Bravery for Your Root Canal

For some people, dental braces can be a fashion statement. For you—perhaps not so much. The prospect of several years with visible metal components bonded to your teeth might not be appealing. You know that you need orthodontic treatment, and while you're exploring your options, you're hoping that the best option will be an orthodontic treatment that's barely visible—or better yet, totally invisible.

Your Specific Problem

You have some input into your treatment, but at the end of the day, the best orthodontic appliance to solve your problem depends on the specifics of the problem. Conventional dental braces can be the most efficient solution when a person's bite is significantly misaligned, or when teeth are considerably overlapped (and may even have rotated in their sockets). But these conventional braces can be a disproportionate form of treatment when an orthodontic misalignment is minor to moderate. 

Lingual Braces

Minor to moderate misalignment of teeth can be effectively corrected with lingual braces. They resemble conventional braces, but can still be thought of as a barely visible form of treatment—for a very straightforward reason. The brackets of conventional braces are attached to the buccal (outward-facing) surfaces of your teeth. The lingual surfaces of teeth are their rear or inward-facing surfaces, so you can probably guess where lingual braces are attached. They still require regular orthodontic adjustments, but their position renders them barely visible.

Clear Aligners

Clear aligners are another great option and are far less invasive than any orthodontic appliance that must be bonded to teeth (like braces). These clear aligners are not quite invisible but are made of transparent thermoplastic that makes them quite inconspicuous. They operate via sustained force retention—slotting over the entire ridge of teeth and applying sufficient force to reposition the teeth. Individual trays are non-adjustable, so will only be able to move your teeth a fractional distance. Once this has happened (which takes one to two weeks), the tray is replaced by the next in your customized series. 

Even Clearer Aligners

These types of aligners aren't new technology, and the materials have undergone refinements over the years. One relevant refinement is the transparency of the trays themselves. Spark clear aligners are even clearer than many aligners on the market, while also having improved resistance to stains. Obviously, staining is a quick way to make transparent aligners clearly visible. Spark aligners are perhaps the least visible orthodontic appliance available—making them a good choice when you don't want anyone to know that you're undergoing orthodontic treatment.

Those with severe misalignment of their bite will still need conventional (and conspicuous) dental braces. But when your problem is only mild to moderate, the fact that you're receiving orthodontic treatment doesn't have to be obvious. 

For more information about clear aligners, contact a local company.