Dental Blog - Clapham South Dental Centre

Now you see them, now you don’t: invisible braces in Clapham

If you could get your wonky teeth lined up properly, and do it without people knowing what you were up to, would you go for it? If you have answered yes to this question, you are not alone. Many people would love to get their teeth straightened, but cannot face going through months of squirming self-consciousness every time they open their mouths and show the world the clunky metal train track braces cemented onto their teeth. Train track braces are for kids, right? Maybe they are, but that does not preclude adults getting their teeth realigned, because here at Clapham South Dental Centre, we have a great range of invisible braces in Clapham.

What are invisible braces in Clapham?

Invisible braces is an umbrella term used in the dental profession for any teeth straightening devices that have been designed with discretion in mind. Some are more invisible than others, but all are way less intrusive than the metal braces we all associate with the gawky early teenage years.

Dr Crandon can help you find the right invisible braces in Clapham for you

Dr Tomos Crandon is our resident braces dentist. He has spent extra years after dental school studying for a postgraduate degree in braces dentistry and many years after that working as a braces dentist. When you see Dr Crandon, you are getting treatment from a highly skilled and experienced dentist. He will be able to advise you on which braces are best for realigning your teeth.

The treatment times vary depending on what needs to be done. Teeth can only move so fast, but the younger you are, the quicker your jawbone is able to resorb and rebuild the bone. This is the process that moves the teeth. We put pressure on them and the jawbone responds to this process to relieve the sustained pressure. Keeping up the pressure in a particular direction is how we can get your teeth lined up properly.

After you finish your braces treatment, you will need to wear a retainer, either bonded to the back of your teeth or a removable one, to keep your teeth in place while the bone hardens around them.

The clear path to straight teeth

So, you have decided to get your teeth straightened. You’ve been thinking about it for years and you’ve put it off because you don’t want to look like a nerdy teenager with clunky chunks of metal and wire all over your teeth. However, despite that you know that straight teeth are easier to keep clean and tend to last longer than wonky ones so you are going to do it anyway.

If you come to us at Clapham South Dental Centre, you can probably avoid all that embarrassment of looking like a baddy from a James Bond movie, with clear braces in Clapham.

You didn’t know about clear braces in Clapham? Well that’s hardly surprising. They are clear so that people can’t see them when they are on your teeth. This means that during casual interactions in day-to-day life, you can easily miss the fact that someone is wearing clear braces in Clapham.

Fixed clear braces in Clapham

These are like traditional metal braces but they are much smaller. The brackets are constructed using clear ceramic and they are strung through with a fine wire that is coated with a tooth-coloured material. Generally speaking, these braces are designed for moving the front 6-8 teeth, which are the ones people see the most of when you are talking or smiling. These teeth have only one root so the forces needed to move them are gentler, which is why the braces can be smaller. Treatment times can be only a few months, especially if the movements needed are small.

Removable clear braces in Clapham

These look like mouth guards, but the plastic is very thin and they hug the teeth like a second skin. The movement is achieved not by tightening a wire but by using a series of aligners, each with a slightly different set of pressure points inside them. You work your way through the series and by the end, your teeth are lovely and straight.

Retainers

Everyone needs to wear a retainer after treatment is complete. This is because the bone is not yet set hard and the teeth could wander around if not held in place.

Now you see them, now you don’t, with Invisalign in Clapham

What do you want your perfect teeth straightening device to be able to do for you, apart, from the obvious, which, of course, is to straighten your teeth?

Do you want your straightening device to take over your entire mouth, your life even? Or would you prefer it to be as much in the background as possible, not interfering with either how you look or your diet, as so many braces are liable to do?

If you want your braces to be pretty much invisible and stay out of the way when it comes to food choices, then you don’t need braces, you need Invisalign in Clapham.

Never seen Invisalign in Clapham before?

Well that’s hardly surprising, considering that instead of brackets and wires you get clear plastic aligners that go over your teeth like mouth guards, only way thinner, so thin, in fact, that once they are in place, no one really notices you are wearing them.

