Twenty-one years ago, even for mild cosmetic adjustments of your teeth, you were looking at being fitted with some kind of bracket and wire braces. While this type of braces is very effective, sometimes it’s using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It’s no wonder most people didn’t bother with cosmetic teeth straightening work.
The reason teenagers have to wear unsightly metal train tracks on their teeth for up to two years is that bracket and wires braces pull the jaw as well as the teeth into alignment. This kind of work is best done while the jaw is still growing in the adolescent years.
At Harley Street Dental Clinic, most of our adult patients don’t need the jaw adjusting. If you grew up in the UK with a misaligned jaw, it’s likely your dentist will have recommended you for treatment on the NHS. If as an adult you experience misalignment still, it could be that it wasn’t serious enough to qualify for NHS treatment, or that it’s just your teeth that need readjusting.
If this is the case, these days there are much quicker, easier and more discreet ways to straighten your smile.
In Harley Street, Invisalign clear aligners do the job of straightening mild to moderate misalignments of the teeth very well. Invisalign first became available to dentists in 1997 and has now been used by more than 4 million patients worldwide.
The aligners are thin, thermoplastic resin trays that snap over the teeth and gums. Rather than pulling the teeth into position, they nudge them forward using pressure points inside the trays.
Treatment times are quicker – 9-18 months depending on the severity of your case – and because the aligners are transparent, there’s no conspicuous signs of teeth straightening at work, meaning you can go about your daily life as usual. Treatment is also more affordable because it’s shorter and you don’t need as many check-ups with your dentist during the procedure.
This makes cosmetic teeth straightening much more available to a wider range of patients. Talk to our dentist today about Invisalign in Harley Street, and find out if you can join the smile revolution.