With hundreds of patients streaming into our offices every week, you’d be surprised at the questions we sometimes get. One common question (that you may not dare ask) is this: can you kiss while wearing braces? This can be a big concern for people of all ages who are getting braces, whether they’re 13 or 33.

You’ve probably heard stories about people getting their braces stuck while kissing. While these stories are highly amusing—or even frightening!—they aren’t very common. It would take some tricky mouth work (and possibly some broken bands) to get two people’s braces to snag on each other and get stuck together.

Your parent’s generation may really have had to worry about this. 

The braces of 20 or 30 years ago were much larger and more cumbersome. They had larger brackets, thicker wires, and rougher edges. This made it easier to snag your braces on a something, whether it’s a sweatshirt you’re pulling over your head or your girlfriend’s lip. In the last 10 years, braces have soared ahead of where they were in the past due in part to advancements in technology. The brackets and wires that your braces are made of are much smaller than braces that were being used in the 80s and 90s. Smaller, smoother parts are much less likely to get snagged on anything.

Kissing with braces is not something you need to be afraid of. If it’s a first kiss though, or if you’ve had a few bumps already and feel stressed about it, it might help you calm your nerves if you remember the following hints.