Can you see invisible braces?

Invisible braces are the most modern way to straight in your teeth, but what are they and how do they work?

Many people today live life in the public eye, either through having a wide circle of friends or having to meet people continually at work or in their job.

Added together with the pressure to look your best at all times, more and more people are turning to dentistry to help them improve confidence with their smile.

Together with teeth whitening, modern orthodontic procedures are helping patients achieve this-and one of the most popular orthodontic treatments is with invisible braces.

So how do invisible braces work?

All orthodontic systems work by applying a very specific small amount of pressure to your tooth, this pressure in a particular direction will cause the tooth to move or rotate. Some people suck their thumb, or thrust their tongue forwards behind their top teeth and end up moving the top teeth out-this is caused by this constant pressure, and we can use this phenomenon in orthodontics.

Traditionally, train track braces would be applied to your teeth, and then periodically tightened to apply this pressure. These are unsightly, and many older patients simply do not wish to wear train track braces.

Invisible braces are a clear semi-rigid plastic shield which fit over your teeth, however, this shield is designed so that it does not exactly line up with every tooth. This shield, known as an aligner, will put pressure on the selected teeth in the required position to move that to towards its final location.

Clearly what will happen, is that the tooth moves a little and this pressure reduces. With traditional train track braces this is when they would be tightened by your orthodontist, so how do we overcome this with invisible braces?

We simply provide another clear aligner!

This new aligner once again does not fit exactly to every tooth, it will apply pressure to the selected teeth in the correct location to apply the pressure required to move your teeth. And so the process goes on, with a new aligner being provided for you roughly every two weeks.

The clever thing about Invisalign braces (the system we use here in St Johns Wood) is that modern computerised technology is used to work out the final position of your teeth, and then to precisely calculate the number of clear aligners that will be required to move your teeth from their starting to their finishing position.

This makes invisible braces highly predictable and reliable forms of treatment to move teeth, as the whole process can be visualised beforehand on a computer screen.

Our dental practice has the unique ability to use this digital technology right from the beginning, as we do not even take an impression of your current tooth position, rather we scan it with a digital camera. This digital scan of your teeth is then sent to Invisalign who can render your teeth on their computer screen, move them digitally to the new position, calculate the number of invisible aligners that will be required and then manufacture these invisible braces and send them to us for fitting.

A truly revolutionary system.

For more information on our smile makeover treatment or the process, contact us on 020 7586 1210 or contact us here. At Smile More Dental Care, we look forward to welcoming you to our North London clinic soon.

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