These days, it’s not just tweens and teens who visit the orthodontist to correct crooked or crowded smiles. Many adults would also love to straighten their teeth, but may hesitate to do so because of the length of time usually required to wear braces or aligners.
Thanks to advancements in dentistry, our periodontal specialists can team up with your orthodontist to help expedite the teeth straightening process. With a minimally invasive, adjunctive procedure called piezocision, we can help adult patients achieve faster tooth movement, many times cutting treatment time in half!
How We, as Periodontists, Can Help
There’s no doubt that straighter teeth are more attractive. Straighter teeth also reduce bite wear and tear, can help relieve TMJ discomfort and let you clean your teeth more easily. The demand for adult orthodontics has grown over the years, with more and more individuals seeking to either rediscover the straighter smile they may have had when they were younger (but lost due to shifting teeth) or obtain, for the first time, the straighter, healthier, more vibrant smile of their dreams.
One of the first questions an adult will ask their orthodontist is “How long will the process take?” Busy adults don’t always love the answer—wearing metal on their teeth or changing plastic aligners for years.
The typical orthodontic process involves moving teeth very slowly with the gentle application of pressure via fixed metal braces or removable plastic aligners. In both processes, the bone around the tooth shifts slowly into new positions. At the Pennsylvania Center for Dental Implants and Periodontics, we can safely and effectively help expedite tooth movement with the piezocision procedure, which is also known as alveolar corticotomy.
How it Works
The process involves first numbing your gums with local anesthetic. We then use a specialized, ultrasonic tool to place microincisions in your gums in the upper and/or lower part of your jaw. These microincisions cause a cellular reaction that stimulates a faster soft and hard tissue turnover rate, helping reduce the resistance of bone during the tooth straightening process. The procedure can be used with all types of orthodontics including metal braces or plastic aligners.
Get There Faster With Tooth Acceleration
If you’re an adult with healthy gum tissue and bone around your teeth, you are probably a candidate. Studies conclude that piezocision is an easy and effective way of accelerating tooth movement to help you reach your goals faster.
With piezocision assisting the orthodontic process you can:
If you want to correct a crooked smile but you don’t love the idea of wearing braces for years, consider adding piezocision to your orthodontist’s treatment protocol. Your periodontist at Pennsylvania Center for Dental Implants and Periodontics can team with your orthodontist to help you straighten your teeth faster. Remember, when you improve the aesthetics of misaligned teeth, you’re often also improving the health of your smile. Taking steps to correct the issue can save you hassles down the road. Call us today for more details!
“Our teeth move slower as we age; with piezocision we can safely and effectively help speed up teeth movement.” – Dmitriy Klass, DDS