• Dental Phobia Support

    Welcome! This is an online support group for anyone who is has a severe fear of the dentist or dental treatment. Please note that this is NOT a general dental problems or health anxiety forum! You can find a list of them here.

    Register now to access all the features of the forum.

Orthodontics

L

Lucy's mum

Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2012
Messages
25
I haven't been on here for many years but I have an extremely phobic daughter who is now 19.

After trying all sorts of things and taking her here there and everywhere, she finally had her teeth checked and cleaned under sedation last year. Amazingly after not having had a check up for a decade, her teeth were absolutely fine.

But I know she is unhappy with the appearance/spacing of her teeth and would love to be able to get them straightened. I have recently been through the braces route with my middle daughter who now has lovely straight teeth, must be very hard to see for my older daughter.

So my question is - can orthodontics be done in a non invasive way? I know there are these aligners now that people talk about, and 3D scans instead of x-rays etc.

Is there any way she could get her teeth straightened without sitting in the dentist's chair?
 
Depends on the type of malocclusion. Her dentist should be able to advise?
 
I haven't been on here for many years but I have an extremely phobic daughter who is now 19.

After trying all sorts of things and taking her here there and everywhere, she finally had her teeth checked and cleaned under sedation last year. Amazingly after not having had a check up for a decade, her teeth were absolutely fine.

But I know she is unhappy with the appearance/spacing of her teeth and would love to be able to get them straightened. I have recently been through the braces route with my middle daughter who now has lovely straight teeth, must be very hard to see for my older daughter.

So my question is - can orthodontics be done in a non invasive way? I know there are these aligners now that people talk about, and 3D scans instead of x-rays etc.

Is there any way she could get her teeth straightened without sitting in the dentist's chair?


There are lots of companies offering aligners online. I see adverts pop up all over the place. I have no idea if they are kosher or not. Perhaps a dentist on here would advise. Obviously they will say you'd be better off going to the dentist but if your daughter's fear is so great that it's not an option for her it would be nice to know if these online companies are any good or not. I see good reviews but I am unsure. Apparently you do the impressions yourself at home and send them off. They send you the aligners and off you go. From the before and after pictures I have seen they seem to work for people who have only slight problems, not anything complicated.
 
Online companies look like the ideal solution, particularly for someone who doesn't want to get to the dentist, but they really are not. Before and after pictures are great of course, but that's advertisement.
The biggest problem with those companies is that you have no dentist to watch the treatment or to assess whether you are a candidate and to assess whether there is any treatment needed prior to the aligners. Also, it is not unusual for orthodontic treatment not to turn as expected straight away in which case new aligners get ordered to re-correct. Those are usually inculded when you are in the dental practice, but with an online company you have to pay extra or even start anew. Btw. I am not even sure you can do the whole treatment at home at all as there are often things a dentist has to do such as putting on attachments or adjusting the teeth a bit. I saw online companies that seem to have an access to partner practices for this. Not to mention that it takes a bit of time to learn how to take a good impression if you're a dental nurse or a dentists and I couldn't imagine anyone doing it correctly for the first time and then even on themselves..
 
Online companies look like the ideal solution, particularly for someone who doesn't want to get to the dentist, but they really are not. Before and after pictures are great of course, but that's advertisement.
The biggest problem with those companies is that you have no dentist to watch the treatment or to assess whether you are a candidate and to assess whether there is any treatment needed prior to the aligners. Also, it is not unusual for orthodontic treatment not to turn as expected straight away in which case new aligners get ordered to re-correct. Those are usually inculded when you are in the dental practice, but with an online company you have to pay extra or even start anew. Btw. I am not even sure you can do the whole treatment at home at all as there are often things a dentist has to do such as putting on attachments or adjusting the teeth a bit. I saw online companies that seem to have an access to partner practices for this. Not to mention that it takes a bit of time to learn how to take a good impression if you're a dental nurse or a dentists and I couldn't imagine anyone doing it correctly for the first time and then even on themselves..
I agree completely about the online companies not being ideal for everyone. Sometimes there are issues with roots overlapping that an expert needs to see. My daughter will need braces once her 12 year molars are in (she is 12 now). However she already has had to have some braces on her bottom teeth to straighten out three teeth that had grown in at the wrong angle/wrong place. The orthodontist had her coming in twice a month just to check the movement, so he could be sure the roots were in the right place as to not cause issues later. There is a lot of careful planning that goes into orthodontics.
 
Aw I feel for your daughter. I was a phobic child and stopped going to the dentist entirely at 14. I didn’t go back until I was 31, and now, I’m a proud Invisalign wearer at 32! ? I think the key here is really finding an ortho your daughter trusts but also make sure that she really wants this. If anyone forced me to get my teeth straightened as a kid, I probably would have ran away. Sure, she may want it but may not be ready for it. But when she is, many places offer free consults. My ortho only looked in my mouth at the consult, so there was no tools, xrays, scary sounds at the first appointment. All are different but if you explain the situation first on the phone, I’m sure they would be happy to oblige. Orthodontics is expensive. They all want patients. Go to one that sounds the best on the phone and if your daughter isn’t happy, go to another one. Some may even just be open to a discussion with your daughter in person or over the phone.

The key is finding someone who makes her comfortable. Having been to the dentist and ortho a lot in the last year, I do tend to prefer my ortho. It’s a pleasant office and nobody is looking for problems, only progress of teeth movement.
 
Can anyone recommend an orthodontist who is good with phobic patients? I am in NW London/Middlesex/Herts
 
Back
Top