For most individuals, orthodontic treatment is sought to achieve a beautiful, confident smile. That beautiful, confident smile helps to boost confidence, and it also looks fantastic, definitely improving one’s self-image.

However, orthodontic treatment is so much more. The main goal is to establish a healthy and stable bite. A healthy bite is established when Dr. Adams better aligns the teeth to fit as they were designed to fit together. A better fit with the upper and lower teeth minimizes or eliminates any joint issues, prevents joint issues, eliminates abnormal wear and tear on the teeth, provides better bone support for each individual tooth, and better aligns the teeth for improved oral hygiene.

Achieving a healthy and stable bite prevents the following: 

1. Future negative dental health issues, including gum disease, bone loss, and cavities
2. Pain and suffering
3. Any future dental costs related to a poor dental bite.

Dr. Adams’ ultimate goal with orthodontic care is to enhance his patients’ lives with better dental health and more self confidence. Dr. Adams is so honored and privileged to be of service to his orthodontic patients. 

Braces cost much less than Clear Aligners/Invisalign.

• With braces, there is no lab fee and no other party wanting a piece of the pie. With braces, there is only the practice who gets paid. With clear aligners/Invisalign, there’s the practice and the company making the aligners that get paid, driving up the cost of orthodontic treatment.

Braces results are superior to Clear Aligners/Invisalign.

• Dr. Adams actually sees and treats every patient every month, ensuring excellent results! Clear aligners/Invisalign companies and their providers, who see their patients every 8 to 12 weeks, cannot make this claim or guarantee results like Dr. Adams. Ultimately, clear aligner/Invisalign companies sell “convenience”. Dr. Adams achieves “Excellent Lifetime Results”.
• Typically, clear aligner/Invisalign patients are seen every 8 to 12 weeks. Dental assistants, not dentists or orthodontists, usually deliver new aligners to patients to be worn over the next 8 to 12 weeks. Dr. Adams has interviewed many clear aligner/Invisalign patients over the past 15 years and most state that they rarely saw their dentist or orthodontist during the course of their treatments. They only saw dental assistants.
• Excellent orthodontic results achieve a healthy and stable bite, first and foremost, and a beautiful, confident smile. With braces, the bite is assessed at every monthly appointment and adjustments can be made to the braces and archwires at those appointments for the top teeth to better fit with the bottom teeth. So, by the end of treatment, the top teeth and bottom teeth are fitting as they are designed to fit, creating a healthy and stable bite that will not wear abnormally over time and that promotes better oral hygiene. That abnormal wear and tear overtime will create future dental problems, pain, and dental costs.
• Clear aligners/Invisalign treats the top teeth and bottom teeth separately. A computer program will take the initial scans of patients' teeth and little by little straighten their teeth to their desired position. A certain number of aligner trays are made to achieve their individual final results. This is done for the upper teeth and for the lower teeth. According to the computer program's simulation for each case, the top teeth and bottom teeth always fit perfectly together after the final trays have been worn. However, in real life that does not happen and excellent bites are difficult to achieve with clear aligners/Invisalign treatment. This reality is known by orthodontists and that is why many will inform potential patients of clear aligners/Invisalign’s shortcomings.  

Braces treatment times are less than clear aligners/Invisalign.

• Braces provide the experienced orthodontist with more control and patients are seen more often. This combination results in shorter treatment times. Moderate to severe full treatment cases are completed within 18 to 24 months and less complicated full treatment cases range from 12 to 18 months with braces. Limited treatment may be completed in as little as three months with braces.
• It is very common for clear aligners/Invisalign not to fit sometime during clear aligner treatment. This is usually due to patients not wearing the previous set of aligner trays correctly or not enough. Many times, though this necessitates new scans and additional sets of aligners to be made, increasing the time in treatment. It is not uncommon for aligner treatment to go on for years.

If braces are the superior treatment modality, then when are clear aligners / Invisalign appropriate?

• Adult patients with good bites and minor to moderate crowding are good candidates for clear aligner/Invisalign treatment. Adult patients have the maturity and discipline to wear the trays at least 22 hours per day as required.
• Some adult patients just want their treatment option to be less noticeable, and Dr. Adams understands and appreciates their concerns. He also advises these patients that if a bite issue should develop during their clear aligners/Invisalign treatment that he would offer to place braces for a very short period of time to correct any bite issue and there would be no additional charge.

For the vast majority of patients, Dr. Adams will be able to treat most orthodontic problems without having teeth extracted or removed. However, Dr. Adams’ experience has taught him that if a patient presents with severe crowding or other orthodontic issues that require teeth to be extracted or removed, then teeth must be removed. Dr. Adams has the experience, competence, and confidence to make that decision for patients. This decision is not made of out of arrogance or ego, but out of genuine concern for the patient’s long-term well-being and what is truly in his or her best interests in order to achieve excellent and stable results.

