Treatment Options

So, last week, a  35 year old male patient came in with moderately crooked teeth.  The teeth themselves were pretty- no stains or old fillings or cavities- but the teeth were crowded and twisted. He was looking for Invisalign orthodontic treatment, the series of computer-generated clear plastic aligners that move teeth without gluing brackets onto them. So, we looked at his teeth and came up with three treatment options, which I will lay out below, from least beneficial to best: With regards to the crowding of his front teeth, Invisalign wouldn’t be a good treatment option because of a serious mal-alignment problem between his upper and lower back teeth, which clinical experience as shown Invisalign just can’t fix.  We mentioned porcelain veneers, layers of porcelain as little as three-tenths of a millimeter thick which are bonded to the front surfaces of the teeth.  This process takes only two weeks and requires minimal tooth-structure reduction.  The negative is that some teeth end-up thicker than they should be. The best option, and the one I hope we’re going to go with, would involve conventional fixed braces.  The perceived stigma of adult orthodontics no longer exists today, and the course of treatment would only last about twelve months.  The big advantages will be fixing the major problem among the back teeth which is really causing all the crowding problems in the front of his mouth, and  not having to put anything artificial on any of his otherwise strong and healthy natural teeth. I love that we can pick and choose a treatment option that is most beneficial for and be customized to each particular patient.