“Do braces still work without tightening?”

It will work up to a point, then you will need your braces tightened again. When you come in for your appointment, your orthodontist will either re-tighten your braces or change to a bigger wire. Sometimes teeth can move past their intended movement. Therefore, it's important to see your orthodontist on your regularly scheduled intervals to keep your treatment on track.

Best regards,
Glenn P. Frial, DDS, MS, APC

Your dentist or orthodontist should be periodically examining you to either tighten the braces or to change them as needed. You should present yourself in a timely manner at all recall appointments. Since you are paying for treatment, why not get the best of care? If your orthodontist or dentist is not constantly updating your treatment, which could include tightening your braces, treatment will be delayed and the outcome might be less than desired.

Only a bit. They need regular adjustments to function. And it is obviously recommended to use a trained orthodontist who understands the ins and outs to prevent problems.

Basically, the idea of braces is to start with light wires which have lower forces to achieve initial alignment. When you have your braces 'tightened', the orthodontist is tying the wire into the braces more and more at each visit until he or she gets all the movement possible from that wire. You are then progressed to larger/heavier wires which continue to fine tune the movements with the intention of reaching an ideal finish. Depending on your recall interval and type of appliance system, you may have fewer or more frequent visits and at these visit the orthodontist also evaluates your oral hygiene and the progress in tooth movement. It is possible he or she doesn't like the placement of some of the brackets and will want to reposition them. Braces are designed to be placed in specific poisons on the teeth and sometimes that is not possible due to rotations and crowding, or the orthodontist may have placed it where they liked it, but the tooth didn't quite move as they expected, so they will reposition it. Orthodontics is part science or biology and part art, so no you can't skip those regular visits to the orthodontist and expect to get a beautiful final result!

"tightening" is a common word for adjusting tension on the wire working inside the bracket (brace) on each tooth. With self ligating (or self tightening) brackets as well as conventional tie in brackets, the wire works itself out until it is time to change to a larger size to keep the tooth under the precise control designed into the bracket with the appropriate size wire. So your answer is that braces work for several months until the wire has done all it can do and needs changing .Don't forget how important elastics or other forms of traction are as an augmenting force for correction. Nothing is on automatic, careful periodic inspection is necessary to stay on course, so don't skip appointments;

If you have metal brackets and wires, yes they have to be tightened. That is what moves the teeth