It’s hard to believe, but not that long ago when straightening your teeth meant just one thing – embarrassing, uncomfortable metal braces and sometimes even more embarrassing headgear. To top off the entire ordeal, you had to deal with messy dental wax to prevent brackets and wires from cutting into your cheeks.
Thankfully, those days are over. Today, there are more orthodontic treatment options than ever, enabling children and adults to achieve their best smiles. Dr. Marcano at Orlando Center for Cosmetic Dentistry shares his insights on clear aligners.
Having choices is good, but it also comes with another layer of decisions. So, how do you compare traditional braces with clear aligners? More importantly, how do you know which orthodontic treatment option is right for you? The first step is to come in for a consultation.
During an in-office consultation, Dr. Marcano performs an oral exam, reviews your dental health history, and takes oral X-rays, if needed, to get more information about the position of your teeth. You share your treatment goals. Based on the information gathered, Dr. Marcano recommends the treatment options available for your given situation.
Then the ball is in your court. For most patients, the decision comes down to affordability, convenience, and treatment time.
With clear aligners, patients can achieve their dream smiles without broadcasting them to the world. Unlike braces, which are visible and fixed to teeth, clear aligners are removable for eating and drinking and virtually invisible, providing complete discretion.
Here at Orlando Center for Cosmetic Dentistry, we use ClearCorrect aligners. ClearCorrect’s proprietary ClearQuartz™ tri-layer material makes the aligners practically invisible. This special material makes ClearCorrect aligners stain-resistant and durable and requires fewer “engagers,” which improves their grip on teeth.
With clear aligners, you won’t have to deal with those unsightly wires, brackets, or an archwire, so what you can’t see makes this orthodontic treatment popular with patients who don’t want to draw attention to the fact that they are undergoing orthodontic treatment.
Similarly, the clear aligner approach provides patients a more convenient and comfortable way to move their teeth into optimal positions to address bite issues. Clear plastic aligners are head and shoulders above traditional braces for being gentle to lips or cheeks. No wires and brackets mean no gooey dental wax. But that’s not all.
Since you can remove your aligners before eating and drinking, you don’t have to avoid eating hard, sticky, or chewy foods. Yes, that means you can forget about having to engage in that disgusting ritual of digging food like corn on the cob out of your braces. Good riddance!
If you’re like most people, finding time in your hectic schedule to squeeze in yet another appointment is nearly impossible. Although the time required varies from patient to patient depending on how many teeth need to be moved and the severity of the bite issue, clear aligner treatment plans typically take anywhere from 6 to 12 months.
Clear aligner treatment typically plays out if Dr. Marcano deems you a good candidate for clear aligners. He takes impressions of your mouth with an intraoral scanner. He uploads the impression to a computer-aided design program and creates a custom treatment plan. The treatment plan includes the step-by-step sequence for teeth movement, how many series of aligners are needed to complete treatment, and when you need to switch out to the next set of aligners.
Dr. Marcano sends the impressions and plans to a dental laboratory to fabricate your first ClearCorrect aligners. About a week or so later, when the clear aligners return from the lab, you make your next appointment to try them on and officially begin treatment.
Every few weeks, you return to Orlando Center For Cosmetic Dentistry for a checkup to monitor tooth movement progress and to switch to a new set of clear aligners, taking you one step closer to your best smile ever.
If you’re ready to start your journey to your dream smile and want to know if clear aligners are right for you, contact us at Orlando Center For Cosmetic Dentistry for a consultation. Click the online booking tool or call the office today at 689-220-2651.
