Orthodontics

Everything you need to know about Brackets

What types of braces are there?

Currently, the patient can choose between four different types of braces:

  • Metal braces
  • Sapphire braces
  • Self-ligating or self-ligating

All systems are indicated to correct the same problems of dental malpositions.

That is to say, there is no one better or more effective than another.

This decision is marked by the priorities of the person who is going to start orthodontic treatment: aesthetic and economic.

Orthodontics with metal brackets

Made of high quality stainless steel, metal braces are the most conventional orthodontic system.

They are indicated to correct any problem related to malocclusion (open bite, crowding, existence of diastemas, cross bite ...).

Although it is the most economical system, it is also the least aesthetic. Therefore, it is usually chosen by children and adolescents for whom aesthetics is not so relevant.

Children, in fact, are especially participatory in the process thanks to the choice they can make of the color of the elastics - rubbers - in the reviews.

In this way, they perceive orthodontics as a game, which makes the process more attractive and bearable.

Orthodontics with sapphire brackets

The aesthetic braces arise in response to the demands of the adult population that begins orthodontic treatment and does not want it to interfere with their daily lives.

Brackets, archwires, and ligatures are transparent, making them a much more discreet method than conventional braces.

The aesthetic braces are made of different materials such as porcelain or resins.

However, the ones that are made of sapphire crystal the only ones that do not stain with the passage of time or the intake of certain foods such as coffee or wine.

They are less economical than metal brackets but, in contrast, offer a more discreet and aesthetic solution for the patient.

Orthodontics with self-ligating brackets

The self-ligating orthodontic system is based on brackets that do not require ligatures to hold the archwire to the tooth.

This means that the orthodontist only has to use the clip system to tighten the brackets, reducing the time of revisions.

How are braces put on?

The placement of braces is a completely innocuous process, so the use of anesthesia is not necessary.

Brackets can be placed following two different techniques:

  • Direct cemented

It consists of the adhesion of the brackets to the teeth, one by one.

It is a very long and laborious and therefore more annoying for the person initiating treatment.

  • Indirect bonding

It is a technique that is based on the placement of brackets in the laboratory on plaster molds that are made to measure for the patient's mouth.

Thanks to a transfer splint made of heat-moldable plastic, they are placed in the patient's mouth at once.

It is a much faster and more precise process than direct cementation, avoiding problems derived from the repositioning of brackets in later phases of the process.

In the first moment, some discomfort is common due to the pressure exerted by the arches on the teeth that can be easily relieved with the ingestion of painkillers.

Once the braces have been placed, patients they should come for review every 4-6 weeks.

In these reviews, the orthodontist will verify the correct development of the treatment and make the necessary adjustments to achieve the desired movements in the dental arch.

What problems do braces solve?

The Spanish Society of Orthodontics (SEDO) states that fixed orthodontic appliances are able to perform all kinds of movements to achieve optimal occlusion.

For this reason, orthodontic treatments with brackets are indicated for those people who, in order to have an aesthetic and functional smile, must solve problems of:

  • Dental malpositions, rotated teeth and crowding.
  • Closing spaces -Diastemas-.
  • Openbite in those cases in which, when closing the mouth, the upper jaw does not make contact with the lower jaw.
  • Overbite the teeth in the upper arch reveal less than a third of those in the lower arch.

Well-aligned teeth not only give us a more aesthetic smile and a more confident and reliable image, but also They eradicate difficulties when chewing and prevent jaw pain.

As we have mentioned, you will hardly feel slight discomfort after each revision.

However, there are some considerations to take into account if you have already started orthodontic treatment.

Before starting orthodontic treatment, ask all the necessary questions about the type of bracket you are going to wear.

What tips will be useful to me during my orthodontic treatment with braces?

Throughout orthodontics, you will have some doubts regarding restrictions in your diet, hygiene techniques or some trick for those moments in which you feel any discomfort.

Next, we give you a series of tips that you can follow while wearing braces.

How should you brush your teeth with braces?

Braces, as such, do not harm teeth.

