You Want A Seasoned Orthodontist

Our Orthodontist has many years of experience in dealing with every sort of tooth and dental development issue and is very willing to help you make an informed decision about the treatment choices for your child. Like many procedures, the effectiveness of early treatment can only be determined on an individual basis. Here, the doctor explains his viewpoint on early treatment options.

What is early treatment?

The terms ‘early treatment,’ ‘interceptive treatment,’ or ‘phase I treatment’ are all basically the same thing. This form of treatment is usually done when the child is 8 to 10 years old and will have 8-12 baby teeth present in the mouth. More here @ https://cochranorthodontics.com/children-orthodontics/

Phase II treatment consists of fixed appliances (metal braces) and is usually done when the patient is older and all the baby teeth are gone and the permanent teeth are in the mouth. For girls, this is about 11 ½ years old and for boys about 12 ½ years of age on average.

Are there drawbacks to early treatment?

Early treatment is great when it is indicated and appropriate. Dental problems such as crowding or crossbites are usually corrected best through early treatment at age 9 or 10. A second stage of treatment with braces will usually be required at age 11 ½ for girls, and at age 12 ½ for boys to finish aligning the teeth.

However, what I discovered was that it was still taking about 20 months of the metal braces to finish aligning the teeth at age 12 to 13. So, I could do two phases of treatment, taking 28-32 months, or I could be a little patient and do all the treatment in one step, taking about 24 months in the metal braces.

Which was the better way? Well, by just doing one phase of treatment, the parents saved money, the child had fewer hoops to jump through, and the results were basically the same.

When do we recommend early treatment?

I love to see the kids about age 9 or 10 years old, or even younger if mom and dad have a concern about their child’s teeth. I’d much rather be ahead of the game than behind. Sometimes I will turn the patient loose for a little while, and then when he/she is ready, start the correct early treatment.

Of course, there are instances where treating the patient at 9 or 10 works out great! If all the upper teeth are too narrow (called a crossbite), 9 or 10 is a great time to correct this. Sometimes a front tooth is stuck and won’t come down, or is sticking straight out – 9 or 10 is a great time to correct this.

Child patient at the orthodontist – close up

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I firmly believe in early treatment. It just needs to be used when it is truly indicated.
Call now to schedule a consultation with us to discuss treatment options and see what financing plans you qualify for.
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The doctor will examine you or your child’s teeth to determine the best course of orthodontic treatment and will discuss financing that you can afford.

Cosmetic Dentistry – Get A Great Smile Back

Using a combination of advanced cosmetic dentistry procedures, we create beautiful, white smiles for patients who are not satisfied with the condition of their teeth. Below you will find introductions to our most popular procedures. Find more information here @ https://mcomiedentistry.com/

Teeth Whitening
One of the simplest and most dramatic things you can do to improve the appearance of your smile is to have teeth whitening performed. Over time, substances such as coffee, tea, soft drinks, and tobacco can all leave ugly stains on our enamel. Teeth whitening can reverse those effects, whitening teeth by five to 10 shades! Zoom™ is a simple, in-office whitening system that takes two hours to perform. A hydrogen peroxide gel is applied to the teeth and is then activated by a patented, blue-spectrum light. Results are immediate and impressive. We also offer a take-home whitening system. The Nite White tooth whitening system consists of a custom-fitted appliance that is filled with bleaching gel and worn at night over the teeth. Nite White gel, a solution containing 10 percent carbamide peroxide, safely and gently whitens teeth over the course of two to four weeks, depending on each patient’s needs.

Dental Bonding
A fast, effective alternative to veneers and crowns, dental bonding produces exceptional results in as little as a single office visit. During the procedure, a strong tooth-colored resin material is placed onto your tooth. The material is then sculpted and polished it until it is indistinguishable from your surrounding natural teeth. When exposed to high-intensity ultraviolet light, the resin hardens, and the procedure is complete. The bonding material, while not as durable or stain-resistant as the porcelain used in veneers and crowns, will endure for years with proper care. This is an in-office procedure that provides immediate results with minimal intrusion.

Porcelain Veneers
Changing the appearance of your smile is easier than ever with porcelain veneers. Veneers are thin layers of tooth-colored material that can be bonded to your teeth to change their shape, size, alignment, or color. Porcelain veneers can repair chips and cracks, hide discoloration, and straighten crooked teeth. They look completely natural and very little tooth structure needs to be removed in order for them to be placed. Veneers are an excellent way to achieve a beautiful smile.

Crowns
Porcelain crowns – or caps, as they are sometimes called – are an excellent way to repair and strengthen badly damaged teeth. When a tooth is broken or has become weakened by a large filling or root canal treatment, it may be repaired by placing a crown, fabricated by an outside laboratory. By strengthening these weaker teeth, a crown effectively eliminates pain, sensitivity, and difficulty with chewing and speaking. Crowns are made of either metal with porcelain overlay or all-ceramic material. Crowns protect you teeth from further breakdown and improve the function as well as the appearance of the tooth.

