Ortho Solutions

Three, depending on the case and the patient. Clear aligners are a discreet, removable choice for mild to moderate alignment problems. Traditional braces remain the most reliable fix for complex bites and rotations. For growing children, early interceptive treatment guides jaw and tooth development so later treatment is shorter, or not needed at all.

Aligners suit mild to moderate crowding and spacing in a patient who will genuinely wear them twenty-two hours a day. Braces handle severe rotation, significant bite correction and cases needing precise root movement, and they work whether or not you remember them, because they are not removable.

The honest version of this comparison is that aligners fail for one reason far more than any other: they spend the day in a pocket. Twenty-two hours means out for meals and brushing, not out for an evening. If you know that will be a struggle, braces will finish faster in practice even though aligners look better on paper.

Yes, though appearance is a perfectly good reason on its own. Crowded and overlapping teeth are harder to clean, so they collect plaque where a brush cannot reach, which raises the risk of decay and gum disease. A bad bite also loads some teeth far more heavily than others, wearing and cracking them.

The wear argument is the one patients tend not to hear about. When teeth do not meet evenly, a few of them take forces meant to be shared across the whole arch. Over a couple of decades that shows up as flattened edges, chips, cracks and sometimes cracked fillings, all on the same few teeth.

That said, we will not oversell this. Plenty of mildly crowded mouths are perfectly healthy for a lifetime with good cleaning. If your reason for wanting treatment is that you dislike how your teeth look, that is reason enough, and you do not need a medical justification.

Around age seven is the usual recommendation, not because treatment starts then but because that is when the first permanent molars and incisors are in and problems become visible. Most children assessed at seven need nothing yet; a minority benefit from early treatment that makes later work shorter or unnecessary.

Early, or interceptive, treatment is for specific problems: a crossbite pushing the jaw to one side, severe crowding where there is clearly no room, a habit like thumb-sucking changing the bite, or teeth sticking far forward and at risk of being knocked. Guiding growth while the jaw is still developing is far easier than correcting the result later.

What early assessment is not is a reason to put braces on a seven-year-old. In most cases the right answer is to watch, check at each regular visit, and begin when the adult teeth are through. We will tell you which group your child is in.

Many cases finish in six to eighteen months, though complex bite correction can take longer. Treatment starts with records and a plan, then regular short appointments to change aligners or adjust wires, and ends with retainers, which are not optional.

1. Consultation and records. Examination, photographs, X-rays and a scan or impressions, so the plan is based on your actual bite.
2. The plan. What moves, in what order, roughly how long, and the total fee in writing before anything starts.
3. Active treatment. Aligner changes at home with periodic checks, or adjustments in the chair for braces.
4. Finishing. Small detailing movements at the end, which is the stage that separates a good result from an adequate one.
5. Retention. Retainers fitted immediately, because teeth move back fastest in the first months.

Teeth sit in a balance between the fibres anchoring them, the bone around them and the pressure of lips, cheeks and tongue. Moving them stretches those fibres, which take many months to settle. Retainers hold the new position while that happens, and some wear is needed indefinitely.

This is the part of orthodontics people most often regret skipping. Relapse is not a sign the treatment failed; it is the normal behaviour of teeth that have just been moved. Full-time wear for the first stretch and then nights indefinitely is the usual pattern, and nights indefinitely really does mean indefinitely for most people.

Teeth also drift slowly throughout life, independent of orthodontics, particularly the lower front ones. A retainer worn a few nights a week is the only thing that reliably prevents that. If you had braces as a teenager and your teeth have shifted since, that is what happened, and re-treatment is usually shorter the second time.

It depends on complexity and how long treatment runs, so you get the total fee in writing at the consultation, before anything begins. Some dental plans include an orthodontic benefit, often with a lifetime maximum rather than an annual one, and we verify exactly what yours allows.

Two details matter when comparing quotes. Ask whether retainers and the finishing stage are included, because a quote that excludes them is not comparable to one that includes them. And ask what happens if treatment runs longer than estimated, since some practices charge for additional aligner refinements and others do not.

We will also tell you when a case is genuinely beyond what should be done in a general practice. Severe skeletal discrepancies and surgical cases belong with a specialist orthodontist, and saying so is part of giving an honest recommendation.

You get an honest recommendation, not a sales pitch. Treatment starts with a thorough evaluation of your bite, then a clear plan with the total cost stated before anything begins. Children, teens and adults are all treated here, and the same team sees you from the first appointment to the final, confident smile.

We start with a thorough evaluation and an honest recommendation — no pressure, no surprises. You get a clear plan, transparent pricing and a comfortable experience from your first appointment to your final, confident smile.

There is also a practical advantage to straightening teeth where your general dentistry happens. Decay and gum problems during treatment are caught at the same visits rather than between two offices, and if the end goal includes whitening or cosmetic work, it is planned as one sequence instead of two.