Adult Orthodontics in Hershey and the Harrisburg Area

Reviewed by Dr. Susan Korch, DMD, MS

No, you are not too old for braces. Adults are treated successfully at every age from their twenties into their eighties, because tooth movement depends on the health of your gums and bone, not on your age. About one in five orthodontic patients is now an adult.

Most adults who come to see us have been thinking about it for years.

Something usually prompts the call. A lower front tooth that has drifted. A bite that has started to wear unevenly. A treatment that was stopped halfway through in high school. Or simply the realization that waiting another decade will not make it easier.

Whatever brought you here, the answer to the question you are probably asking is straightforward, so we will put it first.

Am I Too Old for Braces?

No. Age is not what determines whether orthodontic treatment will work. The health of your gums and the bone supporting your teeth is. A healthy sixty-year-old is a better candidate than a twenty-five-year-old with untreated gum disease, and we have treated patients well into their seventies.

What age does change is the plan, not the possibility. In children we can guide a growing jaw. In adults the jaw has finished growing, so we move teeth within the structure you have. That is a different problem, not a harder one, and it is the problem adult orthodontics is built around.

If there is a genuine obstacle, it is almost always one of these, and each has a path forward:

  • Active gum disease. This needs treating first, with your dentist or a periodontist. Once it is stable, treatment can begin.
  • Significant bone loss. Teeth can still be moved, but more slowly and with lighter forces. We plan for it.
  • Untreated decay. Restorative work comes first, then orthodontics.

None of these is about age. All three appear in patients of every age, and none of them is a permanent no.

Why Adults Come to Us

  • Bite problems. Misalignment causes uneven enamel wear, jaw discomfort, and occasionally speech difficulty. It tends to get worse rather than better.
  • Crowding or spacing. Crowded teeth trap plaque where a brush cannot reach, which raises the risk of decay and gum disease over a lifetime.
  • Jaw pain and pressure. Some bite problems contribute to headaches and jaw tension.
  • Treatment that was never finished. Plenty of adults wore braces as teenagers, stopped wearing the retainer, and watched things drift back. Finishing the job is usually quicker than starting from scratch.
  • It has been on the list for years. This is a good enough reason on its own.

Orthodontics for adults is rarely only cosmetic. Alignment that is left alone tends to worsen slowly, and the dental problems that follow are more expensive to fix than the alignment would have been.

How Adult Treatment Differs

Treating an adult is genuinely different from treating a teenager, and any orthodontist who tells you otherwise is not paying attention.

The jaw is no longer growing. With a child we can influence how the jaw develops. With an adult we work within the skeletal structure that is already set. For most cases this changes nothing about the outcome. For a small number of severe skeletal discrepancies, it means a different conversation.

Teeth have history. Adults arrive with crowns, implants, veneers, fillings and bridges. Each behaves differently under orthodontic force. An implant, for instance, is fused to bone and cannot be moved at all, so it becomes a fixed point the plan is built around.

Gum and bone health matters more. Decades of wear leave their mark, and treatment has to respect what is there.

Treatment can take slightly longer. Adult bone remodels a little more slowly than a growing child’s. The difference is usually modest, and we will give you a realistic estimate rather than an optimistic one.

What Treatment Looks Like

  • Clear aligners. Removable and hard to notice, which is why most of our adult patients choose them. They come out for meetings, meals and photographs.
  • Ceramic braces. Tooth-colored brackets. Fixed, discreet, and well suited to cases that need more control than aligners give.
  • Metal braces. Smaller and more comfortable than the ones you remember, and still the most efficient option for complex bites.

Many of our adult patients also use Korch Cam remote monitoring, which lets Dr. Korch review your progress weekly from a phone scan and keeps in-office visits to a minimum. For an adult with a job, that is often the deciding factor.

What It Costs, and Why Coverage Is Different for Adults

Treatment fees at our practice run from about $3,500 for limited treatment to $9,000 for complex cases, and adult treatment sits across that whole range. Our guide to treatment costs breaks down what changes the number.

Adult orthodontic coverage genuinely is harder to come by, and it is worth understanding why rather than being surprised by it. Many dental plans classify orthodontics as a benefit for dependent children only, and stop covering it at age 19 or 26. Others include adults but apply a lifetime maximum rather than an annual one, so the benefit does not reset each year the way a cleaning allowance does.

None of that means treatment is out of reach. We verify your benefits before you commit to anything, so you know the real number rather than a guess, and interest-free monthly plans exist precisely for patients whose insurance will not carry much of it. See financing and insurance.

Your First Visit

The first exam is free, and nothing is decided at it.

You will have a full examination with 3D imaging and photographs, a treatment plan built around what you actually want to change, an honest timeline, and a written fee before you leave. If treatment is not the right call, we will say so.

We see adult patients from across the region, including Harrisburg, Hummelstown, Palmyra and Lebanon. Read what to expect before you come.

Book a Free Consultation

There is no obligation and no cost, and it is the fastest way to replace years of wondering with a straight answer.

Korch Orthodontics · 357 West Governor Road, Hershey, PA 17033 · (717) 533-7400

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Frequently Asked Questions

Adults often have questions about comfort, lifestyle, timelines, and whether its the right time to begin treatment. Here are answers to some of the most common questions about adult braces and clear aligners.

Is it worth getting braces in your 40s?

The question worth asking is not your age but how long you expect to keep your teeth. If the answer is another forty years, then forty years of easier cleaning, more even wear and a bite that works is a substantial return. Most patients in their forties tell us afterwards that the only thing they regret is waiting.

Yes, and it is common. Each restoration behaves differently under orthodontic force, so the plan accounts for them individually. An implant cannot be moved, because it is fused to the bone, so it is treated as a fixed reference point and the other teeth are positioned around it. Crowns and veneers can be moved, though brackets bond differently to porcelain than to enamel.

Very little, permanently. Active gum disease, significant untreated decay, and severe bone loss all need addressing first, but they are reasons to sequence treatment rather than to rule it out. Age is not on the list.

Not meaningfully. You are likely to notice tenderness for a few days after your braces are placed and after adjustments, much as a teenager does. Adults often report it as milder than they feared, and it responds well to an over-the-counter pain reliever.

This is the concern we hear most, and it is why aligners and ceramic braces exist. Most adult patients find that colleagues do not notice. Remote monitoring also means far fewer daytime appointments than adult patients expect.

Adult wearing a hat and sunglasses