Inlays/Onlays
Inlays and onlays are porcelain or composite restorations that are bonded to the tooth. An inlay is stronger than a regular “white” filling, as it is fabricated by a laboratory technician. Inlays and onlays are virtually indistinguishable from natural teeth and discreetly restore teeth to an optimal state of health. An onlay, when possible, is a more conservative treatment than a crown.

Implants
If you tend to hide your smile because of missing teeth, dental implants could be the answer. Tooth loss due to injury, disease, or infection can make speaking and eating difficult. Dental implants are the most durable way of replacing missing teeth. An implant, essentially an artificial tooth root to which a new crown can be attached, can successfully replace a single tooth or all of your natural teeth. The dental implant procedure involves three phases. During the first phase, we place the implant, usually made of titanium, into your jawbone. It then requires a period of healing that lasts for several months. Finally, we attach a new crown to the implant, giving you a strong, natural-looking new tooth. Implants are an excellent solution to tooth replacement as they help to retain existing bone levels. More here @ McOmie Implant Dentistry

This Blog was posted by Clearview Dental – Cosmetic Dentistry Milton, Ontario

A Lot Of Money Is Spend To Fix Your Teeth

We spend a lot of time and money, as a country, on fixing the imperfections in our bodies, the way that they naturally are made and develop. One of the things that we spend a lot of time and money on is making ourselves more pleasing, more beautiful to the people around us, so that we can, say, more easily attract a mate, or maybe so that we can get ahead in our business lives, or maybe just because we want to have a slightly easier life, and as everyone knows, life is easier when you’re beautiful (and there is a lot of academic research to back this up, by the way).

For a lot of people, some of these things are out of their reach, when it comes to money or the amount of surgery that you’re willing to go through. For example, yes, you can have the perfectly symmetrical face, but you may need to undergo costly facial surgery (plastic surgery) that will make it so, and that can be something that is both expensive (thus the use of the word ‘costly’) and can have the same dangers that any surgery is going to have. You can also have the perfect body; we have a lot of procedures for doing that, like implants for your pecs and your abdomen, a host of ways to naturally help you lose weight, or to do so with a less than natural approach like liposuction, you can have excess skin nipped and tucked, the list is long. But, like the other sorts of surgeries, they’re expensive, and they carry the same inherent risk that comes along with any serious surgery (and to be clear, basically any time you get cut open, you’re putting yourself in a bit of risk at the very least). However, there is one thing that you can do to improve your looks that don’t involve such a look, and it means the use of braces and the help of someone who can provide you with some quality dental care. More about ourMore Information here here
I’m talking about getting braces to fix the alignment of your teeth. Sure, there are a lot of people who get the standard braces, the ones that we know of already, the ones that almost everyone in the world has seen at some point in their lives. However, there is a more modern approach available today and it’s known as Invisalign. To follow is a list of three ways in which Invisalign is an improvement.

1. Discretion

When it comes to standard braces, they’re often made of metal, and let’s face it; metal isn’t discreet. It’s bright, it’s shiny, and it’s hard to disguise when it’s in the mouth.

However, when it comes to Invisalign, there’s no such issue. This is because Invisalign is made up of a hard and clear plastic, which, when put on the teeth in the mouth, is almost invisible, as the name would suggest, to the observer. Invisalign lives up to its name and is the utmost in discretion that is currently available.

2. Durability

A problem that standard metal braces can run into is one of durability. The metal in such braces is in the mouth, and that mouth is an inhospitable place for pretty much anything to be. It will, over the months or years that they’re in there, slowly wear down, and nothing can change that.

However, when it comes to Invisalign, they just won’t have this problem, and this is because of the short amount of time that they’ll be sitting in the mouth. They sit in the mouth for about two weeks, and then you move on to the next set of aligners in the series.

3. Cost

Alright, this isn’t a huge advantage, because alas, they’re more expensive. Finding a good dental office that offers them, you’re likely to find that braces are about five hundred to a thousand dollars cheaper, when all is said and done. However, you can pay off that increase in price over time, on an installment plan, which takes a lot of the sting out of this slightly higher price. This means that you’ll be paying something like twenty dollars more a payment cycle or something around there.

So, if you’re looking to make your teeth more beautiful, you should very much consider asking your local professional orthodontist about Invisalign, and seeing if it might be right for you and for the particular dental issues that you’re having. It’ll make it a lot easier for you to improve the way your teeth look and make sure you can do so as discreetly as possible. For more Questions about Braces click on this link to Orthodontist in San Antonio