Author Archives: Smilecraft Dental Care

Preparing for orthodontics in Stevenage

If you want to get your teeth straightened, you may need orthodontics in Stevenage. At Smilecraft, we do all we can to help you prepare for the experience of wearing braces. This might include giving you information on what will happen and advice on how to cope with each stage of the journey.

Orthodontics in Stevenage When you visit Smilecraft, a member of our team will give you personalised guidance. However, there are some general preparatory steps that apply to almost everyone:

Selecting your braces

Choosing the right braces for your circumstances goes a long way towards making your treatment comfortable. You may be able to select a method like Six Month Smiles, for example, so that you can enjoy fast-acting, discreet braces that are easy to fit and popular with our patients;

Healthy teeth

Before you start having any orthodontics in Stevenage, your teeth need to be in good condition. Braces move teeth gently, but it is still a strong process for them to undergo. In order to enjoy your treatment and reduce the risk of damage to your teeth, you may need to have repairs, fillings or even a good clean and polish before you start your teeth straightening procedure;

Emotions

Teeth straightening is a long-term treatment. While some procedures, like Six Month Smiles, take a shorter amount of time than many methods, you still need to be prepared to wear braces for a few months or more. The best way to prepare emotionally for this is to look forward to the way your teeth will look when they have been moved. You could put up a picture on your fridge of a straight and beautiful smile to help remind you;

Extractions

Occasionally, a tooth or two may need to be removed to make room for the realignment of your smile. This particularly applies if you have had a problem with overcrowding prior to your treatment. Your dentist will only do this if necessary and they will discuss it with you beforehand;

Advice

Following the advice of your dentist helps you to enjoy your treatment and keeps your teeth and gums healthy. This might include tips on food choices, care and frequency of check-ups.

The process of getting Six Month Smiles

Getting Six Month Smiles braces in Stevenage with Smilecraft is an exciting prospect for many patients. The thought of finally achieving a straight smile, if you have been living with a misalignment for a long time, can be liberating and certainly something to look forward to.

Choosing Six Month Smiles braces in Stevenage means that you do not need to be apprehensive about the teeth straightening process. Normal worries about, for example, the appearance of your braces, are addressed by the design of the braces. The equipment used by Six Month Smiles is specially crafted to blend in with the surrounding teeth, so obtrusive braces become a thing of the past.

Braces in Stevenage Ask your dentist, Smilecraft, about the process of getting Six Month Smiles. Everyone is different but, usually, it all starts with a consultation and gathering information. Once your practitioner is satisfied that you are suitable for Six Month Smiles, they can send all of your information off to them so that your unique braces can be made. Six Month Smiles return these to your dentist for fitting. They may need to do some preparatory work, which will either take place before or during your fitting. Once the brackets are in place, a wire is threaded through them and secured with elastics. This is the basic process of fitting Six Month Smiles although your dentist can explain in more detail during your initial appointments.

How do Six Month Smiles feel when they are fitted?

Despite the fact that Six Month Smiles braces in Stevenage have a low profile, it may still feel a little odd when they are first fitted. This is because the inside of your check is not yet used to the sensation of something sitting between them and your teeth. The feeling of having something in your mouth should fade fairly quickly as your body begins to disregards the signals coming in.

In terms of other sensations, you may feel some discomfort initially. This is because moving teeth, even when done gently, involves placing pressure on the teeth and gums. Fortunately, any sensations do fade quickly and, in the meantime, you can take ordinary painkillers to help alleviate them.

How to maintain a good dental hygiene

Proper dental care is a vital part of keeping your teeth healthy. In addition to regular brushing and flossing at home, it is very important to visit your dentist regularly to get check-ups and professional cleanings. Your dentist will also examine your teeth thoroughly and look for signs of tooth decay and gum disease. Gum disease is the most common oral hygiene-related condition, affecting 75% of all adults in the UK to some degree or another.

Dental Hygiene in Stevenage At Smilecraft, we believe that regular dental check-ups and cleanings can make all the difference to smiling for a lifetime. For this reason, we provide a variety of services to prevent dental diseases from counselling to scaling and polishing. Our dentists are here to help you take good care of your teeth and gums.

Visiting the dental hygienist

Visiting the dentist and the dental hygienist regularly is the best way of maintaining good oral health. The main role of our dental hygienists is to prevent any serious problems from occurring. For this reason, they will scale and polish your teeth and also show you the best way to remove plaque at home.

