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You’ve probably seen commercials on television or advertisements on YouTube and other social media platforms that try to sell clear aligners over the internet, which the company then sends right to your home for a simple, affordable, at-home Houston braces treatment. Our South Houston family dentists are here to tell you to stay away from these kinds of products. Here’s why.

How At-Home Braces Treatment Works

These companies will usually start your treatment by sending you an impression kit so they can see how your teeth are currently aligned. After you send back the impression (which is usually done incorrectly), they claim to use 3D modeling to send you your clear aligners with a wearing schedule.

At-Home Clear Aligner Treatment is Not as Customized as it Should Be

When you come into our South Houston family dentist office for Houston braces treatment, we take impressions and utilize 3D modeling in order to visualize every single phase your teeth go through as we correct their alignment, and we’ll even show you our plan once we complete it. We also see you in-person every few weeks during your Houston Invisalign treatment so we can take the closest look possible and make any necessary adjustments to ensure you are on the right track of alignment. When you get clear aligners off of a website and send in your materials, they may follow up with you via telemedicine, but they can’t thoroughly examine your bite or your progress through a camera. To get the best results, you need to see the dentist in person.

Clear Aligners Aren’t Effective For Everyone

If you’ve read our blog, When Our South Houston Family Dentist Recommends Invisalign Clear Aligners, then you’ll know that clear aligners work best on mild cases. If you have a severe malocclusion, clear aligners found in mail-order kits may not be the best option. You may benefit more from ceramic Houston braces or metal Houston braces.

You May End Up Paying More Than You Would at Our South Houston Dentist Office

We already offer affordable Houston braces, as low as $99 a month. If you go through with mail-order clear aligner kits and treatment doesn’t go smoothly, you may have to pay all over again for a second correction at an orthodontist or dentist office. If the damage done to your teeth by mail-order clear aligners is bad enough, you may end up needing to under surgery or another dental procedure.

Centra Dental Family Dentist in South Houston Wants to Keep You and Your Smile Safe

Although mail-order/at-home braces treatment seems convenient and affordable, you are sacrificing quality for convenience and a healthy smile shouldn’t be about convenience. If you would like to undergo Invisalign Clear Aligner treatment, please book an appointment with our South Houston braces dentist so we can evaluate your teeth, discuss your needs and goals, and come up with a safe, affordable, and effective treatment plan that we can monitor for you.

As you approach the end of your Houston braces treatment, whether you’ve been wearing metal Houston braces, ceramic dental braces, or Invisalign, we’ll have a conversation about how to maintain your new smile with a retainer. There are different types of orthodontic retainers and we’ve previously talked about traditional removable retainers known as Hawley retainers. This time, we’ll discuss the less common bonded retainers.

What Are Bonded Retainers

Bonded retainers are permanent retainers made of wire that is shaped to fit the new alignment of your teeth. Similar to metal or ceramic Houston braces, they are cemented to your teeth with a dental-grade glue, except instead of being on the front of your teeth, these retainers are glued behind your teeth. Many family dentists or orthodontists around the country tend to bond them behind your lower teeth only, and they can only be removed by a dentist or orthodontist. 

Although rare, our South Houston dentist will only recommend a bonded retainer following Houston braces treatment if the patient won’t follow our guidelines on how to properly wear a removable retainer.

Pros and Cons of Wearing Permanent Bonded Retainers After Houston Braces Treatment

Much like how ceramic braces, metal dental braces, and Houston Invisalign Clear Aligners each has positives and negatives, retainers do as well.

Pros of Bonded Retainers

• Bonded retainers are a worry-free method for keeping your teeth straight because you don’t have to abide by a certain schedule, which means you don’t run the risk of making your teeth crooked or separate again.
• No one can tell you’re wearing a permanent retainer, so there is no need to feel self-conscious about it
• Wearing a permanent retainer doesn’t affect your speech, which is common with other types of retainers.

Cons of Wearing Permanent Retainers

• Flossing is harder when wearing a bonded retainer because it gets in the way of the string. This causes plaque build-up and possibly gum disease
• The metal might irritate your tongue or gums

Our South Houston Family Dentist Will Determine if a Bonded Retainer is Right For You

As you or your child near the end of Houston braces treatment, please book an appointment with our South Houston dentist so we can take your needs into account, decide if a permanent retainer is a good idea for your particular case, and have your retainers made. We look forward to giving you a smile you can enjoy for the rest of your life.

