What does orthodontic treatment involve?

Orthodontic treatment involves three stages:

1.  Planning Stage – Your first couple of visits may include the following:

    A medical and dental history evaluation.
    Castings or “molds” of your teeth. 
    Photographs of your face and mouth.
    X-rays of the teeth and jaws.

After careful planning, your orthodontist will design and apply braces or fabricate custom-made appliances for you.

2.  Active Stage – Active treatment involves visiting your orthodontist on a regular basis for adjustments and following specific treatment requirements to ensure successful treatment.

3.  Retention Stage – When treatment is completed, the braces and/or appliances are removed and a new appliance is made.  Usually these retainers are removable and will help to maintain the changes made to your teeth if worn as instructed.

Treatment and retention times vary depending on each individual case.  However, retention is a lifetime process.  Your orthodontist will ensure you have a successful treatment for a beautiful smile that can last a lifetime.

Orthodontics can not only help straighten your teeth, giving you an appealing smile, but can greatly contribute to the health of your jaw, teeth and sometimes your overall health.

Eight tips to choosing an intraoral camera

The intraoral camera for sale is best described as an instrument that helps dental professionals communicate with & educate their patients. Considered one of the best diagnostic tools available today, there are plenty to choose from and selecting the right one for your practice can be difficult.  The T2 Essential 8 Tips will help cut through the clutter and identify the key features most important to you and your practice.

Deciding which to buy should not rely on a rep’s demonstration. Schedule an in-office demo so you can try the camera on patients before making a decision. And trust your auxiliary staff’s input since they’ll be frequent users.
Get Real!

A trade show can be a great way to shop for an intraoral camera. With some planning, this is a great way to see multiple products under one roof. All too familiar are reps grasping the camera with two hands showing open margins, cracked molars and amalgams. Believe me? Check out the photo left and ask yourself if this is how you would expect the camera be used in your office? I would hope not. Although image clarity and color acuity are important, ease of use is often misunderstood. Sales reps are trained to make their product appear easy of use – even if they may not be. Bottom line, this is not a realistic condition.
Focus on this

Ease of use is best determined by the cameras lens.  A good optical system has a wide depth of field and requires little or no focusing during the exam.  Position yourself as you would during treatment while holding the camera like a dental hand piece. Although a majority of cameras have it, a focus ring is an adjustment for lack of a good optical system and not an added feature. These focus rings and collars are usually placed on the camera hand piece. If constant refocusing is necessary, then the depth of field is inadequate for your purposes. A difficult product is less accepted by your staff and used less frequently.

Most Wired intraoral cameras today are USB devices – a digital interface that allows direct connectivity to the computer.  What most do not know is that USB has a 15 foot cable length limitation and extending through hubs is never a good idea.  Care must be taken in positioning the computer to allow for this.  The intraoral camera should holster into position much like your high speed hand piece or syringes.  With such a high ROI, the intraoral camera requires easy access – without it, usage suffers.

Risks and complications in orthodontic treatment

Toothache, occasional discomfort or pressure on the teeth
When beginning orthodontic treatment and after the each inspection, you may feel unpleasant pressure on your teeth, toothache, or just discomfort. It depends on the individual and on their pain threshold.

Scratches and bruises
Also, at the beginning of orthodontic treatment, scratches  and bruises may appear on the mucosa, generally caused by a fixed device. In such cases, orthodontic protective wax is employed. Such complaints are temporary and tend to arise over the first 5-7 days after beginning treatment. Later, the mucosa adapts to the braces and the abrasions disappear.

White spots on the surface of the teeth
This complication is caused by long-term bad oral hygiene. White patches appear around the brackets. The enamel beneath the brackets remains undamaged. A coating built up on the surface of the enamel causes demineralisation. This occurs due to harmful bacteria which break down leftover food around the brackets into acids. The acids eat into the enamel resulting in demineralisation.

This is a stage preceding tooth decay.
If this complication arises and repeated instruction on oral hygiene and visits to a dental hygienist have no effect, the doctor reserves the right to premature termination of treatment. The priority is a healthy set of teeth and only afterwards a straight set.

Gum infection - gingivitis
Insufficient oral hygiene can lead to gum infection. This infection can complicate treatment by meaning slower tooth movement and so treatment is slowed and sometimes leads to irreversible damage to the teeth’s supporting tissues.

Tooth root resorption
Some patients have a tendency to the occurrence of resorption. In practice this means that the teeth’s roots get shorter. This complication however does not shorten the lifespan of teeth.

Relapse of orthodontic defects
Every orthodontic treatment has a tendency to relapse, i.e. the teeth return to their original position. We prevent this by using retention devices and retainers. Retention devices are laboratory products made to fit your teeth exactly.

Retainers are wires which are stuck to the back surface of your teeth to maintain their position. This phase is very important for orthodontic treatment.

Risks in Orthodontic Treatment You Should Know

Orthodontics has the potential to cause significant damage to hard and soft tissues. The most important aspect of orthodontic care is to have an extremely high standard of oral hygiene before and during orthodontic treatment. It is also essential that any carious lesions are dealt with before any active treatment starts. Root resorption is a common complication during orthodontic treatment but there is some evidence that once appliances are removed this resorption stops. Some of the risk pointers for root resorption are summarised. Soft tissue damage includes that caused by archwires but also the more harrowing potential for headgears to cause damage to eyes. It is essential that adequate safety measures are included with this type of treatment.
Key points

Before any active orthodontic treatment is considered it is essential that the oral hygiene is of a high standard and that all carious leions have been dealt with

Arch wires, headgears and brackets themselves may cause significant damage either during an active phase of treatment or during debonding. Much care needs to be taken when instructing patients about their role in orthodontic treatment

The aim of this section is to outline potential risks in orthodontic treatment and to give examples. There are also a number of illustrations to help highlight these points

Orthodontics

Who needs orthodontics?

Patient assessment and examination I

Patient assessment and examination II

Treatment planning

Appliance choices

Risks in orthodontic treatment

Fact and fantasy in orthodontics

Extractions in orthodontics

Anchorage control and distal movement

Impacted teeth

Orthodontic tooth movement

Combined orthodontic treatment