During a scale and polish procedure, your hygienist will remove plaque from your teeth and beneath your gum line. Some patients may require a deeper scaling, which includes cleaning the roots of their teeth. Each patient’s mouth is unique and your dentist will tailor a treatment plan to suit your personal needs.

Your dental hygienist will also provide information on how diet and nutrition affects your mouth. For instance, you will be advised to stay away from sugary and acidic foods, in order to help prevent dental decay and erosion. Your dental hygienist will also show you the best techniques to brush and floss your teeth at home.

Patients with greater risk of decay can benefit from fluoride treatments. Other gels and solutions can also be placed on the teeth and gums to help with sensitivity and bacteria under the gum. Finally, your dental hygienist will advise you on the negative effects of smoking on your oral health and show you the best ways to quit smoking.

Fast and effective tooth realignment

If you want to improve the alignment and appearance of your teeth without spending a long time wearing a dental appliance, Smilecraft has the solution for you. A discreet and speedy experience of orthodontics in Stevenage, Six Month Smiles uses tooth-coloured wires and brackets to reposition your teeth using gentle pressure. Its colouring minimises unwanted attention, and as its name suggests, the average duration of treatment is around six months.

The stages of orthodontics in Stevenage

At your initial consultation, we’ll take a look at your teeth, and listen to you talk about how you’d like to improve them. If our treatment is the appropriate way to achieve your desired results, we’ll take some detailed images of your mouth, and proceed according to a meticulous treatment plan.

Six Month Smiles focuses on the teeth that are most visible when you open your mouth. Your realignment appliance stays attached to the front of your teeth while treatment is ongoing, and is customised to work efficiently. It won’t cause the embarrassment that more visible dental braces can bring to their wearers. Worries about your appearance at business meetings or social events will be kept to a minimum.

After the braces are removed, you’ll probably need to spend a while wearing a retainer at night time, so that your teeth become securely fixed into their new positions.

The benefits of orthodontics in Stevenage

Improving your smile can help you to feel better about your overall appearance. If your front teeth stuck out too much beforehand, they’ll both look better and function more effectively after your treatment. Crooked or crowded teeth will be easier to keep clean once they’ve been straightened out. This reduces your risk of gum disease and tooth decay, because there’ll be fewer awkward spaces in the mouth for bacteria and food debris to hide in.

If you’ve developed the habit of keeping your teeth hidden when laughing, or posing for photos, realignment treatment can make this a thing of the past. Our Six Month Smiles can also be more-cost effective for you than alternative types of tooth realignment. Contact us today to find out how this contemporary technique can make cosmetic and functional improvements to your teeth.

Orthodontics: another very long word in dentistry

Just like medicine, the dental profession is awash with very long words for things. These words usually derive from Latin or the Greek. Sometimes bits of both languages have been used. The reason such words are used is so that they can be understood by dentists all over the world, whereas translations from one everyday language to another can often cause confusion

A great example of a very long dentistry word is orthodontics. In Stevenage, this wonderfully important-sounding word refers to the branch of dentistry involved in making sure that your teeth fit together properly. It covers not only your teeth, but your jaws as well. If your jaws don’t line up, your teeth don’t either. Because teeth straightening doesn’t quite cover everything we do in the area of alignment, we use the word orthodontics in Stevenage.

Orthodontics in Stevenage At Smilecraft, our favourite appliance for bite and teeth alignment is Six Month Smiles. As the name suggests, the average treatment time for this device is only six months.

How does Six Month Smiles work?

It works like traditional bracket and wire braces, except that it is much finer and therefore more discreet. Instead of heavy metal, the brackets are smaller and made of clear ceramic. The wire that strings them together is tooth-coloured nickel titanium.

Six Month Smiles with orthodontics in Stevenage uses the same tried and tested mechanics that you find on much heavier ‘train track’ braces. The angles at which the brackets are positioned on the teeth determine the direction in which the wire will gently pull the teeth.

Six Month Smiles is generally used for people who want to move their front six social teeth only. These teeth only have one root to be moved, which is another reason why the treatment can be so much quicker than the two or three years one expects with traditional metal braces.

