Do braces change your face?
Braces change the position of the teeth, and because the front teeth support the lips, that can alter lip fullness, the smile and the side profile of the lower face. Braces do not reshape the jawbone in adults; a significant jaw imbalance needs orthodontics combined with jaw surgery. At Creative Arts in Dubai our specialist orthodontists show how planned tooth movement is likely to affect your lips and profile before treatment starts.
Who treats you here Dr. Muhannad Kazzaz Specialist Orthodontist · Dr. Valeriia Kozachenko Specialist Orthodontist
Every dentist’s licence can be checked on the DHA Sheryan medical directory.
How can moving teeth change the way your face looks?
Your lips rest on your front teeth. If the upper and lower front teeth sit forwards, the lips are pushed forwards and can look full or strained when closed. If the teeth are tipped back, the lips have less support and can look thinner. So when braces or aligners change the angle or position of the front teeth, the soft tissues that drape over them follow, at least partly.
That is the main way braces change the face: through the lips and the lower third of the face, not through the bones. Other visible changes come from the smile itself: a wider, more even arch can fill the dark spaces at the corners of the smile, a corrected deep bite can change how much tooth shows, and teeth that meet properly can let the lips close without effort. People often describe the result as their face looking "more balanced", even though the skeleton has not changed.
How much change is likely depends on how far the front teeth move, in which direction, and how thick and tense the lips are. Thick lips change less with tooth movement than thin ones. A specialist orthodontist looks at your profile, not only your teeth, before planning.
Do braces change your face? What can and cannot change
A realistic guide to the changes people most often hope for or worry about.
| Feature | Can braces change it? | What decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Lip fullness and protrusion | Yes, often | How far the front teeth are moved forwards or back; lip thickness |
| Smile width and evenness | Yes | Arch shape, crowding and rotated teeth |
| Gummy smile | Sometimes | Whether the cause is the teeth and bite, or a short lip or long upper jaw |
| Side profile | Mildly, through the lips | Front tooth position; major profile change needs the jaws to move |
| Jawline and chin | Not in adults | Bone shape; in growing children, growth can be guided to a limited degree |
| Face asymmetry | Only if caused by the teeth | A shifted bite can be corrected; a skeletal asymmetry needs surgery |
| Cheekbones, nose, face width | No | Not related to tooth position |
Orthodontists plan with your face in mind, but they cannot promise a particular facial result from moving teeth alone.
Do extractions for braces make the face flat?
This is one of the most common fears, and the evidence gives a balanced answer. A 2024 systematic review in The Angle Orthodontist found very low-level evidence that treatment with four premolar extractions moves the upper and lower lips back relative to a reference line from nose to chin, that non-extraction treatment was shorter, and that there was no significant difference between the groups in how attractive the smile looked after treatment.
In practice, retracting the lips is sometimes exactly the aim, for example when the teeth and lips are markedly forward and the lips cannot close comfortably. In someone whose lips are already thin or whose profile is straight, an orthodontist will usually try to avoid unnecessary retraction, using options such as IPR or arch expansion instead where the space allows. "Flattening" is a planning decision, not an automatic side effect of extractions. Our guide to extractions for braces explains when removing teeth is and is not needed.
Can braces fix protruding teeth and lips?
Often, yes. When both upper and lower front teeth are tipped forwards, a pattern sometimes called bimaxillary protrusion, the lips are pushed out and the mouth can look full or strained. Moving the front teeth back, which usually requires creating space by extractions, can reduce lip protrusion and make it easier to close the lips at rest. This is one situation where braces can change the face noticeably, and it is often the reason patients seek treatment.
The amount of change has limits. The teeth can only move within the bone, and the lips do not follow the teeth one-to-one. Where the protrusion comes from the jaws themselves rather than the teeth, orthodontics alone cannot fully correct it.
Can braces fix a gummy smile or a weak chin?
A gummy smile has several possible causes, and braces help with some of them. If the upper front teeth have over-erupted, often with a deep bite, orthodontic movement can bring them up and reduce how much gum shows. If the gums cover more of the teeth than usual, gum contouring may be the answer instead. If the cause is a short or very mobile upper lip, or excess vertical growth of the upper jaw, braces alone will not change it much. Our guide to gummy smile causes explains how these are told apart.
A receding chin or a long or short lower face is a matter of jaw size and position. In adults, braces cannot grow or shorten bone. In growing children, functional appliances can influence jaw growth to a limited degree; our guide to twin-block and functional appliances explains this neutrally, including what the evidence does and does not show. Exercises sold as a way to reshape the jaw are discussed in mewing and teeth.
Your face may look different during treatment, temporarily
Brackets push the lips forwards slightly, so the mouth can look fuller while braces are on, and this settles when they come off. Aligners have a smaller effect. Changes that last are the ones caused by the final position of the teeth.
When does changing the face need jaw surgery instead?
When the main problem is the size or position of the jaws, for example a lower jaw that is much further forward or back than the upper jaw, a very long face with an open bite, or a clearly asymmetrical jaw, the bite can sometimes be "camouflaged" with braces by tilting the teeth to compensate. That can improve the bite, but it does not change the underlying face shape and can make the profile worse in some cases.
To change the skeleton, orthodontics is combined with corrective jaw surgery. The orthodontist prepares the teeth with braces, a surgeon repositions the jaws in a hospital setting under general anaesthesia, and braces then fine-tune the bite. This is a major decision with a long recovery, and it is usually considered only once growth has finished. Our page on surgical orthodontics explains how these cases are assessed and planned.
Want to know how straightening your teeth might change your smile and profile? Our specialist orthodontists in Dubai assess your teeth and face together and explain the likely changes before you decide.
Explore orthodonticsHow do orthodontists plan treatment around your face?
Good orthodontic planning starts with the face and works back to the teeth. At Creative Arts, our specialist orthodontists, Dr. Muhannad Kazzaz and Dr. Valeriia Kozachenko, look at your profile, lip support at rest and when smiling, how much tooth and gum shows, and the symmetry of your smile, alongside the examination, X-rays where needed and an intraoral 3D scan. With aligners, the digital plan shows the planned tooth movement stage by stage.
Ask about your face directly at the consultation: whether your lips are likely to look fuller or flatter, whether extractions are planned and why, and whether any part of what you want to change is skeletal. Honest answers to those questions matter as much as how straight the teeth will be. The wider trade-offs of treatment, including root shortening and gum effects, are covered in braces pros and cons.
Will my face change after braces come off?
The changes caused by the final tooth position stay as long as the teeth stay where they are, which is why retainers matter. Without them, teeth can drift back and some of the lip and smile changes can partly reverse. Faces also keep changing naturally with age: the lips thin, the lower face lengthens slightly and the lower front teeth tend to crowd over the decades, with or without previous braces. Long-term retainer wear helps the teeth keep pace with those changes rather than drifting with them.