Once accessible to few, electric toothbrushes are now widely available on the market. Today, there are some electric toothbrushes that utilize wireless chargers and even have bluetooth capabilities that allow you to set hygiene goals and track how well you brush your teeth. Does this make electric toothbrushes better for Houston braces? Here’s what our South Houston family dentist has to say. 

Brushing Your Teeth With a Manual Toothbrush

Manual toothbrushes are the most common method for keeping up with your oral hygiene. They are certainly effective, so long as they’re used properly. In order to brush your teeth correctly, hold your toothbrush at a 45 degree angle and brush all surfaces of the teeth (front, back, and chewing edge) in slow and gentle, circular motions. Be sure to brush for 2 minutes, spending 30 seconds in each quadrant. 

Manual toothbrushes are readily available at grocery stores, pharmacies and even the dollar store, making them inexpensive, easy to shop for, and easy to replace at the last minute. As for drawbacks, manual toothbrushes may be a bit tricky for younger children to use correctly, so our South Houston family dentists advise parents to help their kids brush. When using manual toothbrushes it is very easy to start brushing a bit too hard, which can lead to pain and sensitivity in the gums. 

Electric Toothbrushes For Our South Houston Family Dentist’s Patients

The greatest benefit of electric toothbrushes is that they do all the work. They move the brush-head bristles in circular motion at the right pace with the right amount of pressure. All you need to do is gently glide it across your teeth. Some models even offer different modes and speeds for tongue cleaning, deep cleaning, and for patients with sensitive teeth and gums.

Can Houston Braces Patients Use Electric Toothbrushes

Our South Houston dentist’s Houston braces patients can use an electric toothbrush without worry. In fact, we often recommend them instead of manual toothbrushes to our patients who have begun their Houston braces treatment. The reason why is because electric toothbrushes make it easier to clean around your brackets and archwires if you wear metal dental braces or ceramic Houston braces. Research has shown that electric toothbrushes are also better at removing plaque, which is harder to do when wearing braces. By using an electric toothbrush, our Houston braces patients will effectively protect their teeth against cavities.

Visit Centra Dental in South Houston to Check on Your Houston Braces Progress

Our family dentists at Centra Dental in South Houston highly recommend our Houston braces patients to brush their teeth with electric toothbrushes. Please book an appointment for your next cleaning so we can check that you’re brushing your teeth well and ensure your treatment is going smoothly.

We recently discussed when we recommend ceramic dental braces, but Invisalign is a more popular alternative that we offer. Here is how Invisalign compares to metal Houston braces and ceramic Houston braces.

What is it Like to Wear Invisalign Clear Aligners?

First of all, Invisalign Clear Aligners are made with a flexible plastic that is molded to your teeth in a way that gently and gradually pushes them into the correct alignment. Clear Aligners are transparent, so they go fairly unnoticed. They are also removable, which is one of their greatest benefits.

When Do Our South Houston Family Dentists Recommend Invisalign Clear Aligners?

We will take a few factors into consideration when determining whether Invisalign is right for a patient. Among these considerations are:

How Severe is Your Malocclusion?

We typically recommend Invisalign treatment if your malocclusion isn’t too severe or problematic. That isn’t to say that Invisalign cannot correct severe misalignment, but it will just take much longer. If your malocclusion is a lighter one, though, Invisalign treatment can take as little as a year.

When it comes to the severity of your malocclusion, we often recommend metal dental braces to our patients who need very complex corrections. As for ceramic braces, these are suitable for mild-moderate cases.

Discipline

Although Invisalign seems to be full of benefits, there are some factors that should be taken into consideration. Discipline is mandatory if you’re wearing Clear Aligners.

Just because Invisalign is removable, does not mean you should go long without wearing it. We tell our patients to wear their aligners for 22-24 hours a day, which means you need to take extra care not to lose, misplace your aligner trays, or forget them.

Hygiene

As with any type of Houston braces treatment, you must make sure to thoroughly brush your teeth after every meal and snack. This ensures no bits of food are left in between your teeth, which would get in the way of the aligners doing their job and would also make you more prone to cavities. 

Centra Dental South Houston Family Dentist Offers Affordable Invisalign Houston Braces Treatment

If you would like to correct the alignment of your teeth and think that Invisalign may be suitable for you, then please book an appointment. We will conduct a thorough evaluation and discuss your needs so that we can develop the best custom Houston braces treatment for you.