But rest assured, here at Clapham South Dental Centre, lots of our patients with mildly to moderately misaligned teeth have used them, plenty are using them right now. You may even have sat in the waiting room and been smiled at by one of our patients wearing Invisalign in Clapham, only you’d never know, because these aligners are so discreet.

What about food?

Invisalign aligners are removable. You take them out when you want to eat or drink anything that’s not just water. You eat, brush your teeth and put your aligners back in. Having aligners gives you the freedom to eat whatever you like; there are no restrictions for fear of damaging your device. All you have to do is be sure to wear your aligners for 20-22 hours a day, every day, during the length of your treatment. Your teeth need sustained pressure in order to move, and if you don’t maintain this, it can extend the length of your treatment, which, by the way, takes a year, on average.

Not everyone can wear Invisalign in Clapham, but the way to find out if your alignment issues are suitable is to come in for a free consultation with one of accredited Invisalign providers.

Get natural looking Botox in Clapham

This week you started thinking about ways to get your face rejuvenated, and you’ve been wondering about where to go for Botox in Clapham. Yes beauty therapists are great, but did you ever think about using your dentist for Botox?

It may seem odd, but going to the dentist for Botox in Clapham is becoming popular and there are good reasons why.

Experts in faces

Dentists have an in-depth knowledge of faces. They spend 5 years at dental school learning about teeth and mouths, so a deep understanding of the face, head, neck and throat also form part of their dental training. By the time dentists get around to training in facial aesthetics treatments, they have already been working with all the facial nerves and tendons, muscles and tissue you want Botox in Clapham to work on.

This is a big advantage over other Botox therapists. Feeling good about our face is vital to our overall wellbeing so it makes sense to go someone who is medically trained for Botox. It may be a temporary treatment, but it lasts for several months.

At Clapham South Dental Centre, we already have a great many patients who are more than happy with the quality of the general and cosmetic dental treatment we provide. We have extended the provision of 5-star treatment in our comfortable and caring environment to now include facial aesethetics by dentists already so good at taking care of nervous dental patients. Your health and wellbeing are at the centre of everything we do.

Botox is used on particular areas where the wrinkles have come about because the muscles are habitually contracted. It works really well on the laughter lines around the sides of the eyes, frown lines between the brows, worry lines on the forehead and lines around the mouth.

When we inject just the right amount of Botox into the lines, it works to temporarily block the nerve impulses to the muscles. Over the course of the following week or so, the lines relax and smooth out. Our knowledge and skills with delicate needle work mean that the results will have you looking younger and refreshed but not frozen and unable to form natural expressions.

Sleek and stylish, if you can see them

When it comes to braces for straightening teeth, the best look is no look at all. People don’t want to make a feature out of their braces treatment, unless they are under 15. Maybe one day, Gucci and Dolce & Gabanna will be at the forefront of braces fashion, but, until they are, the most stylish braces are those that can’t be seen, such as Invisalign in Clapham.

Here at Clapham South Dental Centre, we kit out our patients with mild to moderate alignment issues with Invisalign in Clapham because we know that, for most of them, discretion is a key requirement of their straightening treatment.

How does Invisalign do it?

Being un-spottable is achieved by not having brackets and wires, but instead using very thin, see-through plastic aligners that look like mouth guards. The aligners go on over the teeth, nestling up against the gums. Because the plastic is only 0.3mm thick, and moulded to the shape of each patient’s teeth, they are more like another layer of tooth enamel than a mouth guard. This incredible fit is achieved by 3D printing the aligners, made to measure to each person’s individual tooth and jaw shape.

More severe cases

Because Invisalign only works on mild to moderate cases, patients who have more severe issues going on with their teeth can start off with traditional braces and switch to Invisalign in Clapham when their teeth have straightened out enough.

Eating and drinking is a doddle

Everyone loves the fact that with Invisalign in Clapham, there’s no need to spend ages locked in the bathroom trying to get bits of food or dental plaque out from under the aligners. This is because the aligners are removable. You just take them out whenever you want to consume anything more than plain water. All your favourite foods are still on the menu, and cleaning your teeth takes no more time than usual.

