Modern dentistry gives us numerous tools and techniques to achieve the results you’re looking for. This unprecedented range of options also comes with a challenge: figuring out the best approach for you. If you are unhappy with a crooked smile, you might be perplexed by the many orthodontic options available.
The truth is that the only sure way to know the best way to fix your crooked smile is to schedule an appointment with a cosmetic dentist who can evaluate your smile in detail and make personalized recommendations for what will work best in your situation. In Columbus, OH, Dr. Mike Firouzian invites you to schedule an appointment at Firouzian Dentistry. However, here are some basic suggestions to help you start thinking about how your situation might influence your orthodontic treatment choice.
Best Way to Straighten Simple Cosmetic Crookedness
Six Month Smiles is an excellent choice if your crooked smile is just a cosmetic problem. If your teeth aren’t straight, but primarily the front teeth, and your bite is healthy, this is the approach for you.
Six Month Smiles uses traditional bracket-and-wire braces to move your teeth. What makes this approach innovative is that it focuses just on moving the visible teeth at the front of your mouth. These teeth have smaller roots, so they’re easier to move quickly. Yes, most people get their results in six months with this approach.
Six Month Smiles offers other benefits, too. The use of traditional brackets and wires makes the technique very predictable, and it can quickly deal with rotated teeth and over-emerged teeth, movements that aligner therapy can have difficulty with. Focusing on the small teeth also reduces discomfort. Six Month Smiles uses clear brackets and a white wire to make it as subtle as braces. Finally, the system is set up to simplify your straightening appointments.
Best Way to Straighten Your Smile with a Busy Lifestyle
Invisalign is the best way to straighten your teeth if you can’t put your life on hold for one day, let alone six months. Invisalign’s clear plastic aligners are removable, so you don’t have to change your diet or skip public appearances because you’re wearing braces. You can take your aligners out if you are speaking in front of a crowd, getting pictures taken, or have an important tet-a-tet. Just ensure you wear them for 20-22 hours a day if you want to stay on schedule.
Invisalign also allows you to manage your orthodontic treatment with a minimum of dental visits. We need to check in periodically to ensure you’re progressing and keeping up with your oral hygiene routine, but these quick visits can be spaced out many weeks apart.
In addition, Invisalign is a better treatment than it’s ever been. It’s faster than ever and can handle more complex tooth movements than in the past. If you were told in the past that you weren’t a candidate for Invisalign, it’s time to consider it again.
Best Way to Straighten Teeth and Reshape Your Jaw
ControlledArch orthodontics is the best way to straighten your teeth if you are also looking to change the shape or function of your jaw.
Most orthodontic approaches focus on your teeth. However, your teeth are part of a complex system, and properly managing that system can do more than straighten your teeth; it can reshape your jaw. ControlledArch orthodontics activates your body’s developmental pathways to achieve more significant changes than traditional orthodontic approaches. Using metal wires and brackets, ControlledArch orthodontics can help your body reach its unrealized developmental potential to give you a straight smile and a better profile.
In addition, reshaping your jaw can help with problems like temporomandibular joint disorders (TMJ or TMD), snoring, and sleep apnea. By reshaping your bite system, ControlledArch orthodontics can give you a healthier bite, reducing or eliminating TMJ symptoms. Plus, when the system reshapes your jaw, it can also reshape your airway, giving more space for unimpeded airflow. This can reduce the sound of snoring or the severity of your sleep apnea. As a final benefit, ControlledArch orthodontics can be 30% faster than traditional braces.
Best Way to Straighten Damaged, Small, or Poorly Shaped Teeth
What if it’s not just crooked teeth that are making you unhappy? If you’re also bothered because your teeth are damaged, small, or have an unattractive shape, consider porcelain veneers.
Unlike all the other approaches we’ve discussed, porcelain veneers don’t move your teeth. Instead, they reshape them so that the tooth’s visible part is straight, even if the roots haven’t moved at all. They can do this as part of a smile makeover that takes less than a month. That’s why porcelain veneers are sometimes called “instant orthodontics.”
It’s important to realize that the amount of straightening you get with veneers isn’t as much as we can achieve with other orthodontic approaches. In some cases, this means you might need to use a different orthodontic method before getting veneers, but if you are looking to repair or reshape your teeth and straighten them, you will want veneers at some point.
As an additional benefit, veneers can whiten your teeth and straighten them–and make them whiter than you can achieve with teeth whitening.
Fix a Crooked Smile in Columbus, Oh
If you’re unhappy with a crooked smile, you don’t have to just live with it. There are numerous ways that you can get a beautiful, straight smile. In your consultation with cosmetic dentist Dr. Mike Firouzian, you’ll discuss these options and decide the best one for you. Even though we’ve mentioned some options here, keep an open mind about the different orthodontic approaches until you talk to Dr. Firouzian. He’ll examine your smile in detail and determine which approach is best for your smile.
To schedule a consultation at Firouzian Dentistry in Columbus, OH, please call (614) 848-5001 or use our online form today.
