Category: Braces

Snap judgments based on visual cues and the use of other senses make up the bulk of what we decide about people when me meet them for the first time. All this takes place within a few seconds of meeting. We use those cues to decide if someone is warm and friendly or cold and distant, whether they are happy and if they are open, honest and trustworthy.

Picking up visual information is almost a subconscious action. And while we are busy deciding what we think about that new person, they are doing the same with us. First encounters, and what people decide about others from them, can make or break dreams. Certainly, lack of a warm smile can make an encounter trickier than it needs to be.

If you are too ashamed of your smile to turn it on when meeting new people, they will probably assume you are miserable or unfriendly, even though in reality, you are simply too embarrassed by your wonky teeth. Don’t let yourself lose out on life’s opportunities because you’re too ashamed of your teeth to smile.

At Aura Dental in St John’s Wood, Invisalign is an innovative way of teeth straightening that allows you more freedom during treatment, while at the same time, being so discreet that no one will know you are undergoing treatment.

In St John’s Wood, Invisalign straightens out crooked, over-crowded or misaligned teeth without the use of brackets, bands or wires. Instead, with Invisalign you wear a series of clear resin trays, resembling mouth-guards, to move your teeth into a straighter position.

The Invisalign method means you can avoid the ‘train-track’ look associated with being a teenager. Also, the 3D printed, clear plastic aligners are so thin that, when they are snapped on over your teeth, they become almost invisible, and do not interfere with speech.

Thirdly, in St John’s Wood, Invisalign trays are removable so that brushing and flossing is easy, and you can continue to eat whatever you like. Also, if absolutely necessary, you can remove the aligners for a few hours for ultra-important business or social events (although you should not make a habit of this).

There aren’t many people who wouldn’t like to have a lovely smile full of straight teeth. Smiles are worth investing in because they are so important in our daily interactions with those we love, those we work with and those we encounter briefly and may never see again. When a smile is in good working order, it’s a pleasure to behold and to use. Getting a great smile by having your teeth straightened can feel like something of an ordeal, and the idea of the hassle and inconvenience that comes with braces may be putting you off getting your smile upgraded. If that’s the case, you’re going to love Invisalign in St John’s Wood.

If you’ve never heard of Invisalign in St John’s Wood, then you need to pop into see us at Aura Dental. We are an accredited provider of Invisalign, a great way to discreetly straighten teeth without the hassle of having brackets and wires fixed to your teeth.

What do they look like?

Instead of brackets and wires, Invisalign in St John’s Wood is made up of aligners that look more like very thin plastic mouth guards moulded to the teeth, hugging them so tightly that, once they are snapped on, they are pretty much impossible to see.

How do they work?

Instead of one device, you receive a series of aligners. Each one has pressure points carefully designed into it and these press on your teeth. You start at aligner number one and work your way through them, changing each one for the next when that feeling of pressure wears off, which takes 7-10 days. How many aligners you will need to wear depends on the severity and complexity of your alignment issues.

Cleaning and eating

You take your aligners out to clean them, and also whenever you consume anything other than plain water. This means you can continue to eat whatever you like. You need to wear them for at least 20 hours a day.

After completion

Treatment with Invisalign in St John’s Wood takes, on average, a year and afterwards you will need to wear a retainer to keep your teeth in their new positions while they settle in.

If you are thinking about getting braces in St John’s Wood, you are probably mostly concerned with how you are going to look while the braces are on your teeth, and you are already looking forward to the day that the braces come off and your lovely straight teeth are there looking marvellous for the whole world to admire.

But, hang on a minute. It’s not quite as simple as that. Once you have been through treatment with braces in St John’s Wood with us at Aura Dental, there is another phase. This phase is when you need to wear a retainer.

What is a retainer?

A retainer is a device that holds the teeth in place once they have reached their final position during treatment with braces in St John’s Wood. You need to wear it on your teeth for some time after treatment ends, possibly even the rest of your life. Your teeth will naturally want to return to the position they were in before braces, you see.

