Are you looking to improve a crooked smile? This orthodontic system might be for you!
A lot gets written about Invisalign braces, and for good reason. They are discreet, comfortable and removable for eating and cleaning. They are useful for a range of treatments, including more complex straightening; for example involving the teeth towards the rear of the mouth that you don’t generally see.
Although they are excellent, there are other systems which might be considered to be more suitable where more minor corrections are needed.
Although the Bradley and Partners Dental and Implant Clinic prefers that all teeth are straight so patients have a correct bite; understandably, it is those who have a visibly crooked smile that are most likely to seek out orthodontic treatment at our Canterbury clinic.
The ‘social six’ smile
Few people see our back teeth when we smile and therefore it is not surprising that patients focus on straightening the front six top and bottom teeth. These are known in dental circles as the ‘social six’. Even a single crooked tooth at the front can detract from an otherwise attractive smile and for this reason, there are orthodontic systems available that are designed specifically for this particular problem.
Partially because teeth at the front of our mouth are single rooted, these are easier to correct and don’t take as long as rear teeth. For this reason, some orthodontics, including Invisalign, may not be the most appropriate treatment for this purpose.
Naturally, we will need to examine your teeth to determine the best treatment plan, but one of the most common treatments that we use at our Canterbury practice for this purpose is Cfast braces.
Cfast is a widely used ‘wire and bracket’ approach to teeth straightening. The components are made in tooth-coloured materials to make them as discreet as possible. These work by applying gentle pressure to the teeth, encouraging them towards their desired position. It should be noted that these are suitable only for cosmetic purposes and other options may need to be considered where functional issues are a concern.
For most people, a trip to the dentist twice a year for a checkup, combined with brushing their teeth at home, is the extent of their oral health care regime.
You may not have given too much thought to Christmas yet, or perhaps just started to get ready, buying in food and maybe a few Christmas presents as well.
As you would probably expect from the name of our practice, we are firm believers that dental implants generally offer the best way to replace any lost or missing teeth.
Good oral health care should, of course, be ongoing and requires us to be diligent in our teeth cleaning and general oral health habits. For most patients this is probably carried out because they want to avoid having to have a tooth filled or even extracted because of tooth decay.
We would all like to keep our teeth for as long as we possibly can. Sometimes though, we are faced with a gap in our teeth, whether through needing an extraction, or even when a tooth gets knocked out accidentally.
