As you’ve probably noticed, DIY is all the rage right now. Social media is full of tutorials and how-to’s on everything from repurposing old objects to making your own bath bombs. This trend is great for anyone with a creative streak, or who loves a good deal, but it does have its limits. As with most trends, this one can sometimes go too far, and DIY orthodontics is a perfect example of that.
Here at Clauss Orthodontics, we think being resourceful, thrifty and crafty can be a lot of fun. However, we also take oral health seriously, especially yours! Dr. Clauss and the rest of our experienced team are proud to provide high-quality orthodontic care to patients of all ages in Woodbury, Watertown, Southbury, and the surrounding communities. We offer a wide variety of affordable treatment options to suit every budget, so there’s never a reason to experiment with risky DIY or mail methods that aren’t backed by experience or skill.
Give us a call or click here to schedule a FREE consultation with our talented team!
To learn more about why you should keep your smile in safe hands by choosing an experienced orthodontist, keep reading below!
DIY orthodontics: a danger to your mouth
As bizarre as it sounds, if you enter “DIY braces” into any search engine, you’ll get many pages of results. Videos are especially popular, with the most popular ones garnering several thousand views. Many make the claim that you can straighten your teeth using nothing more than everyday items like rubber bands, paper clips, bobby pins, and even aluminum foil.
While it should be clear that these methods of DIY orthodontics are dangerous, causing problems like your teeth moving into strange angles, lacerations and pain in your gums that can eventually lead to infection and increased threat of tooth decay such as cavities or even tooth loss. You should never consider attaching foreign objects in your mouth because your mouth is just too important to risk harming!
The Risks of Mail in Aligners
Mail-in clear aligner services are becoming incredibly popular. If you spend much time on social media you’ve probably seen a video declaring how easy and affordable it is to straighten your teeth with one of many services that have popped up. While we understand the appeal of these home aligner systems, orthodontic treatment is too complex to treat with the click of a button! According to the companies providing the aligners, the process involves taking impressions and photos of your teeth from home, then sending them back in. They’ll create aligners using this information and mail them to you. These companies claim their aligners can give you “perfectly straight” teeth in 4-8 months when worn as directed, but can it really be that easy?
The short answer is no. There’s so much more to successful orthodontic treatment than a simple set of impressions and photos. For example, radiographs (or x-rays) are an essential part of any orthodontic exam. Almost every week, our team at Clauss Orthodontics find abnormalities on an x-ray taken at a patient’s initial exam. This might be missing teeth, extra teeth, missing bone, and even tumors in some rare cases. The gums must also be examined, since moving teeth in a mouth with active gum disease can exacerbate the condition, worsening symptoms and even causing teeth to loosen and fall out. An experienced orthodontist like Dr. Clauss will want to examine the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) as well, to make sure there are no functional joint issues.
At-home aligner systems do not take your bite into consideration. They may make your teeth straight, but a problem bite can cause you bigger problems than a few crooked teeth. The team at Clauss Orthodontics will use all of the information collected during an orthodontic exam to create your ideal bite, a difficult but important part of treatment. Misaligned bites can cause pain, discomfort, and wear your teeth out faster.
If you do a little research, you’ll notice that the mail-in aligner systems offer fast results, but primarily on for simple cases. Dr. Clauss can also provide quick and affordable treatment, with even better results. If you have any complex issues, thorough treatment with an experienced orthodontist is the only way to get the beautiful new smile you want.
Put simply, if you’re looking for the perfect smile, it will require an investment of your time and your funds. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing! With orthodontics, you really do get what you pay for. When you get right down to it, it takes more than these companies offer to give you an accurate and safe diagnosis. Only an orthodontist has the education, experience, and equipment to create a personalized treatment plan that takes into consideration your specific case, goals, and lifestyle for the most effective treatment option and the best results.
When it comes to quality, shortcuts don’t exist
Where high-quality orthodontic work is concerned, it doesn’t tend to be quick, easy, or inexpensive (which isn’t the same thing as affordable.) That’s because it takes a lot of education, expertise, and innovative orthodontic technology to create the perfect customized smile for just for you. To move the teeth into more desirable positions, we must actually work with a complicated biological process that involves dissolving the bone and then rebuilding it over time, all under expert observation. Any orthodontic treatment should be supervised by a qualified orthodontist like Dr. Westfall.
Trust your teeth to the experts at Clauss Orthodontics
Orthodontic treatment is an investment, but it’s one that will pay for itself in confidence and oral health over a lifetime.
It is our mission to provide our patients with high-quality treatment that fits every budget because we believe everyone deserves a beautiful smile! We offer a variety of payment options to meet your needs, including Visa and MasterCard. We also offer financing options with affordable monthly payments debited directly from your checking account or billed to a credit card. There is a discount for patients who pay in full at the beginning of the treatment process, and we accept payment from most insurance plans.
Something as important as your smile deserve expert attention. If you want to learn more about how we can help you achieve a healthy, beautiful smile in a stress-free environment, give us a call or click here to schedule a FREE consultation with our talented team!