Do you wish you could correct misalignment without enduring embarrassing metal braces? With Incognito hidden braces, you can boost the appearance of your smile using practically invisible orthodontics. In today’s blog, your Los Angeles orthodontist, Dr. David Alpan, answers questions about the innovative Incognito system.
Dr. David Alpan
Los Angeles Orthodontist Offers Invisalign for Adults and Teens
Would you be willing to wear braces to obtain a gorgeous smile? What if they were practically invisible? At Aesthetic Orthodontics, we understand many people hesitate to choose braces for smile improvement, which is why we offer innovative Invisalign aligners. In today’s blog, your Los Angeles orthodontist, Dr. David Alpan, explains how Invisalign provides inconspicuous smile enhancement.
Century City Orthodontist Helps You Assess the Cost of Braces
One of the most common questions concerning braces is how much the treatment will cost. As a dedicated orthodontist in Century City, Dr. David Alpan provides a variety of high quality affordable orthodontic treatments to all of our patients. Correcting your bite’s alignment (occlusion) is an ongoing process, and our mission is to help ensure that you receive the treatment you need while keeping your overall cost manageable.
Determining Immediate & Long-Term Costs
At Alpan Orthodontics, the first cost associated with orthodontic treatment is free. During your free orthodontic consultation, Dr. Alpan will thoroughly inspect your face and the alignment of your teeth and jaw, including your jaw’s joints.
Century City Orthodontist Discuss Prevention with Children’s Braces
The purpose of orthodontic treatment is to address the misalignment of your teeth and bite, which can seriously inhibit your mouth’s proper function and, in severe cases, negatively affect the symmetry of your facial features. When occlusal problems are detected early, while your child’s oral structures are still growing, early orthodontic treatment may lessen or prevent the need for treatment at an older age. Malocclusion, or bite misalignment, can occur in various ways and for a number of different reasons, and your Century City orthodontist, Dr. David Alpan, is specially trained to diagnose and treat occlusal complications at any age. Today, we explain how early orthodontic issues can blossom into bigger trouble if not treated, and how children’s braces are designed to prevent that from happening.
The Importance of Symmetry
Prevention, early detection, and early treatment are dominant factors in all areas of good dental health. For instance, preventing tooth decay and gum disease can help you avoid the need to restore dental damage caused by the infections. Likewise, correcting a child’s incorrectly-growing bite at an early age can help place that child’s smile on the path to permanent proper alignment.
L.A. Orthodontist: Two of Oral Health’s Biggest Enemies
Protecting your oral health requires a good general understanding of what could trouble it, and how to prevent or defeat these issues before they significantly damage your oral tissues. As an orthodontist in Los Angeles, Dr. David Alpan takes time to properly educate patients about specific oral health issues, as well as discussing their viable treatment options to determine the best course of action. Today, we examine two of the most notorious threats to your smile’s wellbeing, which can be found among the plethora of oral bacteria that consistently inhabit your mouth.
The Cavity Germ
One of the most infamous mouth microbes is the bacterium Streptococcus mutans, which significantly contributes to dental plaque formation. Though sticky dental plaque can feel annoying, S. mutans real danger to your oral health lies in its ability to convert sugar and other carbs into acid, which weakens your enamel and depletes your teeth of minerals. After a while, this acid can irreversibly damage your enamel and allow bacteria to infect your tooth, causing tooth decay and small holes (cavities) to form.
Los Angeles Orthodontist Explains the Nature of Dental Plaque
Dental plaque is always a threat, but when you wear braces, controlling the nuisance takes on a new importance. As the source of most dental health issues, plaque is created by masses of bacteria that, while native to your oral cavity, can pose a serious threat when allowed to grow out of control. Typically, a few moments spent brushing and flossing your teeth at least twice a day is your main defense against plaque. However, if you’re undergoing orthodontic treatment, then you must take special care to clean bacterial plaque from between the brackets, wires, and your teeth. Today, your Los Angeles orthodontist, Dr. David Alpan, takes a close look at why plaque is dangerous, and offers advice for maintaining effective dental hygiene while wearing braces.