Bonded retainer

A bonded retainer is fixed to the insides of your teeth, so no one will be able to see it. The bonding is very strong and only we will be able to remove it. So, if you are not so great at being disciplined about such things, this is probably the retainer for you.

Essix retainer

This is more like a mouth guard, being a very thin sheet of plastic that is heated and sucked down over a plaster-cast of your newly straightened teeth. Once it has hardened the edges are cut away and this becomes your new retainer, which you wear at night. Patients using Invisalign will probably opt for this kind of retainer, and, in fact, Align Technology, the makers of Invisalign, do their own version of an Essix retainer, called a Vivera retainer.

Ask us about retainers

If you are planning on getting braces in St John’s Wood with us, you can ask us all about retainers when you have your consultation appointment. We will be happy to answer all your questions and can even show you examples of retainers.

If your dentist has recommended teeth straightening or you are looking to improve your smile, you will be pleased to find out that you have several choices available. For a long time, the most common type of teeth straightening was metal braces, which albeit effective, were considered bulky and unattractive. However, dentistry has evolved and you can now take advantage of more discreet straightening treatments like Invisalign.

If you are ready to explore your teeth straightening options and restore your smile, you may be wondering if Invisalign in St John’s Wood is the right option for you. At Aura Dental, we are here to examine your teeth and help you decide whether Invisalign can help you overcome your tooth alignment problems. Using the latest technology, Invisalign in St John’s Wood corrects the vast majority of problems you might experience with your teeth.

How does Invisalign work?

Instead of using metal brackets and wires, Invisalign consists of a series of clear, plastic, removable aligners. These aligners are customised to apply gentle pressure to gradually align your teeth into their correct position. Aligners have to be worn at least 22 hours per day in order to achieve the best results; however, they can easily be removed for eating, brushing, and flossing your teeth.

Who is a good candidate for Invisalign?

If you can have metal braces, then it is quite likely that you can also have Invisalign. However, Invisalign requires patient compliance in order to be successful and this makes it a better option for responsible teenagers and adults who are committed to their treatment. Depending on the severity of your problem, Invisalign can correct gapped, crooked, crowded and misaligned teeth as well as overbites, underbites, crossbites and relapses from previous teeth straightening work.

Is Invisalign the right treatment for me?

Visiting your dentist is the best way to determine if this treatment suits your dental needs. Your dentist will take x-rays and photos of your teeth and perform a thorough examination. While Invisalign does work well for most patients, if it is not right for your individual needs, there will be other treatment options available to reach your goals.

Did you know that when you invest in getting your teeth straightened with braces in St John’s Wood at Aura Dental, you are not just investing in having a smile to be proud of, you are also investing in the long-term health of your teeth?

Dentistry’s main focus nowadays is for you to keep your natural teeth for as long as possible, and one way to do this is to make sure they line up as well as possible. There are two main reasons for this. One is to do with wear and tear, and the other is to do with gum disease and decay.

Wear and tear

When your teeth don’t line up evenly along your jawbone, it means that when you chew, some of your teeth are going to have to take the brunt of the pressure. If only a few on each jaw are doing all the chewing, where pressures can reach up to 97kg or 200lbs, they will probably crumble away in mid-life. When that happens, it will compromise the rest of your teeth, which can then move around in your jawbone, tip into the gap left by the crumbled teeth, and even fall out. Investing in braces in St John’s Wood can prevent this and save you money in the long-term.

Decay and gum disease

Both of these common problems are caused by the build-up of plaque, a sticky film of bacteria that occurs naturally in the mouth. The bacteria feed on sugars in the mouth, proliferate and give off acids. These acids eat away at your tooth enamel, and irritate the gums, hence decay and gum disease. The only way to get rid of plaque is to physically remove it with brushing, flossing, mouthwashes and scraping. It is even harder to get rid of if it is building up in nooks and crannies between wonky teeth. Straighten them out and you have a much higher chance of avoiding tooth loss due to decay and gum disease.

At Aura Dental, we have great braces systems, including the innovative Invisalign system. To find out if Invisalign is right for you, why not come in for a consultation for braces in St John’s Wood?