With Clapham South Dental Centre, Invisalign can be yours from £125 a month. Why don’t you come in for a consultation and find out how easy it is to get great teeth?

New faces with Botox in Clapham

Are you getting a bit weary of watching your eyes disappear behind a sea of folds and wrinkles? Are worry lines bringing your eyebrows together and are crow’s feet lines more dramatic than your eyeliner? Are smoker’s lines making your lippy bleed outside your lip-line? If so, maybe now is the time to think about getting Botox in Clapham from us at Clapham South Dental Centre.

Botox has been around for a good while now. We have been offering it for a while now too. It might seem a bit odd to go to your dentist for Botox in Clapham, but if you think about it, surely it makes sense to get injections from people who were trained by the best at dental school to administer injections as gently as possible and in just the right amounts?

As dentists, we already have a deep knowledge of all the nerves, tendons, and muscles that make up the face, and the skin that covers them all. We know where the skin connects to the face, where nerves meet muscles and tendons, and we use this knowledge to great effect when we treat people with Botox in Clapham.

What exactly is Botox?

Although you may have heard of Botox lots of times, you may not be clear what it is or how it works. Let’s explain. Botox is a brand name. The actual treatment is made from a toxin called Botulinum that has been purified to produce a protein. We inject this into your skin, where the nerves meet the muscles. The Botox interferes with the messaging between the nerve ending and the muscle, stopping the muscle from contracting. How much Botox goes in determines how much movement is reduced. Back in the day, and even now with some beauty therapists, treatment was heavy-handed and people ended up looking frozen. Being dentists, we have the skills to deliver just the right amount of Botox to relax your muscles, but not completely paralyse them.

The effects take about a week to come through completely and then last for about 4 months. We recommend top-up treatments after about 3 months.

Month by month – investigating invisible braces in Clapham

Once you begin your journey towards straight teeth with us at Clapham South Dental Centre, we will be with you as the months roll by to support you through treatment. People choose to have their invisible braces in Clapham with us because of our professional levels of care and communication.

When you start your treatment with us, we’ll break down the different steps and milestones, so you can see your way all the way to the end of your treatment. The months will soon fly by when you know what to look forward to with invisible braces in Clapham.

Less than a month till you’re on your way

Once you have had your initial consultation with us, we can get you underway relatively quickly. We need to plan your treatment and undertake various scans to gather the data we need to allow our partners to make the braces you need to achieve the smile you have always dreamed of.

Depending on the method you choose to work with, you may need a fitting appointment where we affix your braces to your teeth. If you choose to work with invisible braces in Clapham like Invisalign, your first appointment will simply consist of picking up your new set of aligners.

Monthly check-ups

Once your treatment is underway, you will visit us every six weeks or so. This will allow us to monitor your treatment to check that everything is progressing as planned. We can make small adjustments along the way according to the needs of your teeth or in response to feedback from you.

Spreading the cost

One of the other ways we can help month by month is to offer you a finance plan that helps to spread the cost. As your treatment progress, you can pay a certain amount each month towards your procedure. For many people, this means that they can get going straight away without having to wait. It makes the options more accessible for people and allows them to budget. Finance is subject to a status check. We can talk to you more about this when you visit us for invisible braces in Clapham.

Braces – the latest in modern techniques

Many dental techniques have been around in some form or another for centuries. Egyptians excavations have revealed examples of tooth replacement, for example, and teeth straightening seems to have been a thing as far back as Hippocrates in 400BC.

However, the equipment that is used to achieve the perfect smile has changed significantly since then and we’re now venturing into new and almost futuristic methods that have changed the way that people think about realignment. At Clapham South Dental Centre, we are proud to work with some of these techniques, like clear braces in Clapham, to offer our patients the kind of experience that fits neatly into their lives.

What are the differences when it comes to clear braces in Clapham?

