Thursday, September 1, 2016

Oshawa Braces Orthodontist - Choosing an Invisalign Provider Part 2

In our last entry, we introduced the 5 questions to consider when choosing an Invisalign provider.  The first question was "Are you an orthodontist or a dentist who is certified with Invisalign?".

Dentist or Orthodontist For Invisalign in Oshawa?
This is a great question to ask because Toronto Invisalign certification is granted to both Oshawa dentists and Oshawa orthodontists.  Invisalign certification is granted to any dentist or orthodontist that has taken their weekend course.  This course is more about how to submit treatment to the company rather than how to move the teeth.

A dentist would be akin to your family doctor while an orthodontist is a specialist trained in moving teeth.  Orthodontists have to become dentists and then study and treatment orthodontic patients only for an additional 2-3 years.  Moving teeth is all orthodontists do all day.  Therefore, orthodontists will generally have more knowledge about moving teeth.

However, this is not always the case, which makes things more confusing for the average person looking for an Invisalign doctor.  Orthodontists usually train to move teeth with braces.  They become experts at it because that is all they do.  The acceptance of Invisalign has been slow by orthodontists and many of them are now starting to work with the appliance.  1% of the doctors as designated by Align technology have worked with more than 800 Invisalign patients in their lifetime.  Now this does not speak to the quality of the work provided, but you can see how being an orthodontist alone does not mean they have experience with Invisalign.

When all things are equal, choose an orthodontist instead of a general dentist for your Invisalign treatment, but be aware that not all orthodontists are experts at moving teeth with Invisalign!  Stay tuned for Part 3 on how to choose the best Invisalign provider for your treatment.