Hi, it’s Dr Michael Ghobrial here from Sure Dental in Wavell Heights here in Brisbane North.
A few weeks ago, I was at a conference with a few other dentists. We were sharing our experiences with patients who have had some things not go so well with do-it-yourself or DIY aligners.
The worst story I heard was about a patient who had uncontrolled gum disease. She had these aligners on, and lost her front tooth into the actual aligner. Now that’s an extreme example. But the dentist who shared that particular story won that day, he won the prize for the worst story.
With all those stories I heard, I thought I’d make this short video to help you appreciate three of the risks associated with do-it-yourself type orthodontic treatment.
- Probably the first risk, as noted by the poor lady who lost her front tooth, is that healthy gums are a really important part of overall good oral health, and they’re also an important part of stability. If gums aren’t assessed carefully and bone levels aren’t assessed carefully before beginning to move teeth, that can cause some real issues, and in some very extreme cases, even loss of tooth structure.
- I guess the other concern is around tooth decay and infections, and having the health of the actual teeth monitored throughout the procedure. Having aligners on, if care isn’t taken, can increase the decay rate because saliva can’t get in there and protect your teeth. So it’s really important before commencing any of that sort of treatment, to make sure that all dental disease and decay has been treated, and that is being closely monitored through treatment to make sure everything stays healthy.
- The third danger in DIY adult orthodontics is often we need to do a little bit of shaping of the curved areas of some of the teeth to make space for the teeth to be lined up. We call this interproximal reduction or IPR. When IPR isn’t done, that can result in teeth being expanded or moved forward too far. Now, this could have two problems: it can end up not looking very good, with teeth sort of coming out too far, but also if teeth are expanded or procline too much, we can actually go outside of the encasing of the bone and the gum in that area causing some severe gum recession. And so that needs to be closely, closely prepared and monitored by a clinician. Oftentimes in adult orthodontics, that means a requirement of some of this interproximal reduction at the beginning or during your treatment.
So, these are the three main inherent risks in DIY orthodontics. Starting any orthodontic treatment without having a fully-trained professional taking the time to examine you and make appropriate recommendations could put you in danger of having serious conditions missed, and even causing new ones.
I hope you found this video helpful. If you’ve ever considered straightening your teeth or getting an orthodontic treatment properly and professionally, we’d love to look after you. Visit our website at www.suredental.com.au and fill out the enquiry form, send us a direct message through social media or better yet give us a call on 07 3113 9698, and we’ll be in touch to help you organise your consultation. See you in the next video.
