Invisalign® has been around for a few years now and has proven to be a very effective solution for straightening teeth.
However, it does not take the place of all orthodontics by any means. There are many outcomes for optimal straightening of the teeth that can’t be accomplished with Invisalign®, in which case traditional orthodontics are the better option. Fortunately, for the great majority of people who once had orthodontics and it has relapsed, Invisalign® is an ideal procedure to get the teeth straight again. There are many situations where Invisalign® can get excellent results, even for someone who has not had orthodontics before.
In order to utilize Invisalign®, it is vital that the dentist has a full understanding of occlusion and the patient’s TMJ (joint of the jaw) health. Training in orthodontic movement and TMJ is ideal. The goal is not just straighter teeth, it is to get a healthy stable outcome for lasting results. Some outcomes with Inivisalign® can be less stable than they would be with traditional braces, which increases the need for fixed retention, such as wire bonding on the lower teeth or the use of retainers indefinitely.
Invisalign does allow business people to straighten their teeth and not have their image/business savvy interfered with because they can communicate well with Invisalign®, and most people can not even tell you have anything on your teeth. One of the big benefits we see from a dental standpoint is that you can straighten your teeth but still remove these things, brush and floss your teeth, and still keep them very healthy. With traditional braces you can not clean your teeth as well and it holds stuff against your gums. Many individuals with traditional braces end up with inflammation of the gums and discolored teeth from the pressure of the braces. Invisalign® has big advantages in that it uses the most modern Cad/Cam technology. This is where the dentist can view your individual case using a computer program that helps to guide how the movements in the teeth are made. An individual plan can be made that is tailored for optimal treatment for each patient.
A great number of people simply do not go to the dentist because they are afraid. It may be because they had a bad experience when they where a child and some people have no idea why they are afraid.Whatever the reason, we have seen MANY individuals wait until their teeth were almost killing them because of infections before they would come to the dentist.
In the old days we used to send patients to the hospital and give them general anesthesia to do anything.Now we have the capabilities to give general anesthesia in the luxury of our offices.
When I started getting into more comprehensive type dentistry, we needed to find a way to sedate those individuals who had a fear of dentistry to get them through the procedures, because the procedures they needed done could be perceived as “frightening”, not necessarily painful, but frightening. Sedation provides a solution for eliminating that fear.
Oral Sedation
Oral sedation is very popular in dentistry right now but I use it in a limited manner because it is not as predictable or as safe. You can’t predict how it is going to be absorbed or how it is going to affect one person versus another. and you can’t just keep giving them more medications one after another because it takes 30 minutes to an hour for that medication to be taken up in the stomach and to get in the bloodstream. So you could run the risk of over sedation if pills are given to close together.
IV Sedation
The IV is always much safer because once the patient has receive the medication through the IV, within 60 to 90 seconds you know exactly how it is going to affect that person and then you can titrate it (control concentration) so that you get the proper sedation without over sedation, making this sedation method totally safe.
If someone has been avoiding the dentist because of fear, IV sedation is an option because it allows us to do a lot of dentistry in 1 or 2 appointments. and get them back to good health. Fear of the dentist is based upon many things. One of them is lack of trust – so a patient has to come in and learn how they are going to react with that particular dentist to develop trust. We work with our patients on developing trust, especially those who are fearful because that alleviates a good portion of their fear- if they know they are working with someone who cares about them. You can’t get that kind of care in a clinical situation…where there are many patients waiting for that dental chair. For this reason we provide personalized, private, one-patient-at-a-time dental care.
