Office Blog

As I have announced my plans to open my own office, I was shocked to see how much confusion there is in regard to adult orthodontic treatment!  So many people have asked, do you treat adults?  Of course I do!  I am an orthodontic specialist, meaning I understand the complexities of both kids and adult treatment.  I am the best person to see if you are looking for just a small adjustment or if you have a more complicated treatment.  In fact, some of my favorite cases have been adult cases where we have made changes better than we could have imagined.  So, you may be thinking, I am too old for orthodontic treatment!  You would be surprised to know I treat about as many adults as I do kids.  I won’t share how old my oldest patient has been, but let me just say, no one is “too old”.

While some do choose braces, many also choose Invisalign or clear aligners.  I will have a blog on braces versus Invisalign soon, but for now, know that you can most likely have either!  I recently posted a blog about going back into treatment after losing your retainer, which I think applies to many adults.  However, I also have many adult patients who have never had treatment as a child and now want the perfect smile.  Whatever your situation is, know we have a treatment plan for you!

To sum it up, no one is too old for braces, but if you are interested in orthodontic treatment, braces or invisalign is an option to obtain your perfect smile!

After you got your braces removed, you likely got a retainer.  Your orthodontist probably told you to continue to wear it to bed, but after a while your dog ate it, or you threw it away or lost it, or maybe it just stopped fitting.  Many people think it’s their wisdom teeth that caused the shift, but it’s actually a little more complicated than that, I won’t get into that today.  These days orthodontists actually recommend you wear your retainers to bed forever! This is because we have seen teeth shift over the years.  For many different reasons, the teeth tend to want to go back to their old position.  And while some people can get away with never wearing retainers and their teeth stay perfectly straight, some can wear their retainers for 10 years and then stop and still see shift like I did.

Previously the only option to fix this was to go back into braces.  In the past 10 years or so we have seen a huge influx in clear aligner options, the main one being Invisalign.  These can be pricey because they involve a third party.  For something as simple as a slight change in your lower front teeth we can actually provide in house clear aligners.  Meaning we will make you a clear aligner tray in our office and in some instances can get it back to you the same day or the next!  If you read my last blog on digital work flow you can see how easy it is!

For more severe shift, it is sometimes necessary to go back into full treatment.  In these cases we will utilize a clear aligner system like Invisalign or spark, or if you prefer, traditional braces.  I always say there are pros and cons to both braces and clear aligners.  At the end of the day usually it is your choice on which would be better for you.  In my next blog I will go over the major pros and cons of braces or aligners.

One of the big things I wanted to be able to do in my own office was implement cutting edge technology.  3D scanners have been around for a bit now, but the next phase of this is 3D printing within the office.  In this blog post I am going to explain the 3D digital workflow with the Medit scanner and Sprintray Pro Printer, and why it is so cool!

Prior to 3D scanners we took impressions.  You may remember the tray with goopy material that sometimes flowed down the back of your throat and may have made you to gag.  It’s also very messy!  Instead of the traditional impression, we can now take a digital impression with our Medit scanner.  This is almost like a small camera that scans your mouth and creates a digital model of your teeth.  We can then view your digital impression on the computer and evaluate your teeth and bite.

If you only need a retainer, we will simply print your model and make you your retainer.  You can take that model home and anytime you need a new retainer you can bring it into the office and have a new retainer in about 15 minutes.

If we need to make adjustments to your teeth, we have two options; Invisalign or another clear aligner.  If you are looking to get Invisalign, we can scan your teeth and send it out to be processed. While I would still be designing your treatment plan, we would rely on Invisalign to make the trays and mail them back to us.  A less expensive option would be making your clear aligner trays in our office. The whole process is pretty quick.  A scan takes a few minutes, uploading and making the changes take about 10-15 minutes and then it takes another 20-40 minutes to print your models depending on how many versions we need.  Then we can make the aligner trays on those models that you can take home that day, or usually the following day depending on how many need to be made.

All of that to say that in about an hour we could have delivered your very first aligner tray and have you on your way to a straighter smile!  Not only is this option usually less expensive, it’s also much faster since we are not waiting 3+ weeks for your trays to be delivered in the mail.

I am excited to see how much easier this digital workflow gets as the technology progresses.  This is just the beginning and we are excited to adapt with the changes as they come!

Next blog post is super informational for many people as we will be talking about orthodontic relapse, when your teeth shift after getting your braces off, and how we can fix it!

 

 

I am so excited to share the amazing news that I am opening my own orthodontic office.  Obviously if you are reading this you are on my website and are aware, but I want to share a fun backstory.  I swear I have always known I wanted to be a dentist.  Weird, because I don’t have any family members that are dentists.  As a child I actually owned a dental tool kit and would clean family members teeth.  Prior to having my kit, I would actually use spoons and forks, I was crafty!

When I was around 8 years old, I started to go to the orthodontist and realized what an amazing place it was.  My Orthodontist just walked around and said “Hey buddy, how’s it going?”  It looked like he was always having so much fun.  When I was 12, I started my second phase of braces and by the time I was done I realized how truly amazing orthodontics was.  You can literally change someones self-confidence by giving them a beautiful smile. I truly felt like my orthodontist was a genius, how cool to be able to provide this before and after!

Starting in middle school I was on a mission.  I understood how much school it would take to be successful and I made the conscious decision to work hard in order to get into the advanced classes.   I participated in sports, but I was also in the National Honor Society and other clubs knowing the importance of having a strong and diverse college application.  It all paid off the day I was accepted to my dream school The University Of Michigan, GO BLUE!  I spent an amazing four years in Ann Arbor.  After that I accepted a position in the Dental School at Boston University.  Another four years in an amazing town!  My husband spent his years studying at MIT getting his PhD, while also volunteering as my practice patient whenever my patients didn’t show.  Ask me to tell you the story about the first time I gave him an injection on my very first day in clinic.

I did spend one year after dental school working as a general dentist, which I think gave me a unique perspective on patient management and general dentistry.  Moving on to my orthodontic residency was one of the best choices I have ever made.  Many dentists will provide simple Invisalign cases, but as an orthodontic specialist I spend an additional two and a half years studying the complexities of teeth alignment, the bite and beyond.  I spent two years working in Colorado before we moved back to Michigan to be closer to our family.  We have been in Michigan for three years now, but I am excited to finally open an office that I can call my own.

I am looking forward to providing cutting edge technology like a 3D scanner, 3D printer, and in-house aligners.  Stay tuned for future blog posts on the topic.