orthodontist 90211 Archives - Alpan Orthodontics

What You Should Know About Crooked Teeth

October 28, 2024November 27, 2013 by seo

Malocclusion is a technical term that describes crooked teeth, and is the reason why many patients undergo orthodontic treatment. If one or more of your teeth aren’t aligned perfectly, than you may already realized the effect that misaligned teeth can have on the appearance of your smile. However, image isn’t all that crooked teeth affect. Century City orthodontist, Dr. Alpan, warns that the orientation of your teeth also influences how well your mouth works and how effective your hygiene routine is.

How to Diagnose and Treat TMJ Disorder (TMD)

July 15, 2026November 22, 2013 by seo

Your temporomandibular joints, or TMJs, are the small joints that connect the mandible (lower jaw) to the temporal bones in your skull, located just in front of each ear. The two joints work together to move the lower jaw as you bite, chew, yawn, speak, and swallow. When these joints are exposed to excessive pressure, they can become damaged, leading to a wide range of pains and sometimes difficulty moving the jaw. The jaw dysfunction encompasses a wide range of aches and pains, and diagnosis may be difficult because of the diversity of TMJ disorder’s symptoms. Luckily, your Century City orthodontist, Dr. David Alpan, is highly-skilled and specially-trained to diagnosis and treat TMJ disorder, and has helped many patients find relief from the condition.

Do Braces Increase the Risk of Cavities?

July 15, 2026November 21, 2013 by seo

Person adjusting braces with rubber bands

Straightening crooked teeth can have a profoundly positive impact on your oral health, as well as your confidence. Unfortunately, while highly effective, wearing orthodontic braces also affects your daily routines, like eating and brushing your teeth. By making dental hygiene slightly more difficult, braces can increase a patient’s risk of developing dental issues that result from excessive dental plaque, including tooth decay (the disease that causes cavities). Luckily, however, cavities are still highly preventable even with metal brackets and wires attached to your teeth. To help keep our patients’ mouths and braces clean and clear of cavities, Los Angeles orthodontist, Dr. David Alpan, takes the time to educate each patient about proper oral hygiene, and provides special instruments designed to effectively clean around braces.

Understanding Good Hygiene with Braces

July 15, 2026November 8, 2013 by seo

With today’s impressive array of technological and dental advancements, there are few oral health issues that cannot be effectively corrected with the appropriate treatment. Nevertheless, given the extent of damage that unchecked dental diseases can cause, prevention remains the most effective method for preserving your smile, especially since teeth can’t repair themselves when compromised. Practicing good hygiene at home is the cornerstone of excellent dental health, but without regular professional care and maintenance, your toothbrush and floss may fall short of protecting your smile from dental diseases. Patients with misaligned teeth, or who wear braces to correct malocclusion, are especially at risk for dental issues, which stem from plaque that can hide between braces and the odd crevices created by crooked teeth. As Century City orthodontist, Dr. David Alpan, warns his patients, good hygiene while wearing braces is a vital part of successful orthodontic treatment.

Century City Orthodontist’s Malocclusion Quiz

July 15, 2026October 4, 2013 by seo

Close-up of dental malocclusion condition

Other than the fact that crooked teeth can diminish a smile’s visual appeal, how much do you know about malocclusion? Many patients who seek orthodontic treatment to correct misaligned teeth are motivated by cosmetic reasons and wish to improve their confidence in their smiles. However, those who decide that crooked teeth don’t look so bad, and therefore ignore correcting them, do a great disservice to their long-term oral health. Your Century City orthodontist, Dr. David Alpan, presents important information about crooked teeth in the form of a fun and enlightening quiz.

What Do You Know About Crooked Teeth?

1.) What’s the most effective method for straightening crooked teeth?

a.) Braces c.) Dental bonding

b.) Porcelain veneers d.) Improved dental hygiene

Century City Orthodontist: Dental Health for Children

November 13, 2024September 20, 2013 by seo

Although children may take a few years to fully grasp the concept of oral hygiene, a parent’s job of ensuring a child’s good dental health can never begin too early. Until children can brush and floss their own teeth, parents are all that stand between their children’s smiles and the forces that lead to destructive dental diseases. Today, your Century City orthodontist, Dr. David Alpan, explains early dental health for children, and offers a few tips to successfully teach your children how to brush and floss their teeth.