The best way to find out if Six Month Smiles can help you is to book a consultation with us at Smilecraft. Once we have assessed your teeth we will be able to tell you if this is what you need or some other treatment might be more suitable.

Half a year to straighter teeth

Life is short. It seems that we are only over one festive season and it’s time to start thinking about the next. Knowing how the days can fly by, imagine how quickly you could have straighter teeth with braces in Stevenage.

Most people think of treatment with braces in Stevenage as a long, drawn-out process that goes on for years. That may have been how it was once, but not anymore. Now, for mild misalignments, you can get your teeth straightened using braces in Stevenage that only take an average of six months to do their work.

Six Month Smiles

At Smilecraft, we love seeing how quickly this brand of braces can transform our patients’ smiles, and with it, their self-confidence and happiness levels. Being able to smile a lovely smile means that you are likely to smile more often and more genuinely, using one of those smiles that crinkles up your eyes. This kind of smile releases serotonin, the body’s natural feel-good chemical that raises happiness levels, and leads to more crinkly-eyed smiles.

The other thing about having straight teeth is that they last longer, as the pressure from eating is more evenly distributed. They are also easier to clean, meaning less decay and gum disease.

Six Month Smiles is the perfect treatment for adults who have problems with their front six social teeth. They may be crowded, gappy, leaning in or out, overlapping, twisted, or not quite descended properly.

The brackets of these braces in Stevenage are made from clear ceramic and the wires are made from tooth-coloured nickel titanium. Because the front six teeth are anchored by one root instead of three, they can be moved with much gentler forces than the molars. This means the brackets can be smaller and the wire finer, resulting in braces that discreetly blend in with the teeth rather than dominating them.

It also means a faster treatment, on average six months, but as little as four or as much as nine.

To find out more about Six Month Smiles braces in Stevenage, come in for an assessment. We’d love to help you bring out the best in your smile.

Why we love white fillings

The aim of modern dentistry is to allow you to hang on to your natural teeth for as long as possible. At Smilecraft in Stevenage, we count it as a success if you get to keep all your pearly whites for your entire life.

And one way you can do this is by having white fillings instead of amalgam. For decades, amalgam has been the preferred filling material because it is quick and easy and does a pretty good job. But the truth is that now white fillings do a much better job. There are three main reasons for this, besides the fact that white fillings look so much nicer and don’t announce your dental history to the world when you laugh.

White fillings make your teeth stronger

When we put in amalgam fillings, we have to take away more of the healthy tooth material. Amalgam cannot bond with the tooth, and so places stresses on the thinner tooth shell that can, over time, cause cracking. With white fillings, we just have to remove the decayed material. This, plus the fact that the filling is bonded to the tooth, means that there is much more of your own tooth left in place and this makes it stronger and more able to cope with the daily stresses and strains of chewing and biting.

White fillings resist decay better

Amalgam cannot bond with your own natural tooth material. This means that when we put in an amalgam filling, it sits in your tooth with no seal, so there is always going to be a miniscule gap between the filling and your tooth through which bacteria can sneak in to create more decay. White fillings actually bond with your teeth, and the resultant seal prevents bacteria getting in.

Better chewing

Amalgam fillings cannot be shaped. They lie flat within the tooth. White composite fillings are cured and then we shape them to resemble the natural contours of your own teeth, so that you get a far better chewing surface. This puts less strain on your teeth.

We can fill new cavities with white fillings, and we can also replace your old amalgam fillings.

An investment worth making

If you are unhappy with your smile, but are not sure you can justify the expense of having braces in Stevenage, then perhaps we can help you.

It may seem that having straight teeth is purely a vanity thing; after all, 40 years ago, very few people bothered with having their teeth straightened if they were only a bit crooked, not even movie stars. However, nowadays, it seems that having your teeth aligned is almost obligatory. It may have started with apparently self-obsessed celebs, but there are real emotional and physical benefits that come with the results of treatment with braces in Stevenage.

The physical side of things

Let’s look at your physical health. When your teeth line up along your jaws, they are better at biting and chewing. If you leave your teeth wonky, you will find that, over time, chewing can become painful, as some teeth take more of the brunt of the powerful forces we create when we eat. If only a few teeth are absorbing that force, they can crumble away over time. Not only that, but the uneven pressures can translate into pain in the jaw joint, neck and even manifest as headaches and migraines.

