Many adults suffer from crooked or misaligning bites that make cleaning difficult, leading to tooth decay and gum diseases.
Most orthodontic treatments, including my-dentist.com.au teeth straightening Adelaide aim to correct a series of misalignments or align crowded or overlapped teeth, but what if only one crookedness is ruining your smile?
Braces
Braces are dental tools designed to correct issues with your teeth, such as crowding and crookedness. Additionally, they help straighten them and create an ideal bite pattern.
Straightening your teeth requires using a system of small metal brackets bonded directly onto each tooth’s front surface, acting like handles to hold onto archwires that move your teeth. We offer stainless steel and tooth-coloured ceramic or plastic brackets for optimal aesthetic results.
Archwires are thin strips of solid but flexible metal that run between brackets on your teeth, creating pressure against them to move your teeth in certain directions. As my-dentist.com.au teeth straightening Adelaide treatment progresses, we may add elastic bands for extra pressure or resistance against specific directions; additionally, we offer various kinds of archwires, from round and light to thicker and rectangular, depending on individual needs – pushing and pulling on it to straighten them over time.
Aligners
Clear aligners have become an increasingly popular alternative to metal braces for straightening teeth. These clear plastic trays can almost go undetected when worn and can just as efficiently straighten crookedness as traditional metal braces – in some cases, even faster!
Mail-order aligners might seem appealing, but nothing beats an in-office treatment with a specialist orthodontist. In-office aligners use polyvinyl siloxane impressions of your teeth to create an alignment process model and then fabricate clear aligners in various thickness levels to achieve tooth movement as desired.
Veneers
Veneers are thin shells made of porcelain or composite material designed to cover imperfect teeth in front of them and mimic their look and feel, which mimics natural enamel. Their shape, size and colour can be tailored for each patient based on facial features or desired appearance; gaps, chips or misalignment will still be noticeable. However, veneers won’t correct severe issues like missing or severely damaged teeth, requiring crowns or implants as solutions.
Genetics or grinding and gnashing of teeth may leave some unusually shaped or pointy teeth, while veneers will help improve these cosmetic issues and give you confidence when showing your smile.
At your initial consultation visit, your dentist will consult with you about your goals and devise a plan. They will then prepare the teeth (removing a very thin layer of enamel – less than the thickness of one fingernail) before taking impressions for moulds that will form your permanent veneers. On subsequent office visits, they will check fit, colour and installation.
Lumineers
Lumineers are thin porcelain veneers designed to help correct cosmetic issues like crookedness, uneven or chipped front teeth and discolouration of teeth. Similar to traditional veneers, but with some key differences, unlike their predecessors, Lumineers don’t adhere directly to natural teeth surfaces and do not require grinding or etching for installation.
Your dentist will first take an impression of both lower and upper teeth (and possibly jawline and facial contours), which will then be sent to an authorised Lumineers laboratory for processing.
Invisalign
Invisalign utilises clear plastic aligners to straighten teeth. Each tray is custom-made based on a three-dimensional representation of your mouth. Invisalign typically takes less time and is more discrete than traditional metal braces to treat issues such as gaps between teeth and crowding of the gums, overbites, or underbites.
As part of your treatment, aligners should be worn for 20-22 hours each day and can only be removed to brush and floss your teeth. Hot beverages and colourful foods should be avoided because these can damage the clear plastic aligners; additionally, their complex maintenance makes cleaning harder, and they may stain or warp more readily than expected.
Your my-dentist.com.au teeth straightening Adelaide practitioner will scan your teeth and discuss your goals during your initial consultation before creating a customised treatment plan tailored to you. They may suggest changing trays at certain intervals and reviewing past trays’ effectiveness and should schedule visits every six weeks to receive more. You may even require elastics with hooks on either side to move the teeth more effectively.