On the other hand, the fact of wearing a fixed appliance in the mouth makes dental hygiene difficult: it is not so easy for us to get to all the nooks and crannies where food debris and bacterial plaque accumulate.

With braces, it is done especially important to brush your teeth after every meal.

Sometimes a good brushing is not enough to effectively remove food debris and bacteria that nest on the gums.

Therefore, it is essential to use utensils such as interproximal brushes, dental floss or oral irrigator -or waterpik- to complete oral hygiene.

In addition to being extremely careful in hygiene guidelines, we must know that there are certain foods that make our oral cleaning difficult during orthodontic treatment.

What foods should I avoid during my orthodontic treatment?

As we have already mentioned, during the first weeks it is common for you to feel discomfort due to the pressure exerted by the brackets on the teeth.

Therefore, in an initial phase we recommend eating foods that do not involve a chewing effort as purees or soups, or whose texture is smooth - fish, tender meats or cooked vegetables.

Avoid the eating especially sticky foods such as chewing gum or gummies, as they easily adhere to the brackets and make oral hygiene difficult.

During this period, the appearance of sores or wounds.

In addition to the use of special wax for orthodontics, whose action reduces the damage caused by rubbing, you should avoid foods that make it difficult to heal such as citrus fruits, acidic fruits, fried tomato or vinegar.

Finally, you must bear in mind that eating Sandwiches or biting apples helps the braces to come off.

Instead, we advise you to split the sandwiches by hand or cut the fruit into small pieces.

Dental Tips

Common mistakes in the use and care of Invisalign®

Use and Care of Invisalign® Aligners

The so-called invisible orthodontics has been a tremendous revolution. It has managed to change the paradigm of one of the most common treatments in this field. As something new and unknown, sometimes mistakes can be made. Next, we are going to tell you about some of the most common mistakes with Invisalign that we have to avoid.

As you surely know, Invisalign transparent aligners have become one of the most demanded medical-aesthetic treatments today, both by old and young. Its main advantage is that it allows you to obtain fully aligned teeth efficiently, quickly and, above all, without the rest of the people noticing. It avoids having to show and display braces, an aspect that affected not a few patients. That qualm disappears with this new kind of orthodontics.

But to maintain the "invisibility" of the aligners, it is necessary to avoid mistakes and behaviors that could put this highly valued quality at risk. We are going to bring you five mistakes with Invisalign that you have to avoid by all means:

The care and cleaning of the splints is essential for their perfect condition. Some patients, in their eagerness to enjoy aligners in perfect condition, come to boil them for a total disinfection. This is a failure that can spoil them. There are methods and products indicated for cleaning. Ask your specialist.

Summer is a different time, right? Our routine changes, we have more hours of leisure ... All this can cause us to neglect our orthodontics. Food can affect splints, especially ice cream. You have to know that they are not prohibited, especially those made of ice, but we will have to avoid those that could stain them too much.

Another small recommendation for your trips. Your Invisalign should always go with you on the plane. Do not invoice the aligners or the case, since, in case of loss of suitcase, we will run out of them the time it takes to return it to us.

The way to remove them is the fourth of the errors with Invisalign that we have to avoid. The aligners are not removed like a zipper starting from one side and ending on the other. The correct way will be to take them from the inside of the mouth at each end and gently remove it.

To finish this post on the main mistakes we make with Invisalign, another eating tip. Be careful with those foods that contain colorants (natural or artificial) because they will dye our aligners and they will be perfectly perceptible to other people. As well as coffee or tobacco.

Outstanding Dental health

Advantages of dental implants

Advantages and Recommendations - Dental Implants

You may have recently lost a tooth, or even been without your tooth for several years. You know that the most advisable thing is to replace said missing tooth but, nevertheless, you postpone your treatment in time.

Although it seems to you that it is never a good time to start the treatment that restores the lost tooth to your smile, the truth is that postponing the decision works against of your oral health.

This is mainly because the longer you go without all your teeth, the more likely you are to develop problems that compromise the whole of your mouth.

The lack of teeth causes an obvious problem that you may have already noticed: difficulty eating.