At Aura Dental, we offer a number of different systems to get your teeth straightened here at our practice in St John’s Wood. Invisalign is one of our favourites and we’d like to tell you why.

Thinking outside the braces

We love the history of Invisalign. It was created by a young student at Stanford University. He’d just had his teeth straightened and was wearing his mouth guard-style retainer. Lying on his bed with his retainer in, he wished his whole straightening system had been as easy to use as his retainer. He got together with dentistry students and found a way to make this work.

3D printing

At Aura Dental, we love the digital age. We still don’t quite understand how 3D printing works, but we know that one of the great products that would not be available without it is Invisalign in St John’s Wood.

Eat what you like

No one likes being told that they can’t eat this and they can’t eat that. And yet, with bracket and wire braces there are often limits on what foods can be consumed. This is because the delicate brackets and wires might be damaged, or bits of food, like nuts or gloopy nut butters, might get stuck under the brace. Not so with Invisalign in St John’s Wood. These little beauties come out when you eat, so you can eat what you like, and just give your teeth a good brush before putting your aligners back in. Piece of cake, so to speak.

Invisibility

This is such a big plus! Invisalign aligners are made of 0.3 millimetre thick, transparent rigid plastic. They are printed to measurements taken with a handheld scanner that recreates your jaws and teeth in minute detail digitally (we can show it to you on the screen). The aligners hug your teeth like a second skin and as long as you take care not to discolour them, no one will be able to spot them once they are in place.

If you think you like the sound of Invisalign in St John’s Wood, why not come in for a consultation?

The trouble with getting your teeth fixed has always been that there’s no hiding that you are having treatment. That’s not so bad at school, where every third kid is wandering around with entire railway systems on their teeth, but in the work place it looks a bit odd. So odd, that colleagues or customers may find it hard not to stare, and the nosier ones will just have to ask all sorts of personal questions, distracting you from doing your job.

If that’s the kind of scenario that puts you off getting braces in St John’s Wood, then you need to come and see us at Aura Dental to find out about some modern systems that can straighten your teeth with so much discretion that people may never even know you are having treatment.

Take Invisalign for example. This system is specifically designed to be almost impossible to spot, once it is in place on your teeth.

Invisible Invisalign

Invisalign braces in St John’s Wood are not really even braces, in that there are no brackets and wires fixed onto the fronts of your teeth. Instead, you receive a series of very thin clear plastic mouth guard-like aligners. These snap on over your teeth, and are held in place by discreet brackets on your back teeth. Each aligner has carefully positioned pressure points that, over the series, nudge your teeth into position. You wear each aligner for a week to 10 days and when the pressure has worn off, it’s time to move on to the next one.

Removable Invisalign

As well as being almost invisible, Invisalign braces in St John’s Wood are removable. You take them out every time you want to eat something, or drink anything other than plain water. If you don’t, whatever you consume will discolour the plastic. All you have to do is brush your teeth well, after you’ve eaten and then put the aligner back in. You’ll find yourself cutting out mindless snacking and endless cups of coffee and you may even retrain your eating habits over the year, on average, that it takes to complete treatment with Invisalign.

Teeth straightening has been evolving due to the surge in demand for adult treatments in recent years. Innovations stemming from technological advances and new, modern materials being readily available have made straightening your teeth quicker, easier and simpler than ever.

One that stands out from the rest here at Aura Dental is Invisalign. In St John’s Wood Invisalign can straighten your teeth without anyone even noticing you’re having treatment. It is considered cosmetic due to its limited adjustment capacity but can still have transformative effects.

What is Invisalign?

Invisalign is teeth straightening treatment that uses a series of clear aligners that look like transparent mouth guards. These braces fit snugly over your teeth. You wear each aligner for one to two weeks, until your teeth have shifted in position, then you move onto the next one. This process is repeated until your teeth reach the desired end point.

Invisalign is much easier to live with than traditional forms of teeth straightening. The aligners are removable, making meal times no hassle at all. It’s even easy to clean your teeth. You simply stick to your usual dental hygiene routine, as prescribed by your dentist. And if you really want to make sure no one can see you are having treatment, you can even take them out for an hour or two, for a special occasion.

