What Are The Stages Of Orthodontic Treatment?

Orthodontic treatments help correct malocclusion and irregularities with your teeth, and the treatment might occur in different phases. There are many benefits to correcting misaligned teeth. Straighter teeth appear pleasing and significantly boost confidence and self-esteem.

Straighter and correctly aligned teeth make teeth cleaning easier while enhancing the jaw’s biting, chewing, and speaking functions. They also provide freedom from dental infections like tooth decay and gum disease.

The different types of orthodontic irregularities that you might want to correct. Some examples include an overbite where your upper teeth protrude over your lower teeth, underbites where your lower teeth protrude further than the upper teeth making your chin appear prominent, and crossbites causing some of your upper teeth to close inside the lower teeth instead outside, and overcrowding caused by insufficient space in the jawbone causing permanent teeth to emerge incorrectly to become rotated.

What Do We Mean by Orthodontic Phases?

Orthodontic treatments generally require six months to three years to complete. The treatment time largely depends on the complexity of the malocclusion and the type of orthodontic appliances that help correct the problems besides the patient’s perseverance.

Orthodontic treatments are not straightforward and must work in different stages after careful evaluation by the dentist to determine treatment suits the patient’s requirement.

Patients are also required to go through queries stages of orthodontic treatment before they can display aligned teeth. Let us look at the different stages of the treatment to help you understand orthodontics and get the straighter teeth you deserve.

Different Stages of Orthodontic Treatment

The Planning Stage: Your orthodontist accurately diagnoses your condition effectively and expediently on how to realign your teeth. The initial visits to the specialist may include the following evaluations.

Phase — 1 Planning

Medical and dental examinations detect problems in the oral cavity to ensure they are entirely controlled before beginning the treatment.

Provide bite impressions to make plaster models of your teeth for your orthodontist to scrutinize the position of each tooth and its relation to the remaining teeth.

Panoramic x-rays to view actual potential pre-existing damage to the jaw joint. Orthodontists view the x-rays to pinpoint the exact position of each tooth and its root.

Computer-generated images help the orthodontist create a treatment plan and examine how the treatment might affect the face’s shape and the jawbone’s symmetry.

Pictures are taken by many orthodontists before, during, and after the treatment to assess how the treatment progresses and its impact on the patient’s face.

Phase — 2 The Active Phase

The orthodontist utilizes the diagnostic tools mentioned above to develop a tailor-made treatment plan for the patient and will recommend specific customized orthodontic appliances to move the teeth into proper alignment gently. They might recommend fixed or removable appliances. However, traditional orthodontic appliances are fixed utilizing dental brackets connected by archwires. Lingual braces are also set on the interior side of the teeth to make them less visible.

Removable orthodontic appliances are an alternative to fixed braces. For example, Invisalign aligners, headgear, and facemasks are removable devices designed for wear for several hours every day to expedite treatment.

Whichever treatment orthodontists provide, they regularly adjust it to ensure your teeth receive constant pressure to continue moving to their desired spaces. Orthodontic visits are essential at designated intervals or if part of the device sustains damage.

Phase — 3 Retention

The fixed or removable braces are not required after the teeth become correctly aligned and are discontinued by the orthodontist. After completing the most challenging part of orthodontic treatment, the patient receives a customized retainer from wearing over the teeth. The retainer ensures the teeth do not revert to their original positions. Wearing the retainers for the specified time every day is a requirement because it allows the jawbone to form around the realigned teeth to stabilize them in their proper positions.

Orthodontic treatments may appear lengthy and cumbersome. However, there are essentials to having straighter teeth and better dental health because the treatments prevent dental complications by allowing people to maintain excellent dental hygiene and avoid infections that require them to visit their dentist in Colombia, MO, frequently to treat conditions that require intensive therapies to benefit their dental health.

All American Dental provides orthodontic treatments through the stages mentioned in this article. If you need teeth straightening, you find it better to schedule an appointment with this practice to evaluate your condition and receive proper treatment from an experienced professional.