Traditional Options
When you and one of our doctors decide that this is the optimum time for you to begin your orthodontic treatment you and the Dr. Darren or Dr. Tucker will discuss the various appliances with you and help you choose the appliance that would be the best choices for your treatment. We would like for you to be familiar with the braces we use in our office. All are of exceptional quality and produce the results that we are very proud of: A World Class Smile. Here are the appliances available in our office for orthodontic treatment:
The most popular appliance used in our office is a metal bracket glued directly to the front surface of the tooth. It is small, compact and very efficient and is manufactured by American Orthodontics in such a way as to be comfortable to the patient. Everything that goes into the making of this bracket and the bracket itself is made in America, in Sheboygan, Michigan. These brackets must be placed in an absolutely perfect position on each tooth at your banding appointment and our doctors have the skill to perform this task. The bracket is the vehicle that holds the archwire to the tooth. As you can see in the picture the archwire fits into a small grove in the bracket. The archwire is what the doctor takes out of your mouth at each adjustment appointment. The archwire moves the tooth towards its proper position in your mouth and is secured to the bracket by a very small rubber band called a Power O. These power o’s can be clear or any color that you can imagine. At each appointment you get to choose what color you would like to wear for the next few weeks. The doctor might use a wire that moves the teeth because it reacts to the warmth in your mouth (an adaptation of a metal used in the NASA space program), or he might put bends and curves into the wire to move an individual tooth. At each appointment he will be moving each tooth closer to its perfect position in your mouth.
Another appliance that is very popular in our office in a clear ceramic bracket that is very similar to its brother the metal bracket, but is much less visible and therefore a winner for the beautiful young teenager or adult who might just be a bit self conscious about metal brackets on his/her teeth. Click on our video to see how you can change the color of the Power O’s on our clear ceramic brackets. Our ceramic brackets are also made by American Orthodontics. You can visit their web site at www.americanorthodontics.com.
