Straighten your smile, Top 5 reasons why Orthodontic treatment is important
Braces do more than just straightening your smile that is why orthodontic treatment is so important.
This week on Elite Kuwait, we had an extensive talk with Dr. Vineet Menon specialized Orthodontics at Virtus Dental Center on the benefits of wearing braces at a right age and how it is a crucial part for a perfect set of teeth.
Graduated from AB Shetty Dental College, holding a Master’s Degree in Orthodontics, with a ten years’ experience in this profession Dr Vineet advises to go for an Orthodontics consultation at an early age which aids in reducing treatment time and gives good results.
Can you describe your most successful orthodontics case? And what factors contributed to your success?
“I consider all cases to be challenging and the main reason is that in a patient you cannot predict how and what can happen and would like to suggest to everyone to not wait to start treatment for an later age, since teeth take more time to move. Orthodontic education at an early age is also very vital, parents being well informed about their children and when they can be treated.
In Orthodontics we just do not take care of the irregularities of the teeth but also of the bones and the jaws and so the growing age is the best time to diagnose and plan treatment.
How do you stay up to date with new treatments and advancements in Orthodontics?
It is very important in any medical field to be addressed with the latest technologies. Luckily we do have continuing education programme in Kuwait and all over the World, The Kuwait Dental Association and different Orthodontics societies conduct programmes and conferences in other Gulf countries in which we participate and get to learn about the newer technologies. Nowadays, the aligner therapy is becoming very popular and also the lingual orthodontics, it is also very crucial for us to stay updated as we have to educate as the patient awareness has increased everywhere.
What tools are important while fitting a patient with braces?
Using tools like X-ray, retainers and braces are able to detect and correct the jaw issues that may not be apparent on the surface especially in growing children. Nowadays with the advancement of medical sciences, we are able to issue different X-ray techniques to pre-diagnose any kind of case which could an issue in the later stage.
Why do patients get misaligned teeth?
What was considered abnormal in medieval times is these kind of malocclusions, this was not present in earlier stage because of one main factor: diet, as lifestyle has changed, people have moved to easier eats and fast food which has less fiber and this is one of the main reasons of irregularities. Secondly the bone size is less than the teeth size and the teeth need more space which they don’t get and the last erupting teeth end up coming in different positions that’s when Orthodontics comes into play to get brighter smiles and happier patients.
Lastly, what advice would you like to give patients and parents that can be beneficial to them?
We cannot stress on the importance of oral health during the development and growth of a child and we need to educate everyone that they should come for a dental consultation and in orthodontic consultation we can find out if the patient have any decay to prevent the loss of teeth or extract a tooth which may can cause other teeth to be irregular.
Dental consultancy should start at infancy stage because we also use the mix tentation; the milk and the permanent teeth to prevent any future malocclsuion or irregularities of the teeth by extracting some milk teeth if needed, from an Orthodontic point of view an ideal age would be 6-7 years.