Invisible Braces and crooked, rotated, instanding or protruding teeth.

Many adults are now looking at ways to improve their crooked teeth or spaces between their teeth. Perhaps in the past these would have been corrected by cosmetic veneers or crown and bridgework. It is also not uncommon for us to see people with spaces between the premolars where in the past teeth have been extracted and this has resulted in the dental arch and bite not developing properly.

Firstly lets look at the ways that teeth can be corrected if they are crooked, instanding or protruding or twisted, without crowning or veneering them. You might think that a crown or veneer would be the best option, but that would involve doing something to an otherwise healthy tooth. A better option might be to correct the tooth itself by gently moving it. The movement of teeth is called orthodontics which is a very broad term.

There are ways a tooth can be moved or rotated and even the angulation corrected. In the past this would have been done with fixed orthodontic brackets and elastics, we all have this image in our minds of an american teenager with a mouth full of braces. The way this movement happens is by artificially applying pressure to the tooth in question. each tooth sits in a socket in the jaw bone, if pressure is applied to the tooth the socket remodels itself allowing the tooth position to change. Those basic principles are how all teeth can be moved orthodonticaly.

To apply that pressure the latest technology utilises invisible orthodontics. This can be in the form of clear aligners or invisible braces produced by companies like Invisalign and Clearstep or invisible braces which can be bonded behind the teeth so that they are not noticeable. This technique is called Social6 or Stb Braces, we even have Damon Braces which are half clear. In most cases there are now several invisible options and your clinician should outline the pros and cons of each option to you. In some cases the treatment time frame might be more important than the invisibilty aspect so there are many things to consider. What you should perhaps be aware of is that not all clinicians offer all the options. If you can find someone that does offer all the options, then you have a much better chance of getting exactly whats best for you.

In addition to rotated and crooked teeth, some peoples teeth do not bite together properly as they do not align. Again this can be often corrected invisibly by an ALF which is a very small light wire which runs around the back of the teeth and gently over time expands the dental arch. Sometimes a combination of these treatments are required.

Finally lets talk a little about those spaces where teeth have been removed as a child or teenager. Those spaces can be closed by using orthodontic implants which allow the back teeth to be pulled forward to close the spaces. In order to assess the treatment thats correct for you a clinician would normally take some impressions and an OPG radiograph. That radiograph is taken when you stand in the machine and it rotates from ear to ear, providing a panoramic digital image of all the teeth and substrustures. Once all that has been done and reviewed, your clinician can discuss all the options with you.

So as you can see this is quite a complex field and here at My Brilliant Smile Dental we are very fortunate to be able to offer all of the above treatments inhouse. We also provide free consultations so that you can come in for an initial discussion and meet the team. To book a free consultation please call 01342 325522