Invisalign vs. traditional braces

Invisalign has many advantages over traditional braces. Many adults are put off seeking teeth straightening treatments due to their unsightly appearance.

In recent years ‘train track’ braces have been made less conspicuous with clear and tooth-coloured materials, but they still can’t be called invisible -Invisalign is. Most people won’t notice you’re having treatment, unless you tell them.

Invisalign aligners are custom-made from a smooth plastic that fits around your teeth much more comfortably than traditional braces. Many people with traditional braces complain of discomfort, sometimes to the point of having to be prescribed painkillers. This doesn’t happen with Invisalign aligners.

Find out more

If you’re looking for a modern alternative to traditional braces, Invisalign in St John’s Wood could be the treatment for you. Call into our surgery today and chat to our dedicated clinical staff about the treatment options.

As dentists, we hope that braces won’t forever be associated with those awkward adolescent years and cumbersome metal appliances, but at the moment they still are. In fact, it doesn’t matter how old you are, you can still get your teeth straightened. It’s just that you can only get your jaw realigned up to about the age of 18 when the bone sets hard. That’s why we tend to see many more young teenagers than adults wearing braces. But also because despite adult braces having been around for a while, adults don’t want to look like teenagers, especially if they are in positions of responsibility and work with the public. But, if you come to us at Aura Dental, you will find there’s much more to braces in St John’s Wood than metal and micky-taking.

Braces in St John’s Wood for adults tend to be much smaller and more discreet than kids’ braces. We have a range of such braces to choose from, and some are even so discreet that they are as good as invisible.

Invisalign

These are braces, but not in the traditional sense of brackets and wires cemented onto the teeth that pull teeth into alignment. Instead, these aligners resemblance bite guards. The transparent plastic tooth trays at only 0.3 millimetres thick hug the teeth so closely that once they are in place, they are very hard to spot.

You receive a series of these, and wear each one in turn. Each aligner is slightly different in shape than the previous one, with carefully positioned pressure spots to nudge your teeth along the path to alignment. You wear one for a week to 10 days before swapping it for the next in the series.

As well as being pretty much undetectable, these braces in St John’s Wood are also removable. You must wear them for 20–22 hours a day, but you take them out for eating, drinking anything but plain water and cleaning. This gives you a lot more freedom food-wise and makes tooth brushing far less of a hassle.

To find out more about braces in St John’s Wood, book a consultation.

If you are thinking about getting your teeth straightened, you are probably also thinking about all the time you’re going to have to spend picking food out of your braces and fending off intrusive questions. Well, worry no more! Teeth straightening can be an entirely private affair with standard cleaning routines when you choose Invisalign in St John’s Wood.

Sounds too good to be true, but it’s not. At Aura Dental, we offer Invisalign in St John’s Wood because it takes much of the hassle out of wearing braces as well as the embarrassment.

Clear aligners

Unlike traditional bracket and wire braces, which are bonded to the fronts of the teeth, Invisalign in St John’s Wood uses clear plastic aligners, which look like mouth guards. They have specific pressure spots that press the teeth into movement.

The process

When you choose Invisalign, we start with a consultation, during which our accredited dentist makes pinpoint accurate measurements of your mouth and teeth using a hand-held scanner. This translates into a picture of your teeth on the screen, and a computer programme will show you how your teeth can be moved into alignment. So, you get to see how your teeth will look before you even begin treatment. It’s a great inspirational tool!

Your aligners

Your aligners are manufactured in the USA using 3D printing. You will get a series of aligners; how many generally depends on the extent of your problems. You start with the first aligner and work your way through the series, wearing each one until the pressure wears off, in about one to two weeks. The aligners are only 0.3 millimetres thick and when they are in place, they cannot be seen by the casual observer.

Eating and cleaning

The great thing about Invisalign is that you can take them out for eating and drinking anything other than plain water. In fact, you must, so that they don’t discolour. You can eat whatever you like, but you must brush your teeth before putting the aligner back in. You must wear your aligners for 20–22 hours a day if you are to stay on schedule with your treatment.