But, in addition, it causes other less obvious problems:

  • Displacements of the rest of the teeth to the empty spaces
  • Aesthetic deterioration
  • Wear and tear of teeth that have to bear the load of missing teeth
  • Jaw bone loss

All these complications caused by not starting treatment on time mean that when you finally decide to do it, you find that your treatment is longer, complex and expensive than it would have been initially.

I am missing teeth and I need to replace them, what alternatives do I have?

Although the option more recommendable to replace lost teeth is always the placement of a dental implant with crown, there are also other alternatives.

These possibilities basically contemplate the placement of a bridge or one removable prosthesis -commonly called false teeth-.

Among the different alternatives that exist, Dr. William Eljadue, almost in all cases, for the implant.

This is due to the fact that, of the mentioned options, implant treatment is the one that allows replacing the natural tooth while respecting its functionality and aesthetics.

Advantages of dental implants

If we carefully compare the implant treatment that we perform in our clinic with the bridges or removable dentures, we will realize that the former have greater advantages:

1. They are permanent and durable

One of the main reasons why the vast majority of people choose implants is because they are a fixed solution before the loss of teeth.

That is, once placed, they require the same care as natural teeth, do not interfere with daily routine and they do not require removal to sleep, like dentures.

This, together with the resistance and durability they provide, makes implant treatment a long term solution.

2. They are very natural

The naturalness that implants offer has, in turn, two advantages.

On the one hand, the crowns that are placed on the implant are very aesthetic and allow to achieve infinity of shades, so they resemble the color of natural teeth. In this way, they do not differ from the rest of the pieces teeth that are in the mouth.

On the other hand, implants allow the patient to have the same sensations when chew, talk, or smile that he had with his natural teeth.

This, for example, does not happen with the classic removable prostheses. In addition to being less natural, they are uncomfortable as they must be removed every night and do not fit completely in the patient's mouth.

As they do not fit snugly, they move, causing rubbing and discomfort in the gums.

3. They are safe

The placement of implants is a minor surgery, which has a good postoperative period. In fact, the 85% of patientswho undergoes this intervention can go to work the next day.

Furthermore, it is estimated that, today, success rate of dental implants is 98%.

Despite these data, there are many people who feel fear and anxiety by having to undergo this type of treatment. To provide greater relaxation to these patients, in our clinic we have a service of sedation.

In this way, the person will be semiconscious the entire time the surgery lasts. And, in addition, you can have the peace of mind that the procedure will be supervised by a anesthetist.

4. They do not cause damage to the rest of the teeth

When we place an implant, the rest of pieces healthy teeth found in the mouth remain intact.

However, when what is placed is a bridge, yes the state of the adjacent pieces is compromised, since it is need to carve them.

This carving is irreversible and implies reduce its size.

In addition to this, it is important to note that the replacement of the lost tooth also avoid unwanted movements in the rest of teeth in the mouth.

To do this, we start from the basis that teeth have a natural tendency to move and to look for contacts between them.

That is, if there is an unoccupied space, the rest of the teeth will tend to tilt and move, losing proper position within the dental arch.

5. They help preserve bone

Over time, the loss of a tooth eventually leads to bone resorption that supported that tooth. This is due to the root absenceof the tooth as the bone does not receive its own stimulation from chewing.

The progressive loss of bone causes, in addition to a functional impairment, an aesthetic damage. Due to bone reduction, the lips begin to retract and the appearance gets old.

For its part, the placement of implants allows the bone to be preserved, since the screw that is inserted in the maxilla replace the root of the natural tooth, performing its function.

6. They allow good hygiene

The hygiene carried out by a person who has all their natural teeth is the same as practiced by someone with dental implants.

Being the most similar alternative to our own teeth, the brushing should be the same. The daily hygiene routine should also include the use of floss and rinsing.

And unlike traditional dentures, implants are fixed and do not have to be removed for cleaning.

7. They are very profitable for the patient

It is true that of the options mentioned -dental bridge and dentures-, implants are, a priori, the least economical alternative.

