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Treatments we
specialize in |
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Ceramic Brackets |
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Standard fixed appliances can be utilised on
the outside of your teeth by using tooth coloured ceramic
brackets. These are certainly very aesthetic and very much less
noticeable than metal brackets. |
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Lingual Orthodontics |
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These are brackets
that are placed on the inside of your teeth, leaving the outside
smiling part of your teeth completely free of braces. Therefore
they are invisible. This type of treatment is also offered to
all patients within the orthodontic centre. |
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Elsa (An expansion labial segment appliance) |
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This is a simple
plate which fits in the roof of the mouth, which has a little
screw in the middle of the plate and little springs at the
front. With this plate, we are able to expand out the upper
teeth and push the upper teeth forward. We also use a fixed type
of expansion appliance, with a palatal expander. |
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Thumb Sucker
Device |
Thumb sucking causes many problems:
- proclination of the teeth
- narrowing of the upper jaw
- change in tongue swallow
pattern
- tipping back of the lower
teeth
- change in jaw position
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The thumb sucking plate is fixed onto the back teeth with a
little device at the front which makes thumb sucking very
unsatisfying, and most children stop the habit as a result of
this device. |
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Lip Bumper |
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A Lip Bumper is fitted to the lower jaw. This is an
appliance which allows us to nudge back the lower back teeth,
thus creating a little bit more space to align out the lower
front teeth if they are crowded. |
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Space Maintainers
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Space maintainers are very useful appliances
to fit early in children with mild crowding. Professor Gianelly
from New York has done extensive work on the use of space
maintainers and he has clearly shown that if space maintainers
are fitted at the correct time then you can gain in the region
of 2mm to 4mm space. The reason for this is that the baby teeth
at the back of the mouth are somewhat bigger than the permanent
teeth that succeed them. If you do not have some retaining or
space maintaining device in the mouth, then when the baby teeth
are lost, the teeth underneath and the back teeth move forwards
and all that valuable space is lost forever. |
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'Y' Plate |
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This plate is used
to push the upper back teeth back again by 2mm to 3mm, thus
regaining some lost space and enabling us to align out the upper
teeth without the need for extractions. |
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Leone Appliance |
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A fixed appliance that 'nudges' the back teeth
back by 2mm to 3mm, which works in a similar fashion to the 'Y'
plate, as detailed above. |
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Orthopaedics |
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This practice uses:
These appliances
allow the lower jaw to grow to its full potential, promoting and
optimising facial growth. |
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Headgear (Extra Oral Traction) |
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Very rarely do we find the need
to fit headgear. Headgear is only worn night times under our
direction. We try wherever possible to avoid not only
extractions but the use of headgear. We are concerned about
patient management and the fact that most children hate headgear
and do not co-operate well with it. |
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Self Ligating Metal Fixed Appliances |
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Straight wire
fixed appliances, pioneered in the
United States and allow one to achieve the 'all American smile',
with beautifully aligned teeth, with no rotations and no spaces. |
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Timing of Treatment |
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It is
very important in the treatment of children, if we are to
achieve the 'all American smile' that we start with what we call
arch development. This needs to start in the late mixed
dentition. This is the time when most of the baby teeth are
being lost and the permanent teeth are arriving. This is
classically at the age of 7 to 10 years.
We would therefore like for all children to be referred to an
orthodontic centre at the age of 7 years. If the child is
referred at the age of 11 years, then the chance and opportunity
for early expansion treatment and development of the arch has
been lost. |
