“My Teeth are crooked”, Is there something I should worry about?
And I guess what are the options "to straighten my teeth up?"
Well I guess you know, I mean there are several options on how to straighten your teeth up, and I guess it depends on, well, everyone's different, and everyone's teeth are different, and how crooked or how not crooked teeth are also different between people, but also there are many other factors like age and everything like that, but generally it comes down to I suppose you can put it this way, four general options there.
- Do nothing:
Well, there's the first option is you can always leave it you don't have to fix it, I guess the good thing is you know about leaving it is this obviously there's no cost involved in it, and there's no effort in you putting on anything or wearing anything,
But I guess the downside is that with crooked teeth, the problem is it's a bit harder to clean in between your teeth, the analogy I like to use is you know, pretty much if you're going to clean a flat wall as opposed to a wall with grooves and what-not in there, which one is easier to clean?
Obviously, the flat wall, so you know, if you think about it, you can't clean as well, so it can't clean as well, you're more prone to getting holes, and you know, obviously costs are going to increase next time and the other the other thing we call continuous tooth eruption as well so it means teeth are drifting, so teeth continuously move over time.
So, if you've always wondered like, "Ah, you know, five years ago, "that tooth didn't use to stick out that much, "but now, it sticks out a lot more, "I swear, it's moving," Well, you're right, it tends to move, once it goes out of course, it will just keep going you know, until the tooth find somewhere stable and that's usually a little bit far out than where you want it to be. So I guess that's the you know, that's the first option is leaving it,
- Pre-Orthodontic work:
I guess the good thing about it is, more like, what is it? What pre-orthodontic work is this?
It's pretty much you're talking about plates, you're talking about little spring plates or Myobrace or semi-brace, things like that are not exactly braces, braces, it's just a preparation before braces and in some cases you can avoid braces as well using it, of course the you know,
The good thing about it is that it's cheaper and generally quicker, and I suppose depending on the success, depending on how well the the patient wears it, it works as well, you might be able to avoid braces down the track.
I suppose the problem is though is that again nothing is 100%, it's not 100% it really depends on compliance and some depending on which device you're going with, but also it's very age dependent as well, now up to a certain age, you know, teeth move a lot quicker, generally pre-orthodontic is usually indicated when you have baby teeth still, again, depending on the development, some people are 30 years old and still have baby teeth so that doesn't work, but generally I'll say usually around the age of 11 to 12 is the cut-off mark there.
- Braces
Now then the other option will be braces, you know, braces do work, It's the traditional, unfortunately tram tracks is what people call it, but they do come in many forms you know, they can come in ceramic, which are clearer comes into traditional metal, you have lingual braces as well, and that says all sorts of different forms as well, and that there many different brands of braces too, in Tooth Heaven, we use both ceramic and metal, and you can choose either one, and there's, I guess in general, you know, without going into too much detail there,
CONS: I guess in general, the downside of braces is of course the looks, you know, it's not like you see wires running across, even with the best soft materials like ceramic you don't see as much as metal but you still do see a bit of metal over the teeth there, but
PROS: I guess the the upside is it's more of something we can control, you know, it's stuck on your teeth, you know, it's gonna work because it's stuck on your teeth and we're controlling it, we don't have to rely on the patient's compliance or you know, remembering to wear them, and if we don't have to do that as long as you come for your appointments, we know it's gonna work from A to B.
Now the other option or I suppose the more popular, by the way, going back to braces, it's more popular with I guess you know, teenagers or no teenagers usually at school, we do that being said, we do have some cases where clear aligners do not work, as well and we have no choice but to go in braces there, so again, as I mentioned earlier, it's case to case basis depending on age, depending on how crooked your teeth are, depending on what you want us to do, that's where it goes, and then the last option will be clear aligners,
- Clear Aligners
now clear aligners, you know, one of the more famous brands you've probably heard of is Invisalign, that being said, Invisalign is not the only brand in the world, there are so many different types of brands in the world, and last I checked, I think there's about about 21 or 22 brands out there, yes, there is a lot, and don't get me wrong, not all of them are exactly the same, and I suppose depending on what you want to do, depending on what you're trying to achieve, most brands can move teeth, It's just to what degree in Tooth Heaven,
I suppose we clear aligners, look, the downside of the clear aligners, is that you got to remember where it is, is not glued in your teeth, you have to take it in and out, which means you got to wear it for 22/7, pretty much only taking you out when you're eating or brushing your teeth, yeah, that's pretty much it.
I guess the other downside is that generally it's depending on what you're trying to do, sometimes it's as fast as braces but in general, I mean you're pitting plastic against metal, you know, obviously metal you can pull teeth and move teeth a lot quicker than clear aligners would but the difference is quite insignificant these days it used to be months and months on end, but now with technology, with most products out there, It's sort of dropped down to you know, maybe sometimes a month maybe two months difference really it's insignificant,
but I guess the upside is it's invisible, you can't see it and you know, it's a little bit more comfortable than braces because you don't have things stuck on your teeth, that's rubbing you constantly, annoying you constantly, and in terms of costs, you know, it's come down so much, and in comparison to braces, so there're not anymore expensive, sometimes depending on the brand again, sometimes even cheaper than braces.
So, in Tooth Heaven, we do stock different brands of clear aligners, we have Invisalign, we have Clear Correct, we have Clean Straight, and there's some other brands as well that we stock off, and so you know,
I guess and the prices vary between the brands because there are different levels, and again depending on what you wanna achieve and depending on what we start off with as well, so I guess the best way to find out as to which is more suitable, you know, how much is it?
And are there any payment plans? Yes, we do have payment plans at Tooth Heaven which are interest free.
But I guess, you know, the best thing, the best suggestion I can make is of booking a time with us or with your local professional that does moving teeth, and you know, I don't know about the others but we do offer free consults here at Tooth Heaven for any moving teeth business so Otho work you know, until the next time, we'll hopefully see you here and I hope this video has helped you understand what are the general options out there, till then we'll see you soon, bye now.
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