What is Orthodontic Care & How an Orthodontist Can Help?
Like other dentistry specialties, Orthodontics helps improve patients’ oral health, just in different ways. Dentistry is a broad medical field that treats the gums, teeth, nerves, and jaws. Thus, orthodontics emphasizes bite correction, occlusion, and making teeth straight.
One difference between orthodontists and general dentists is that all orthodontists are dentists, but not all dentists are orthodontists.
What Can An Orthodontist Help With?
In most cases, orthodontic care addresses crooked teeth. However, they can help with other issues too. Some of the more common problems include:
· Overbites
· Underbites
· Crossbites
· Gapped teeth
· Overcrowded teeth
· Temporomandibular disorders
The Heavenly Smiles Dentist also helps with additional jaw problems.
While regular dentists have training on delivering orthodontic care and performing orthodontic operations like tooth extractions and fillings, you have better chances when you trust your smile to a dentist in Poway. In addition, they have extra training on special treatments like Invisalign braces.
Here Are Some Advantages of Orthodontic Care
Benefits of Orthodontics:-
Observe Progress of Incoming Teeth
The first person to detect problems with incoming teeth is your child’s orthodontist. Early detection is a great way to spot and prevent dental issues before developing and becoming lifelong problems.
If there are serious issues with your child’s teeth development in the mouth and jaw, your child orthodontist detects them in time and corrects them. Sometimes, detecting these problems early enough saves your child the trouble of having to go through oral surgery and future complications.
If immediate treatment is not needed, your orthodontist then closely tracks them and the teeth development. They ensure your child has a proper jaw alignment, saving them from future problems.
Guide Teeth into Their Ideal Position
Orthodontic treatments like Invisalign braces and other teeth straightening options help deal with misaligned teeth. If one has an overcrowded mouth, teeth tend to grow out of position, creating an unpleasant look.
However, the Invisalign dentist near you can help guide teeth to their correct positions on the jaws in orthodontics. With straight teeth and a perfectly aligned jaw, chewing food becomes easy for your child. Better chewing means your teeth can break food into smaller particles needed for effective digestion. This helps with the child’s overall development.
Monitor Face and Jaw Development
Orthodontists understand the patterns of jaw development in children. If there are any issues with your child’s jaw development, an orthodontist detects it early enough and issues the right remedies for the issue.
Temporomandibular disorders are especially an issue of concern in growing and developing children. These can be caused by habits like thumb sucking and overuse of pacifiers. If the patterns persist, your child could risk damaging their teeth. The Invisalign dentist may issue braces to be an excellent way to terminate this habit.
Reduce Risk of Impacted Teeth
There are many causes of impacted teeth. This disorder can occur if a tooth twists or grows at an odd angle to stop pushing through. An impacted tooth can also occur if one has overcrowded teeth such that there is o space for new teeth. Another risk factor is if the child has a small jaw such that some teeth grow well while others stop.
For any of these causes, if you or your child constantly have orthodontic care, your orthodontist can detect the signs of an impacted tooth and deal with it in time before the problem occurs.
Detect Hidden Dental Issues
Sometimes, it can be difficult to detect dental issues like small jaws, impacted teeth, or overcrowded teeth. However, an orthodontist can see these issues you may not think are a threat and stop them early enough before further complications develop. This can save you the time and money needed in more invasive treatments to correct these issues.
What To Expect At The Orthodontist
Examination and Consultation
When getting invisible braces or other orthodontic treatment, you must register for an examination and consultation appointment. Your dentist fills in crucial paperwork regarding your dental and overall medical history.
Consultations and examinations inform your dentist of the last time you had a dental checkup, your last x-ray, and more. With this information, they then make the best decisions for your treatment.
Assessment
This involves completing an oral examination and x-ray imaging to detect the issues that may not have come up during the consultation appointment. The examination may include using hand tools for an oral examination, taking a dental mold of your teeth, and x-rays of your teeth and jaws.
You may have dental issues like needing fillings that must be addressed before receiving orthodontic treatment.
Treatment
After the consultation and examination appointments, your orthodontist develops an initial treatment plan. It mostly involves solving your dental issues first before correcting orthodontic problems.
Your orthodontist recommends a method that can be used for the best results, depending n your problem. The orthodontist also informs the patient what to expect from their scheduled procedures.