Attempting to Treat Your Smile Yourself
Dr. Fred Friedman practices Orthodontics in Brewster, Fishkill, Poughkeepsie and Jefferson Valley NY. Dr. Friedman also treats a large percentage of his patients with Invisalign, no matter how difficult the case. He also has plenty of training and experience in facial aesthetics and beautifies faces with fillers and Botox.... more
Nowadays, many people want straight teeth and think they can straighten them by themselves. CVS is adding Smile Direct booths in hundreds of store locations. Some people even try to design tooth aligners themselves on a 3D printer. I think these people are making a pretty big mistake. Orthodontics is a lot more than just pushing teeth around.
A well-trained orthodontist might make straightening teeth look easy but that’s because he/she is well trained and has had plenty of training, schooling and practice at it. They know about breathing issues. They can recognize tongue swallowing issues. They also know that most occlusal problems are not a case of whether or not you have crowding of teeth. Most are in between. So, they also use a technique called interproximal reduction to reshape teeth so as to make them more proportional and fit into a certain size space. And on and on. In other words there is a lot that goes on into making good decisions on how to straighten a smile. Most people who are accomplished at something make it look easy, but in reality they have worked very hard to get to that point where it looks easy.
If you make a mistake at baseball, you simply strike out or drop a ball. If you make a mistake in painting, you paint over it or start again. If you make a mistake in teeth straightening you could easily cause bone loss or root resorption. You can cause temporal mandibular joint problems. You can move teeth into unstable positions and cause mobility to them. And, you can even lose them! Besides, there are many more things that can go wrong, and once you have caused root resorption or bone loss you don’t get a second chance to get that back. You only get one body and one set of permanent teeth. Treat them as the precious treasure they are. Let a professional treat you. You won’t regret it.