Big Problems in Small Packages
Tooth decay, gum disease, chronic bad breath, and other oral health complications often result from oral bacteria’s biological processes. For instance, some mouth germs turn sugar into acid through metabolization, and the acid depletes the enamel around your teeth, leaving them vulnerable to tooth decay-causing bacteria. Other germs can incite inflammation in your gums and cause them to pull away from your teeth, leading to gum disease and possible tooth loss. When allowed to gather in force, these microbes form plaque to protect them from your mouth’s natural defenses, like saliva.
Century City Orthodontist: Easier Dental Hygiene with Clear Braces
There are many considerations to straightening crooked teeth, and if you’re an older teen or an adult who requires orthodontic treatment, than many of those considerations are likely of a cosmetic nature. Crooked teeth can visibly mar your smile, but wearing metal braces to correct them may not add to your confidence within your personal and professional life. To address the aesthetic nature of malocclusion while maintaining the utmost discretion, your Century City orthodontist, Dr. David Alpan, may recommend Invisalign clear braces. By eschewing the traditional bracket-and-wire setup of conventional braces, clear braces are designed for image-conscious patients who may otherwise postpone or neglect a serious dental problem. However, discretion isn’t the only benefit to Invisalign treatment; as removable aligners, clear braces also make good dental hygiene easier to maintain.
A Focus on Convenience
Although they’re called clear braces, Invisalign’s aligners aren’t braces in the typical sense. More accurately, they’re a series of custom-designed aligners that guide your teeth along a doctor-prescribed path of movement to their desired positions.
L.A. Orthodontist—What You Probably Don’t Know About Your Teeth
As a dedicated orthodontist in Los Angeles, Dr. David Alpan specializes in an interesting aspect of your teeth—their orientation, position, and contribution to your bite’s balance. Aside from remaining clean and disease-free, healthy teeth also have to be aligned properly to displace your bite’s pressure. However, maintaining your smile’s harmony is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to your teeth’s abilities. Today, we explore a few interesting facts that you may not know about your teeth and what makes them such a formidable part of your anatomy.
Did You Know?
- Your tooth is comprised of three layers: enamel (on the outside), dentin (the main structure), and pulp (inner chamber that houses the nerves and blood vessels). The enamel that protects your teeth is the strongest substance that your body produces.
When Tooth Extraction Can Save Your Smile, with Your L.A. Orthodontist
While losing a healthy tooth is typically a disastrous experience for your oral health, sometimes a tooth must go for the greater good of your smile. As Dr. David Alpan explains, most preferable dental treatments should focus on preserving as much healthy tooth tissue as possible; however, if a crooked, damaged, or severely diseased tooth interferes with your good dental health, then extraction may be the only solution. Today, your Los Angeles orthodontist describes when tooth extraction is the only viable option, and how it can serve your smile’s best interests.
Only When it’s Necessary
Wisdom teeth—the last four molars to erupt in a healthy adult mouth—are usually the only teeth that can be extracted without negatively affecting your oral health and function. In fact, impacted wisdom teeth often cause crowding, push existing teeth out of alignment, and disturb your smile’s delicate symmetry. Similarly, a severely crooked, diseased, or damaged tooth may interfere with your orthodontic treatment and require removal to make room for other teeth.
Los Angeles TMJ Dentist Explains How MARA Appliances Are Used
Los Angeles, CA – The Mandibular Anterior Repositioning Appliance (MARA) is used to nurture the lower jaw’s forward growth and fix overbites. “In my experience, the MARA is the best way to gently reposition the lower jaw,” notes Dr. David Alpan, a Los Angeles tmj dentist. With a special fluoride-releasing tooth adhesive, the Los Angeles dentist attaches … Read more