However, in the long run, they are very profitable. How could it be otherwise, this is because they are designed to last for many years.

Taking into account that they are a long-term solution, our recommendation is to make a higher initial effort.

If the patient follows adequate hygiene care, the implants hardly require maintenance. However, they do offer a durability, comfort and naturalness that no other treatment is able to offer.

Dental Tips

Dental Veneers: Frequently Asked Questions

What are dental veneers?

This aesthetic treatment consists of the placement of ultra-thin ceramic sheets in the outermost part of the tooth, covering it completely to achieve the desired color and shape, providing a natural and attractive appearance, which have been previously studied with the patient. It is a totally painless treatment and in just one session you can achieve your 10 smile.

What are the advantages of veneers?

It is a very simple teeth whitening that:

  • Corrects multiple defects in teeth. The shape, size and alignment of teeth can be improved, color improved, diastema closed, etc.
  • Elevate the aesthetics of your mouth. The color of porcelain looks natural and brightens your mouth
  • Very conservative tooth preparation. It is a minimally invasive technique and veneers are much less likely to affect the nerve within the tooth.
  • Strengthens teeth and restores functionality. They help strengthen fractured and sensitive teeth. Veneers can be used to restore worn dentin caused by bruxism as part of a complete oral rehabilitation.
  • Increased self esteem.
  • They need little recovery time
  • Stain and stain resistance. Porcelain is resistant to classic stains from coffee, tea, tobacco and non-alcoholic beverages
  • Local and general bi-compatibility. Ceramic, along with gold, are the materials that have the least biological reactions and bacterial plaque does not accumulate on their surface.
  • Resistant to chemical attack. Both medications or antibiotics, as acids (citrus or others), alcoholic beverages and cosmetics can alter tooth enamel. The advantage of dental veneers is that they remain unchanged in these situations

What does the procedure consist of?

Dental veneers are custom designed for each patient and are generally made of resin or porcelain. To begin this process, the first thing that is done is to remove a thin layer of enamel from each tooth, to later model the porcelain pieces and adhere them to the surface of your teeth.

Who can have this treatment?

Anyone can proceed to undergo a treatment with dental veneers, although we highlight the following profiles:

  • Discolored and / or worn teeth
  • Ragged and gapped teeth
  • Chipped teeth

Is the thickness of my teeth reduced a lot?

The changes that are made to the enamel of your teeth are minimal. Thanks to the technological advances that our dental clinic has, we will respect a large part of the surface of your tooth. It will also depend on several factors:

  • Tooth color
  • Position. Analyze if it is out of place
  • Anatomy Are they canines, premolars, incisors or molars, etc?
  • Old restorations

What are the phases of treatment?

  • Review
  • Taking dental impressions
  • Teeth preparation
  • Proof
  • Final placement of dental veneers
Dental Tips Outstanding OdontoStetic

Definitive Guide on Implants: What are they, Benefits and price

The dental health it is essential to lead a healthy life. A bad mouth is a source of infection and can lead to serious health problems such as blood clots or heart attacks.

What is a dental implant and how much does it cost?

dental implant It is a biocompatible titanium element that is placed in the jawbone, located under the gum and in which, once it is osseointegrated in it, a crown or a dental bridge can be placed so that there are no gaps in the teeth.

The implant is a great alternative to replace missing or missing teeth, as well as to support fixed or removable restorations. Having an implant helps to hold the rest of the teeth, prevent it from moving and allows chewing and help to better process the food we eat on a daily basis.

He price of an implant A single-piece dental can vary depending on several factors, such as the size of the implant, if a bone regeneration surgery has to be done previously, and so on. If you want detailed information on implant prices, You can request an appointment for a free diagnosis and evaluation without obligation for implants by clicking here.

imagen de implantes dentales garrucha odontostetic

What material are they made of?

Dental implants are made of pure titanium, which is a biocompatible material that binds to bone physically and chemically. This process is known as osseointegration. This compatibility makes it an ideal choice for medical uses, in fact, pure titanium is widely used in trauma operations.

What process must be followed to place it?

