Wednesday 21 July 2010

Making us Smile

Thank you very much to Lucy, whose treatment was completed this week. She wrote some lovely comments about how easy her treatment was and how happy she is with the result. Her final sentence just made us smile; "It was brilliant, fabulous, fantastic, great, pleasing, easy, whoop de doop!"

Tuesday 6 July 2010

A date for your diary

You are invited to attend the Must-Have Makeover Event in Wetherby on Tuesday 20th July.

Between 12pm and 2pm there will be a variety of local beauty and healthcare providers in the Town Hall for you to meet and chat with. Many have special offers and all will be able to help you with your queries, whether it is about orthodontics, dentistry, hairdressing, fashion, beauty or cosmetic surgery.

Megan and Carly will be there to discuss all aspects of orthodontic treatment and will be especially featuring the invisible options of Invisalign and Incognito, plus an exclusive discount on Invisalign treatment.

Best of all, the whole event is free! See you there!

You can visit the website for more information

You can follow the event on Twitter

Find it on Facebook

And on YouTube

Monday 5 July 2010

Six Month Smiles?

I've noticed a recent trend in new treatments that promise straight teeth in less time than traditional braces, in six months or even as little as six weeks. These treatments are being promoted to general dentists as a simple way of helping their patients. They are also being promoted as a brand, direct to patients. They are not marketing to specialist orthodontists, who you might think would be the ideal market.

I have a few concerns over whether branded short treatments (such as Inman or Six Month Smile) are the right thing for patients in the long term.

The appearance of the braces is often not very aesthetic, can be quite bulky and difficult to wear, and one make used a type of clear bracket material that is considered outdated and inferior (composite rather than ceramic). In a short space of time a tooth position can be dramatically improved, but for most cases it would still not be ideally positioned in such a short space of time.

There is natural limit on how fast a tooth can move, and I would like to see reasearch as to whether faster movement is detrimental to the tooth, and whether the teeth are more likely to relapse.

My main concern is that dentists who are inexperienced in orthodontics are being told this is an ideal solution for their patients, that it is easy to do and their patients don't need traditional orthodontics. There's a reason that I did three years dedicated orthodontic training and making orthodontics seem easy devalues the many orthodontic specialists. Yes, fitting braces, changing wires, instructing patients is fairly easy to learn, but seeing the whole picture, understanding possible side effects and being able to correct errors is something that takes training and experience. I know from using Invisalign that there is a learning curve with every new appliance and now I understand its limitations I can recommend it with confidence to the right patients.

So if you are considering orthodontic treatment to improve your smile be sure your dentist or orthodontist explains the pros and cons of the treatment, and find out what the alternatives are. I offer a wide range of brace types, varying in speed, cost and aesthetics so for most patients there is an option to suit them.

Can I provide straight teeth in six months? In a few cases, probably.
Can I promise straight teeth in six weeks? No, not to the standard that I would be happy with.
Can I offer the best treatment type for you? Yes!