majority of people – even my celebs – tend to take out payment plans,’ she adds. ‘It’s like buying a car or a kitchen, but a much better investment because you use it constantly.

The problem is, I can’t currently afford a car or a kitchen. In the close-up, brightly lit photos Dr Okoye shows me, my teeth look like a horror show: yellowing and pointing in twelve different directions at once. But at a reasonable distance, they’re not so terrible. When I smile at people, they smile back. If they recoiled with a scream of ‘Witch!’, I might feel more motivated to pay for a car’s worth of dental treatment.

I ask Lauren whether there were any drawbacks about her own treatment. All she can think of is the travel time. ‘Going back and forth to the dentist can be frustrating,’ she says. ‘You have to be quite committed. But apart from that, it’s the easiest process – and so beneficial, because the first thing you see about someone is their teeth.’

She’s right, of course. And as more and more of us fix our teeth, the definition of ‘a good smile’ shifts; 30 years ago we all had the wonky, character-actor smiles that Brits are famous for, and we were fine with it. Today, no one wants to be the only person in the room with a grin like Austin Powers.

The thing is, I’m vain. And as I age, my teeth – and yours, probably – are only going to move further out of line. ‘In beauty, you talk about everything going south as people get older – in dentistry, the equivalent is crowding,’ explains Dr Okoye. ‘The collagen unravels, so the movement gets worse.’ After braces, most people are given a fixed retainer to hold their teeth in place.

So when I next find myself with enough money for a major purchase, the voice of vanity might tell me that £10,000 is reasonable for a perfect smile that I can wear every day. ‘If you were my sister, I’d tell you to do it,’ says Dr Okoye. ‘You’ll say it’s the best money you’ve ever spent – everyone says that.’ I’m still undecided, but as each of my friends gradually transforms into a living advertisement for braces, the temptation is getting more and more irresistible.

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