Summer has finally arrived. Warm weather, vacations, and time with family and friends is here — and so is showing off your uneven, misaligned smile to everyone. And that means people will judge you.

People should be better than that. They should get past the way you look, the clothes you wear, and so on. Instead, they should focus on your personality and who you really are. In the real world, it’s not that simple. We tend to react better to people who look good, and react less positively to people who look bad. When your smile is full of gaps and crooked teeth, people will be less likely to want to speak with you or get to know you. Summer will just make this worse.

Summer Is For Great Smiles, Not Bad Ones

Over the summer, you are going to have lots of opportunities to showcase your smile, good or bad.

  • Backyard barbeques: Summer is the time to light up the grill, put some ice and drinks in the cooler, and hang out with family and friends. Casual parties like this happen all the time in the summer months. If you have a smile full of crooked teeth and unsightly gaps, that’s what you’ll be showing people when you eat, talk, and smile. Unless you plan to be a wallflower for every barbeque, people you love are going to see your ugly smile.
  • Company picnics: While not every business has a literal picnic in the summer anymore, there is usually some kind of official outing; a place and time to meet up, get to know everyone at work a little better, and have some fun. But company picnics are also a time to network, build working relationships, and show people who you are. You could be meeting supervisors that barely know you. These bosses could help you get raises and promotions. The way you look can impact that. If you showed up for the company picnic with a mouth full of crooked teeth, that’s what they will remember. How do you think that will affect your chances at that promotion?
  • Family reunions: Sure, people often gather with relatives in November and December around the big holidays. But many families will have a reunion at the lake or someone’s house with a big backyard in the summer. It’s a great time to see uncles, aunts, cousins, and nieces that you rarely get to see. If you’re seeing them, they see you. That means they will see your ugly smile and wonder what happened to your teeth.
  • Vacation photos: People often take trips during the summer months. You might head to a big city, hoping to take in some museums and landmarks. Or you might head to the countryside and enjoy nature and some hiking. You might even head out of the country, visiting Europe for the first time. Can you imagine posing near the Eiffel Tower and showing an uneven, weird-looking smile? Or are you going to be tight-lipped in every photo?
  • Weddings: Whether you’re talking your own kids getting married, your nieces and nephews tying the knot, or even you and your spouse renewing your vows, summer is the time for weddings. You wouldn’t wear a dirty T-shirt and jeans to a wedding, so why would you show up with a horrible smile? Unless you plan to frown the whole time, people are going to see your crooked teeth. You’ll stand out from the wedding crowd, and not in a good way.

Why Do I Even Need Braces? I Had Them Already!

Most adults had orthodontics when they were a teen. What happened? How did your smile go from being as close to perfect as you can get to being something to worry about all summer long?

Your teeth never stay perfectly still. Sure, the braces you had decades ago moved teeth to where they should be. However, you have used your teeth a lot since then. Decades of eating, drinking, occasionally grinding your teeth, pushing against them with your tongue, and more will make small changes to your teeth. They will slowly move out of alignment. That’s not counting any accidents or injuries along the way.

People are living longer than ever. That’s a great thing, but it does come with consequences. One of those is having teeth get crooked. When your smile looks bad, the summer is going to be harder to deal with. If you’re worried about getting orthodontic treatments again, Orthodontic Alliances in northwest Indiana can help. Our Invisalign clear plastic aligners do the same job as braces. When worn, they are almost impossible to see. That means you can start working on fixing your smile and still look normal in all of those summer photos.

If you are ready to look your best, call us at 219-809-6584. We have three locations in northwest Indiana to serve you, and you can make an online appointment at any one of them by filling out our one-size-fits-all questionnaire.