ALIGNERS, WHAT ARE THOSE?
ALIGNERS, WHAT ARE THOSE?
DEFINITION From DIGITAL ORTHODONTICS - Solo Edition by Dr. Bak Nguyen
Before, to straighten the teeth, we used brackets and wires. So mainly we installed brackets on your teeth and, with wires with elastic memory, the wire will slowly bend back to its original shape, which is a U shape. The U shape is often the desired shape of the mouth.
Since 1997, we now have a better way to straighten teeth without the use of brackets and wire. We now leverage the digital modelisation of the mouth to straighten the smile, tooth by tooth. It is possible by creating a sequence of clear plastic molds that will guide the movement of the crooked teeth into their desired positions. Moving from one aligner to the next, we can now successfully reshape the mouth and most smiles without metal brackets or wires.
Except for the cases that required orthognathic surgery, most cases today can be addressed with the new digital orthodontics, which the leading brand is Invisalign.