Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Why Not Everyone Gets Approved Right Away
- Gum Health Comes First
- X-Rays, Scans, and What They Reveal
- Bite Analysis: More Than Just Crooked Teeth
- Lifestyle and Compliance Assessment
- What Happens After the Evaluation
- Conclusion
- Contact Us
Introduction
You walk into a dental clinic wanting invisible aligners, and you expect to walk out with a treatment plan. But in many cases, the first appointment ends with more questions than answers, and that is actually a good sign.
A responsible dentist does not hand out clear aligners the way a shop hands out a product. There is a clinical process behind the decision, and skipping it can lead to poor results or, worse, damage to your teeth and gums. This article explains what your dentist actually evaluates before recommending invisible aligners, so you know what to expect and why each step matters.
Why Not Everyone Gets Approved Right Away
Clear aligners are a good option for a lot of cases; they’re not suitable for every mouth, though. You can have patients with active decay, untreated periodontal disease or other jaw problems that need to be dealt with prior to orthodontic treatment. There are also certain bite problems that clear aligners simply aren’t capable of dealing with.
This doesn’t rule you out entirely. What it does mean is that the dentist wants to sort out any existing problems before they start the orthodontics. It would be rather like fitting invisible aligners onto a mouth that has untreated cavities and inflamed gums. The surface would look OK for a bit, but the problem underneath would just get worse.
A proper assessment will protect you from spending your time and money on a treatment that won’t deliver the outcome you’re after.
Gum Health Comes First
Before we get onto the tooth movement, your dentist will check the gums. Healthy gums are absolutely essential for invisible aligners. If you have gum disease, then you have compromised the bone that supports your teeth and applying pressure to teeth in that situation can actually cause them to become loose rather than move.
Your dentist will be looking for the signs of gingivitis and/or periodontitis (bleeding, swelling, pocket depth around the teeth, bone loss on the X-ray). If gum disease is present, then treatment will typically be professional cleaning (possibly including deep cleaning/scaling and root planing) and a healing period prior to aligners commencing.
Some patients are frustrated by the delay, of course, but this is the step that separates a properly planned treatment from a potentially dangerous one.
X-Rays, Scans, and What They Reveal
A visual exam only shows what’s above the gum line. To properly plan clear aligner treatment, you need to see the full picture (root form, root length, bone density, the position of any teeth that haven’t fully erupted and the relationship between the upper and lower jaws).
This is where imaging comes in. Panoramic X-rays give you a broad overview of all your teeth and jaws. CBCT scans (cone beam computed tomography) give you a 3d image which shows the bone in exquisite detail. Intraoral scanners create a digital impression of your teeth, replacing the old putty tray method.
Together they allow the dentist to plan exactly how each tooth is going to move, how far it can move and whether any roots are at risk. You simply can’t do aligner treatment without that data, and it would be pure guesswork.
Bite Analysis: More Than Just Crooked Teeth
Most people think of the invisible aligners as a way of straightening out teeth that look a bit uneven. Your dentist is also looking at how your upper and lower teeth meet when you close your mouth.
Bite problems include overbite (the upper teeth sit too far forward of the lower teeth), underbite (the lower teeth sit in front of the upper teeth), crossbite (some of the upper teeth actually sit inside the lower teeth), and open bite (the front teeth don’t touch when the back teeth are closed). All of these affect the way the forces of chewing are distributed across the teeth and can lead to tooth wear, cracking and jaw pain over time.
Clear aligners can deal with a lot of these problems but the treatment plan will be very different for each case. A spacing case may take six months. A moderate overbite case could take over a year. The dentist will assess the severity and determine what is achievable with just the aligners and what may require a combined approach.
Lifestyle and Compliance Assessment
This is the bit that patients don’t always anticipate. Your dentist will be asking you about your normal day to day routine, your eating habits and how likely you are to be wearing the trays for 20 to 22 hours a day.
Invisible aligners only work when they’re in your mouth. If you’re someone who travels a lot and tends to skip them, or if you’re someone who just isn’t the most disciplined when it comes to routine, the results will be very poor. Some people are just better off with fixed braces as the appliance does the work without you having to be quite so disciplined on a daily basis.
A good dentist will be straight with you on this. If your lifestyle isn’t compatible with the wear requirements you’ll find out during the assessment rather than halfway through a treatment that’s come to a standstill.
What Happens After the Evaluation
Once the clinical checks are complete and the dentist has confirmed that clear aligners are an appropriate treatment option, the planning phase commences. Your digital scans are used to create a virtual model of your teeth and the software then simulates the movement of your teeth from their present position to the desired outcome in a step by step fashion.
You’ll normally get to see the simulation prior to committing. It shows you how your teeth will look at each stage and gives you a very realistic idea of the final result. Any necessary alterations are made at this stage rather than after the trays have been made. Once you’ve approved the plan the trays are manufactured to your specifications and shipped to the clinic. Treatment commences with the first set and you move onto a new tray every one to two weeks as your teeth progressively move into position.
Conclusion
Getting invisible aligners is far from as simple as just picking a product off the shelf. The assessment your dentist carries out prior to giving the go ahead covers gum health, bone structure, bite, root condition and your ability to adhere to the wearing regime. All of those elements are there to protect your teeth and ensure the treatment actually works. If you’re looking at clear aligners then the first port of call should be a proper assessment at a dental clinic where the dentist takes the time to go through all of that before making a recommendation. That initial appointment is the basis of everything that comes after.
Contact Us
Magnum Dental Clinic, JLT Shop No. 2, Indigo Tower, Cluster D, Al Thanyah Fifth, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai, UAE. Phone: +971 54 452 2332
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