The first thing you need is to know the shape and size of the bone where the implant will be placed. To be able to put an implant it is necessary that the bone has a width and a sufficient height so that it can be grasped. To obtain this information, a radiological test is carried out and, depending on the results obtained and based on the size of the hole, one type of implant or another will be chosen.

It may be the case that there is not enough space in the bone to place the implant. If this happens it will be necessary to carry out a bone regeneration surgery to gain enough space required by the implant. The anesthesia used for the operation is Local anesthesia, the same that is used in other processes, as in the extraction of pieces.

Once the implant is placed it is necessary to use a healing plug throughout the period of osseointegration, which is the time it takes for the bone to grow around the implant, which is necessary for the implant to support the loads generated each time we chew food. Typically, this osseointegration period lasts between three and six months.

Prosthetic phase

Once the implant has been correctly integrated, impressions are taken to make the mold and, before placing it in a definitive way, the necessary tests and adjustments are made.

On certain occasions when aesthetics rule, it is possible to place temporary molds, but you cannot chew on them as it could ruin the osseointegration process of the implant.

Medical advances have made possible that today we can enjoy perfect teeth despite the passage of time and the problems that we may have suffered.

A dental implant scientifically proven and of optimal quality provides the following advantages:

  • Reduces the chances of implant failure both in the short and long term.
  • It shortens the treatment periods for the patient.
  • It simplifies the procedures necessary to achieve the desired objectives, thus lowering costs without compromising results.
  • Minimizes the morbidity of surgery, as the tested surfaces of quality implants reduce the number of implants required to solve a case. They also allow the use of shorter and narrower implants without the need for bone regeneration techniques.
Outstanding Dental health

Brackets Vs Invisalign: Differences

Comparison between Invisalign® and Brackets

Invisalign® is an orthodontic technique that uses advanced 3D technology through precision clear aligners that are changed every 7-10 days; While the brackets, better known to all, metallic or transparent are small pieces that are attached to the tooth and joined together by an arch.

What are the differences between Invisalign® and Brackets?

Comfort: the Invisalign® splints can be removed so that they allow us to eat and clean them without difficulty, in addition, it does not rub against the inner part of the lip and does not generate any type of wound; Brackets need more precision cleaning since they are fixed and exceptional hygiene must be maintained. There are foods that we cannot eat with them, such as hard or sticky foods, and they can rub and generate small sores or canker sores on the mucous membranes.

Both treatments can cause minor discomfort at the beginning due to tooth movements, but it takes a few days to adapt.

Collaboration: with the Invisalign® technique we need a lot of collaboration from the patient because it can be removed and it is necessary to use them approximately between 20-22 hours a day for the treatment to be successful; While the brackets cannot be removed, they do not need so much collaboration. In both techniques we will have to use auxiliary elements that do require collaboration from the patient, such as elastics.

Aesthetics: Invisalign® is a very aesthetic technique that is barely visible since it consists of transparent splints and small tooth-colored attachments that are slightly visible; while the brackets are visible as they are metallic, although a more aesthetic option would be the sapphire brackets (transparent).

Time: the duration of the treatment depends on the complexity of the case, normally an orthodontic treatment lasts around a year and a half, two years; but there are shorter Invisalign® treatments according to the needs of each patient, Lite and Express.

Visits to the Orthodontist: visits with a braces treatment will have to be once a month, while with Invisalign® visits can be more spaced depending on the number of splints delivered. Likewise, the possible emergencies are less with Invisalign® than with brackets since these can come off and it would be necessary to re-cement it.

The different appliances are tools and it is the responsibility of the orthodontist know and master the different techniques with a solid base of orthodontic knowledge, biology and biomechanics. There are good and bad treatments with Brackets and Invisalign® or any appliance. The one who does the treatment is the Orthodontist. Therefore The best Technique is to put yourself in the hands of good Orthodontists, such as the OdontoStetic Doctor.

Do you still have doubts? See the section on Invisalign® treatment or Brackets.

Posts navigation

en_GBEnglish (UK)
We are available!