Besides the pressure issue, decay and gum disease can be more of a problem when your teeth are misaligned. This is because wonky teeth offer more nooks and crannies that are hard to keep clean, little havens for plaque to build up. The acid that bacterial plaque gives off is what erodes tooth enamel and irritates the gums, so if your teeth don’t crumble, they may just decay or fall out. Not a great prospect. Well-aligned teeth are far easier to keep clean and more likely to stay intact.

The emotional side of things

Emotionally speaking, having straighter teeth can contribute to your overall happiness levels. When you have a smile you like, you will smile more. Your smile activates the release of the body’s natural feel-good chemicals, such as serotonin. When you’ve got more of that floating round your body, you’re more likely to smile, creating an upward spiral of feeling better.

To find out more about how braces in Stevenage can benefit you, why not come in for a consultation with us at Smilecraft?

Get your smile back

When you start to notice a part of your appearance that you’re unhappy with, it’s hard not to fixate on it when you look in the mirror. Although others may not notice the same thing, it can drain your self-esteem when you feel dissatisfied with a problem that irritates you. If you’re unhappy with misaligned or crooked teeth, it might be that you want to stop smiling.

A future without smiles shouldn’t be an option, which is why we provide orthodontics in Stevenage. At Smilecraft, our welcoming and experienced dentists understand that not all patients are comfortable with traditional braces. In fact, some would rather avoid teeth straightening treatment than to go through a procedure that could disrupt their lifestyle. Fortunately, we provide a discreet alternative to traditional metal tracks that lets you carry on as normal.

Let’s be clear

At Smilecraft, we provide Six Month Smiles as one of several treatments included under orthodontics in Stevenage. This is a subtle yet precise treatment which works in a similar way to traditional braces, except the brackets and wires are tooth-coloured. This means they more easily blend into the background of your teeth for a discreet treatment.

Six Month Smiles is cost-effective because it takes less time to shift and straighten your teeth into their desired positions. Although the length of treatment differs from patient to patient, it can straighten your teeth in as little as six months.

Looking good, feeling healthy

While Six Month Smiles is designed to improve the appearance of your teeth to boost your confidence, it also encourages good oral health. If you have overcrowded, misaligned or gappy teeth, straightening your teeth means much less room for plaque to build up between them. In turn, you are more likely to avoid complications like tooth decay or gum disease.

It’s only a matter of time

In Stevenage, orthodontics is all about giving you confidence towards the smile you deserve. Thanks to advances in modern dentistry, you no longer have to be burdened with unsightly metal braces or lengthy treatments. If you’re considering orthodontics in Stevenage, then contact us today at Smilecraft to book your consultation.

Going places

When it comes to your teeth, you shouldn’t have to settle for imperfection. It is important that you feel comfortable to smile to your fullest. Perhaps you’re unhappy with having crowded, crooked, or gappy teeth but you want the perfect smile without having to go through all the trouble of traditional braces.

Many adults assume that they have passed the years of braces, which are so commonly associated with children. Thanks to advances in modern dentistry, this no longer has to be the case. At Smilecraft, we provide braces in Stevenage that serve as alternatives to traditional fixed metal braces. This is because we understand that adults might want to go through a discreet teeth straightening treatment while they work or socialise.

The clear alternative

You should never have to keep your smile on standby while you go through treatment, which is why Six Month Smiles lets you smile as you go. In Stevenage, braces have come a long way since the train track look.

Six Month Smiles uses tooth-coloured wires and brackets, making the braces hard to spot from afar while they straighten your teeth, as they more easily blend into the background. They work to shift your teeth over a time period of as little as six months, meaning the treatment is less intrusive on your lifestyle in both time and appearance. The reason this is possible is because Six Month Smiles focusses on straightening your front teeth – the ones that are most on show when you smile. This means gentler forces can be used while still ensuring a shorter treatment time

Braces to benefit your future

Although adult braces are often focussed on improving the appearance of your teeth and achieving your desired smile, they can also improve your oral health. Crooked or misaligned teeth are prone to dental problems like tooth decay or gum disease through a build-up of plaque. By straightening teeth and bringing them into proper alignment, there is less room for the plaque to accumulate and cause complications.

If you are considering braces in Stevenage, then contact us at Smilecraft today to book a consultation with one of our welcoming dentists. Get on track to your confident smile today.

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