Though everyone would love to have perfectly straight teeth, many avoid receiving treatment due to the cost, inconvenience, or treatment time most straightening methods present. With this, a newer form of braces has gained popularity in the last few years for their short treatment time. Six Month Smiles, increasingly offered by more dentists, offers patients a quick way to straighten teeth.
Following the trend of our last blog post, we’d like to discuss the effectiveness of these braces with our patients, and why you should possibly avoid them. Take an in-depth look at Six Month Smiles with Kraus Orthodontics.
Six Month Smiles Explained
Six Month Smiles have been around for years, yet they’ve grown in popularity more recently. What draws patients to these braces are their advertised ability to quickly straighten teeth, providing an esthetically-pleasing smile. This should raise a concern in patients. How can these braces work so much faster than traditional braces? And how can orthodontic treatment offered by a dentist be faster than that offered by an orthodontic specialist?
The answer: they don’t. Six Month Smiles are strictly designed to align the teeth that show when you smile—the front teeth. The braces are made to focus on cosmetic appearance, and in no way do they correct the position of your bite.
Another area for concern, the dentists who provide these braces are only required to attend a two-day seminar before qualifying to provide patients with Six Month Smiles. While dentists are highly-skilled and educated professionals, orthodontics is a specialty sub-set of dentistry that requires additional years of training followed by a focused practice in that field in order to provide the highest level of service that people deserve. Having said that, you still may be wondering if these braces are worth the short while. In short, it depends.
Are Six Month Smiles a Good Alternative?
From a non-orthodontic standpoint, Six Month Smiles seem quite intriguing. For people with decent bites in the back and only mild alignment problems up front, these braces can indeed straighten your front teeth and improve basic alignment. On the other hand, the initial application of braces is of the utmost importance and should be applied by trained orthodontists for optimal results. While these trained and educated dentists can qualify to apply the braces, they likely can’t diagnose other problems or know how to treat them accordingly.
What’s Our View on Six Month Smiles?
Of course, as a highly-trained and experienced orthodontist, Dr. Kraus recommends all patients visit him for proper teeth straightening. Six Month Smiles really only work to straighten the front teeth, without bearing in mind potential bite problems or other negative effects from improper diagnosis at the initial visit. At a similar cost for shorter treatment time, Six Month Smiles is simply traditional braces placed for only 6 months!
Importantly, if your bite is good and you do qualify for treatment involving only minor alignment correction of crooked teeth in the front, Dr. Kraus certainly has a variety of treatment options that can take less than 6 months to correct.
If you’d like to perfect your smile and achieve straight teeth, contact us at Kraus Orthodontics today to schedule an appointment. You can also give us a call at 469.619.9959.
