At Orpington Dental Care, we are all about the smiles. We do all we can to help you maintain a healthy, happy smile for life. There are many ways we do this, including our preventive treatments, such as scale and polish cleaning and mouth cancer screening.

Another way we help you keep your teeth for life is with braces in Orpington. Although many people associate braces with cosmetics, especially for adult patients, teeth straightening also creates healthier teeth that have an increased chance of lasting longer.

Straighter teeth are easier to clean. With fewer irregular gaps in between teeth, such as you find with crooked, crowded and gapped ones, it’s easier for brush and floss to do their work. And, it also means that there are fewer nooks and crannies for plaque and bacteria to build up in, meaning you are less likely to develop tooth decay and need extensive and expensive tooth repairs and restorations later in life.

So, while you many need to wear braces in Orpington for up to 18 months, it really is a short-term pain for long-term gain.

To make this process a little easier, we offer two types of discreet braces in Orpington: Six Month Smiles and Invisalign.

Six Month Smiles use brackets and wires to pull the front 6-8 teeth into position. However, unlike their traditional metal counterparts, Six Month Smiles braces are made from tooth-coloured and ceramic materials, meaning that they blend into the teeth, rather than stand out from them. And, as they name suggests, they do the job quickly. Treatment takes 4-9 months, depending on the severity of the misalignment.

Invisalign is even more discreet. These clear, plastic aligners are near invisible. They are like thin mouth guards, and only a close friend or a dental professional would be able to spot them once in place on the teeth. Invisalign can deal with more extensive misalignments, across the whole set of teeth. Accordingly, treatment takes longer, 12-18 months on average.

After both procedures it is necessary to wear a retainer to keep the teeth in their new positions. A small price to pay for a happier and healthier smile.