Fashion Braces Serve As Flashy Status Statement

It’s an orthodontic appliance. It’s jewelry for the teeth. It’s both!

Braces, an erstwhile badge of metal-mouth nerds, have morphed into a preteen status symbol.

“We’ve had 10-year-olds in tears because they wanted their braces and they wanted them now,” said orthodontist Marc Lemchen. “We once got a call from a child in the car. She decided she wanted braces, so could she come right over?”

Some kids would give their eyeteeth for black rubber bands, but there’s also a rainbow of cool colors. Also trendy are retainers with funky decals, like team logos, leopards, a beloved Fido or the American flag.

Clear brackets, more discreet, account in part for a boom among adults, though flamboyant folks can go for the gold plate.

The tin grin is also fueling fashion pages.

“There’s a bunch of very top models whom my fashion director says are making it big and have braces,” says Jane Larkworthy, beauty director for Jane, a Gen-X magazine that has run photos of steely smiles that look kissable with red lipstick. “It’s an admission that even models have flaws.”

But wait.

“We are certainly not telling girls to go get braces,” says Larkworthy. “They’re braces. They fix things.”