The Early Years

You shouldn’t wait until your child’s teeth erupt from the gum line before worrying about cleaning their mouths. The truth is that children are born with their primary teeth already formed, or forming, in the jawbone. To keep your newborn or infant child’s mouth clean before teeth begin to erupt, Dr. Alpan suggests running a clean, warm, damp washcloth gently over the gums to clear them of oral bacteria and residual milk after each feeding and before bed.

Century City Orthodontist Helps You Assess the Cost of Braces

July 15, 2026September 9, 2013 by seo

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: Easier Dental Hygiene with Clear Braces

November 13, 2024August 26, 2013 by seo

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.

The Difference that Adult Braces Can Make in Century City

July 15, 2026August 16, 2013 by seo

The need to straighten crooked teeth isn’t confined to young children, although traditional orthodontic treatment is typically associated with younger generations. In fact, crooked teeth can have a profound impact on your confidence as an adult, whether from the diminished appeal of a crooked smile or the possible embarrassment of wearing metal braces for a couple of years. The impact can be even more severe if your career depends on the appearance of confidence. Your Century City orthodontist understands this apprehension, and since ignoring crooked teeth should never be an option, Dr. Alpan innovative braces to suit your adult sensibilities, such as Invisalign clear braces that don’t utilize brackets and wires at all.

Invisalign Clear Braces—for the Image-Conscious Professional

There are a number of discrete orthodontic options designed to maintain discretion throughout your treatment, such as tooth-colored brackets and wires or lingual braces that are fitted behind your teeth. As one of the more popular choices, Invisalign clear braces chooses to ignore traditional brackets and wires, instead using a series of custom-designed, clear acrylic aligners.

Century City Orthodontist Explains Lingual Braces

November 13, 2024August 9, 2013 by seo

As a dedicated orthodontist in Century City, Dr. David Alpan specializes in all aspects of orthodontic treatment, including your personal preferences, comfort, and confidence throughout the course of your treatment. For your convenience, we offer numerous different kinds of braces to suit various needs. Today, we explore the benefits of Incognito hidden braces—an advanced form of lingual braces that are fully customizable for optimal comfort and success.

What are Lingual Braces?

An important concern for many adult patients who need orthodontic treatment is the pronounced appearance of traditional braces. As the name suggests, lingual braces are placed on the lingual, or inside, surface of your teeth, facing towards your tongue. Incognito hidden braces are uniquely designed to your mouth’s specifications and contoured to fit the lingual surface of your teeth, offering you the precision and effectiveness of traditional braces without announcing your orthodontic treatment to the world. Aside from Incognito, Dr. Alpan has extensive with nearly every lingual system, including invisibraces, AOA lingual braces, 3M Creekmore lingual braces, Harmony braces, lingual care, and i-braces.

Century City Orthodontist Explains the Cosmetic Benefits of Invisalign

August 5, 2013 by seo

woman-with-straight-smile While straightening crooked teeth is a vital concern to your good oral health, there’s no denying the fact that your teeth’s orientation also has a significant impact on your smile’s appearance. As a result, many older teeth and adult patients are more driven to straighten their teeth out of cosmetic concerns, and therefore, may be a bit apprehensive about traditional orthodontic treatment (metal braces). Today, your Century City orthodontist, Dr. David Alpan, explains how Invisalign clear braces can offer the benefits of a straighter smile while appealing to your cosmetic sensibilities by remaining virtually invisible.

Century City Orthodontist Explains the Basics of Braces

November 13, 2024August 2, 2013 by seo

Braces, along with various other orthodontic treatments, are a common and highly-effective means to restoring order and balance to a misaligned smile. To help you better understand the need for and benefits of braces, your Century City orthodontist, Dr. David Alpan, offers a brief breakdown of why you would need braces in the first place, then explains the components of modern braces and how they straighten your teeth.