LINGUAL ORTHODONTICS: THE SECRET PATH TO GREAT SMILE
The appearance of braces, on the buccal tooth surface, has been demotivating for some patients who wish to naturally improve their smile through orthodontics. Such demand posed a challenge to the specialty and the orthodontic community had to come out with the ultimate aesthetic solution: Lingual Orthodontics.
The idea of aligning teeth with appliances on the lingual surface goes back to the 18th century. But it’s in the late 1970’s that the first system of multi-attachments (braces) and wires emerged.
Orthodontists and orthodontic manufacturers kept trying to improve their systems over the years but they were still encountering some issues such as the irregularity of tooth shape from the lingual side, the difficulty of adaption of braces, the tongue irritation, the speech impediment, the bonding failure, the complexity of lab procedures, the poor finishing…
The latest advancements in dental technology, such as Computer-Aided Design and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM), was able to bring Lingual Orthodontics to a higher level. The treatment end result can be planned and visualized in advance and the lingual appliances, both the braces and the wires, can be customized and manufactured accordingly.
This technology includes:
– High definition scanners to reproduce the patient’s dental anatomy
– 3D software to simulate the orthodontic treatment and to design the appliance
– 3D printer to produce the customized attachments
– Wire bending robot to produce the customized arch wires
It allows to produce perfectly adapted attachments to the tooth surface minimizing the risks of debonding. The reduced size of the lingual braces improves the patient’s adaptation while maintaining the best movement control. The customized arch wires achieves fast and accurate finishing.
At Sky Clinic Dental Center, our Specialist Dr. Rabih Mahfouz has been using various systems of Lingual Orthodontics but he came to the conclusion that the CAD/CAM system is the best for patients seeking invisible orthodontic treatment in terms of appearance, comfort, efficiency and outcome.
During the consultation, patients are given clear explanation about their case and the required treatment. They can even see on plastic model the details of the appliance.
To start the treatment, different records are taken including digital impression of the teeth and the bite with 3D intraoral scanner. This impression can be used to create a treatment simulation with our software and will be sent to a specialized lab for the customization and production of the appliance.
Depending on the case difficulty, single or both arches can be treated in full or lite version of the appliance.
The production of the appliance takes around 4 weeks. Once received, it will be fixed to the patient’s teeth and full instructions will be given regarding the precautions to be taken during the treatment.
As the treatment progresses, the improvement of our patients’ smiles gets more and more visible but not the “reason behind it”!!
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