If you’re in need of teeth straightening, Manchester dental practices specialising in orthodontics in Manchester can help. At our smiles dental Manchester office for example, we offer a wide range of treatments designed to help realign teeth. These include fast or accelerated orthodontic treatments such as C-Fast, Secret Smiles, and Six Month Smiles through to lengthier full-term treatments such as ceramic braces, lingual braces, and Invisalign aligners. While you don’t have to look far to find information about each individual treatment, it’s more difficult to find information on how braces actually work. With this in mind, let’s take a closer look.
The first thing to note is that despite the many different orthodontic appliances available they all perform the same function and that is to straighten teeth using applied gentle force. Although there are some subtle differences in the way that this is done, generally speaking appliances are either fixed to the teeth or placed over the teeth to force them to move/turn/grow in the right direction. So how is this achieved?
Fixed appliances
Fixed orthodontic treatments are what most people would recognise as traditional braces. These are fixed to the teeth for the duration of the treatment and consist of four elements.
- Brackets
- Bonding material
- Arch wire
- Ligature elastic/O Ring
Firstly our smiles dental Manchester team will help you choose the right brace system to suit your needs and/or requirements. Once you’re happy, then small brackets are attached to each tooth using a special type of bonding material. These can either be coloured or silver in the form of conventional braces, or ceramic tooth coloured for discretion. Alternatively, in the case of lingual braces, they can also be attached to the back of the teeth.
Next an arch wire is attached. This runs from bracket to bracket and is used to apply sustained gentle pressure on the teeth which in turn encourages them to move/twist back into the right direction.
Finally a small coloured piece of elastic known as a ligature or O ring holds the arch wire onto each bracket. The elastic ligature can be adjusted to help the arch wire to apply greater pressure in a certain position and is usually carried out by the dentist during a visit if necessary, although with some types of teeth straightening, Manchester appliances utilise O rings that can adjust of their own accord. These are known as self litigating braces. As pressure is adjusted and tweaked accordingly, the teeth respond and will eventually become straighter.
Removable orthodontics Manchester
As opposed to fixed brace treatments, removable orthodontics are designed to be easily removed by that patient during periods of eating, drinking, and cleaning the teeth. It’s suggested that it gives the wearer better dental hygiene because there is zero chance of food particles becoming trapped; but also, it gives the user greater control (within reason) over when they wear them. Treatments such as Invisalign aligners are one such appliance. So how do they work?
Just to complicate matters, Invisalign aligner treatment doesn’t rely on just one appliance for the duration of the treatment. Instead it involves a whole series of appliances/aligners (sometimes as many as 48 over a 2-3 year period). Each aligner is made from clear acrylic and is designed to be worn over the teeth like an invisible gum shield for a short period of time (approximately 2 weeks). As the first aligner is worn, it’s been made to fit snugly over the teeth forcing them to move a fraction of a position (usually around 1/10mm). After two weeks, the teeth should have moved sufficiently so the first aligner is discarded and the next one in the series is worn which moves the teeth a little more. The whole process is repeated again and again every two weeks until eventually, the teeth have reached the desired position.
As you can see, both types or orthodontic appliance have the ability to move teeth using sustained and gentle force, but it can be achieved in different ways. If you’d like to find out more about how orthodontics Manchester can help you achieve a straighter healthier smile then talk to our smile dentist Manchester about teeth straightening Manchester today. Why not book yourself a consultation by calling us on 0161 660 1218 and take the first steps towards having a smile that you can be proud of.
