urprisingly, this is a stumbling block for a lot of patients. As orthodontists, we are asking a lot for patients to take our word for it. Not just the financial investment, but the time and perceived discomfort involved as well.
Some patients ask us “will it work?”. What they really mean is “what if it doesn’t work for me?”. The honest answer is braces will make a change to everyone’s teeth and there is only one reason why teeth wouldn’t move – they are fused to the bone. This is an extremely rare problem and usually related to a tooth that has suffered ‘trauma’. This can be easily assessed before treatment commences.
All modern fixed braces are “programmed” to move teeth to the correct position and provided they are stuck on the right way they will do it. The skill of a good orthodontist is how they plan and use a brace to get the best possible result for each individual patient.
Sometimes patients ask us “what will my teeth look like at the end of treatment?”. This is harder to show them, even with computer assisted simulations, but an orthodontist should be able to show evidence of the results that can be achieved in similar cases. But at the end of the day you have to trust us that we will deliver the results. With your patience and our expertise we will.
Paula