The main difference when it comes to clear braces in Clapham is an aesthetic one. They are transparent. The components differ from method to method but they all share the common trait of having as little impact as possible on your look. The two main methods are:

Fixed – when clear braces in Clapham are fixed to the teeth, you will be able to sit back, relax and enjoy the benefits in a relatively short space of time. You won’t have to worry about they way that they look because the brackets and wires are sensitively designed to have the minimum amount of impact on your appearance;
Removeable – the look of these clear braces in Clapham can come as a real surprise to those who haven’t encountered them before. They are a totally different shape and concept to old-style braces. This method employs aligners which, when out of the mouth, look like ultra-thin cases shaped like your arch of teeth. They fit snugly over the tops of your teeth and slowly change their positions. They are completely see-through so, if you care for them correctly, they are almost unnoticeable to everyone else.

The method that you choose depends on the results you want. You can make a choice based on the advice of your dentist at Clapham South Dental Centre. They will go through the benefits and instructions that accompany each method, so you can decide which works best for you.

Super, straight teeth with Invisalign in Clapham

Going for straighter teeth treatment means having to think about how you are going to have to adjust your life to fit around your treatment. Or, how about getting a treatment that fits around your life? With Invisalign in Clapham, with us at Clapham South Dental Centre, you don’t have to make so many changes to the way you do things while you are getting your teeth straightened.

Meals

Invisalign is a great way to get your teeth aligned because you don’t have to adjust your diet to fit around having braces. For a start, you don’t have braces, you have aligners. Instead of brackets and wires, you get very thin plastic aligner trays that are completely transparent. They snap on over your teeth and become pretty much invisible. You snap them off and put them in a little storage box whenever you want to eat. Because you have nothing in the way when you are eating, you can continue to eat whatever you want. After eating, you give your teeth a good clean, and also your aligners, and then put them back in again. All you have to do is make sure you are wearing your aligners for at least 20 hours a day, preferably 22 hours. You need to do so in order to keep on schedule with your treatment.

Appearance

If you thought you might have to give up certain social activities while you are wearing braces, or that they might interfere with your job because they would be so obtrusive, then you will be delighted with the invisibility aspect of Invisalign in Clapham. The plastic aligners are only 0.3mm thick and they become pretty much unnoticeable when you are wearing them. This is great news for people who have to present a mature image in their work: managers, people who work with the public, those in broadcasting, for example.

Treatment with Invisalign takes about a year on average and afterwards you will need to wear a retainer to keep your teeth aligned while the jawbone settles down again after dissolving and rebuilding itself to move your teeth.

Sensations associated with Invisalign in Clapham

If we were to compile a list of the general concerns that people have when they visit the dentist, the sensations they are likely to feel during and after treatment is likely to be somewhere near the top. When you have a teeth-straightening treatment, you will need to have some sort of equipment in your mouth to achieve the results you want. This is a long-term commitment and is accompanied by various physical experiences that need to be considered.

At Clapham South Dental Centre, we provide plenty of information before you go ahead with a treatment like Invisalign in Clapham at our clinic. Once you know all the sensations you are likely to feel, we think you will be happy to go ahead.

Fitting

Getting fitted for Invisalign in Clapham is a relatively simple process. The treatment uses removeable aligners, so they do not need to be fixed in place. This makes the start of the treatment process much easier than it is for regular braces.

Wearing Invisalign

When you start your course of Invisalign, you will be given a series of aligners to wear. As you work your way through the sequence, your teeth gradually move into their new positions. Each aligner slots into place and sits snugly against the teeth. It should feel comfortable in the mouth. You might be aware of it against your tongue and the inside of your cheek to begin with even though the profile of the aligner is low. As the body gets used to the new equipment, this awareness will fade.

The outside of an Invisalign aligner is smooth so it should not cause any discomfort against the inside of your cheek.

When you first start wearing your aligners, you may notice some discomfort in the first few days. This is when the pressure that moves the teeth is strongest. As they begin to shift very slowly, the pressure releases bit by bit. You may notice new sensations each time you change aligner. They shouldn’t be too troublesome but, if they are, you can take a mild painkiller to help mitigate the effects.

Invisalign is a discreet and comfortable treatment that we recommend at Clapham South Dental Centre.