Braces and Faces offers dental treatments for adults and children
In collaboration with Braces and Faces
Once an industrial district, today Wong Chuk Hang is a thriving neighbourhood where a multitude of innovative businesses and residences have chosen to settle. Just two MTR stops away from Admiralty, away from the nonstop bustle of Central, you’ll find everything from art galleries and boutique hotels to trendy cafés and towering commercial buildings here. Braces and Faces, a Hong Kong-founded dental and orthodontic practice, is one such business that calls Wong Chuk Hang its home.
In early March, we are given the chance to tour around the dental clinic. Founded by Dr Derek Baram, Braces and Faces focuses on preventative, customised and aesthetic treatments for adults and children. Dr Baram ushers us into the pristine white practice, showing us around the different treatment areas as he tells us about his background.
“I was born and brought up in Hong Kong, so I’m very much a proud Hongkonger,” he begins. “I studied dentistry at the University of Hong Kong and attained a scholarship with Tufts University in Boston during that time. Then, I embarked on my specialist studies in orthodontics at University College London and continued on my specialist pathway in orthodontics, returning once again to the University of Hong Kong.”
With clean white walls accented by black frames, Braces and Faces is designed tastefully, with a sterile yet welcoming ambience to its interiors. The front desk is connected to a kids playroom, where parents can drop off their little ones whilst they get treated. We are led across the stylishly illuminated corridors and into the multiple surgery rooms, all of which pay regard to the overall black and white design theme.
“Braces and Faces is a dental practice that focuses on dental and orthodontic treatment that impacts the smile and face. Much of what we do in dentistry, whether it be orthodontics or restorative dentistry, can have a huge impact on our lip and jaw positions. The name Braces and Faces pays homage to this and reminds us of the impact we have beyond teeth.”
Having been practising since 2005 as the managing director of Braces and Faces and Central Smile (another dental clinic located in Central), Dr Baram is knowledgeable and soft-spoken. His passion radiates off of him as he continues to tell us about his work.
“I feel the perception of how oral health impacts general health is grossly underestimated,” he says when asked about the connection between dentistry and general health. “The mouth is the main gateway into our body. Chewing has a direct impact on our digestive system and every day we swallow around 100 billion microbes into our gut!” He explains that it is important to have oral bacteria that supports oral and general health, both in quantity and quality.
At Braces and Faces, Dr Baram and his professional team of dentists, hygienists and specialists cover orthodontics, cosmetic dentistry, dental implants, periodontal treatment, root canal treatment, dental cleaning and more. When it comes to oral health, Dr Baram suggests most children start their orthodontic treatment around 12 years of age, when they have lost all their baby teeth. Around the world, in fact, children have been starting treatment at an earlier age – as early as seven years.
“At seven years and above, we recommend children have their first orthodontic consultation to ascertain whether there are jaw, bite, habit and breathing issues that may benefit from early orthodontic treatment to create a better foundation for the adult teeth and jaws to develop.”
At this point, Dr Baram sits us down near the front desk to prepare us for the information he is about to deliver. We peer at the hygiene counter close by, where a hygienist is showing a young child how to brush their teeth.
“As an example, children who have narrow upper jaws can develop severe crowding, present with crossbites and are more likely to breathe through their mouths, which can have a whole range of deleterious effects like dry mouth encouraging cavities from the lack of saliva protection, teeth misalignment, crossbites, open bites, protruded upper incisors and unfavourable jaw growth,” the dentist says. “Often in these cases, expanding the upper jaw will have lasting benefits for the child and avoid or reduce the complexity of orthodontic treatment later.”
Apart from treating children, Dr Baram also sees a lot of adult patients. A lot of them are adults looking to get braces to treat crowding, retracting incisors, open bites, or even simpler cases such as minor relapse after previous orthodontic treatment or lower incisor shift due to ageing or wisdom teeth.
For these adults, Braces and Faces has a few options on top of traditional braces. The first is Invisalign, which are clear plastic aligners worn 20 to 22 hours a day and changed once a week to sequentially straighten the teeth millimetres at a time. Invisalign is popular at the clinic as it offers discreteness, comfort, convenience when eating and better oral hygiene as the patient can take them one to brush their teeth and floss. The practice also offers Suresmile Aligners and recommends this US-based brand for simpler cases.
Another popular alternative of traditional braces with adult patients is lingual (behind the teeth) braces. Dr Baram explains that some opt for these as they find aligners cumbersome to wear or, in more challenging cases, they have to deal with extraction or a deep bite.
“Lingual braces are really cool because we use tiny Japanese brackets and order custom robotically bent wires from the US to get the accuracy and efficiency. Patients who have used both aligners and lingual braces often comment on how much they prefer the lingual braces,” says the dentist excitedly. “There was a stigma about lingual braces being really sore or causing a lisp, but these issues are less common and the digital technology used to plan and manufacture the lingual treatment has moved on tremendously.”
As we round up our interview, we can’t help but notice the thank you cards tacked onto the walls of the clinics. Dr Baram, who notices us looking, says: “My most memorable moment running Braces and Faces is always receiving a thank you card or a hug from a patient – that can go beyond any accolade or reward. After all, we truly strive to provide the best we can for our patients and it’s so special when we get recognised for it.”
Looking forward, Dr Baram wants to continue to lead his team at Braces and Faces to serve its patients well and maintain a happy work environment. “And of course, to maintain our core values of clinical excellence, customer service, innovation and efficiency,” he finishes with a smile.