Not extracting teeth when it is truly needed will always lead to very bad consequences. These consequences include one or more of the following:

• Upper and lower teeth do not fit properly, promoting wear and tear of teeth
• Poor aesthetic result, for example, flaring of front teeth, looks terrible
• Patient in braces or clear aligners/Invisalign® for many years, resulting in gum disease, cavities, and tooth scarring
• Teeth relapsing back to their crowded state after braces are removed or after clear aligner/Invisalign treatment terminates
• Bone loss
• Receding gum lines
• Teeth being moved right out of bone
• Tooth/teeth non-vitality

In Dr. Adams’s 25 plus years of experience, not one patient has ever complained about having teeth removed for their severe crowding issues or issues necessitating removal of teeth once the excellent and stable result was achieved. To the contrary, these patients were ecstatic about the results achieved and were smiling from ear to ear. More importantly, these excellent results are more likely to remain stable for a lifetime because teeth were removed.

DON’T BE FOOLED A SECOND TIME – SMILE SET.

Do you remember the company known as Smile Direct Club. Smile Direct Club or SDC was the first company of its kind to offer aligners similar to Invisalign sold directly to customers, bypassing orthodontists and dentists - an alternative to actual treatment. Customers would take their own impressions, mail them to SDC and SDC would make a set a aligners from those impressions. Then SDC would mail those aligners back to the customer to start wearing. No one was supervising them or the effects of this so-called alternative to their customers. SDC claimed that their aligners would straighten teeth in only 4 to 6 months for less than $2000, as opposed to seeking treatment for 18 to 24 months with an orthodontist and paying thousands more. The company was selling a product to customers, not treating patients, with promises of straight teeth, in less time and for less cost. There is a saying that is very appropriate here, “If something sounds too good to be true, then it is most likely not true”. There are no shout cuts in seeking a beautiful, confident smile and a healthy stable bite for a lifetime.   

Well, that company, Smile Direct Club, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a couple years back after encountering hundreds of customer lawsuits throughout the country, lawsuits from state agencies and civil verdicts against the company. The stock price fell and the company went out of business. However, during their initial few years, they made lots of money.

I personally witnessed the detrimental effects to customers who fell for the easy fix, cheaper price claims and purchased the SDC product. I retreated scores of these individuals and even had to inform some that they should never have bought the product to move teeth through bone due to their bone loss, impacted teeth, cavities, severeness of their malocclusion, etc. SDC was not concerned that they could be harming their customers by not screening them with x-rays and an in-person exam to determine if they were even healthy enough to have teeth moved through bone. All they cared about was selling their product and making money.

The dental community at large was very thankful that Smile Direct Club went out of business, saving thousands of future customers from being misled and harmed financially and even physically by their product. Smile Direct Club also motivated many states to enact laws that mandated an in-person exam with x-rays to determine if one is healthy enough to seek orthodontic treatment before any treatment commences and that treatment be monitored by a licensed dental professional. We are lucky to be living in Florida that has enacted such laws. In fact, there is an effort in Washington DC to make these requirements a matter of federal law, encompassing every state. However, presently there are still over 30 states that do not have any laws or regulations to keep these Tele-dentistry companies in check and to protect prospective orthodontic patients.

BE ADVISED - A new company called Smile Set has recently emerged and it is following the same game plan and strategy that Smile Direct Club utilized to make lots and lots of money. I foresee Smile Set failing eventually for the same reasons that saw to the downfall of SDC. Long-term success is not the goal here though. It is to achieve short- term profits for as long as possible until all that caught up with SDC catches up with Smile Set. Frustratingly though, many customers will be misled and harmed financially and physically until then.

On their website, SmileSet.com, claims that is only takes 4-6 months to achieve the straight smile, as opposed to 18 to 24 months with braces. The statement is very deceiving and misleading. Braces can also achieve a straight smile in 4 to 6 months for simple cases. However, for moderate to severe cases with severe crowding, bite issues, deep over bites, etc., it can take anywhere from 18 to 24 months to achieve that beautiful smile and healthy / stable bite.

Again, I have personally seen what happens when a company like Smile Set, with their misleading promises, sends aligners to a customers with moderate to severe issues. These customers become frustrated and angry for they realized that they paid for promises that could not be realized given their more moderate and severe issues. They start to file lawsuits against these companies and then seek orthodontists, like me, to actually provide care and treatment that truly addresses their needs.

PLEASE - Never take short cuts or fall for some unrealistic hype when your health is at stake. Seek many consultations and become informed before investing your money and time. Remember, “IF SOMETHING SEEMS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE, THEN IT IS MOST LIKELY NOT TRUE!”

Hello Everyone,

This is Dr. Tim Adams. I look forward to providing advice, answering questions, and educating those who are interested in seeking as well as those who are currently in orthodontic treatment through this newly established Blog. I would also recommend reading through the website, www.clermontorthodontics.com. Many questions are answered on the website.

Orthodontics treatment is absolutely one of the best investments you can make in your lifetime. Treatment is meant to last for the rest of your life. Not many investments can make that claim, let alone follow through with it. Orthodontic treatment not only provides a healthy and stable bite that benefits your health and physical well-being, but it also creates that gorgeous smile that boosts self-confidence and let's be honest, it just looks and feels AWESOME!!

Here's to you and your LIFETIME SMILE!!!

Dr. Adams