Do you want to straighten your teeth but aren’t fond of having a mouth full of metal, not eating certain foods for up to two years and having to spend 15 to 20 minutes cleaning around brackets and wires multiple times a day?
Here at Laster Orthodontics, we understand, which is why we offer clear aligners. Having a doctor who is an expert in clear aligner technology as well as North Carolina’s first clear aligner lab certainly sets us apart in terms of being able to provide the highest quality care in clear aligner treatment.
Clear Aligners Explained
Clear, removable aligners are a great way to straighten teeth without brackets or wires. Instead, you insert a clear aligning tray over your teeth and wear it at least 22 hours a day. Since the aligner isn’t permanently attached to your teeth, you can remove it for eating and brushing and flossing your teeth. This makes the process simpler because you do not need any special tools, like floss threaders, to clean your teeth, and you don’t have to avoid eating your favorite foods.
Laster Perfect Smile Clear Aligners
Dr. Laster offers the Laster Perfect Smile (LPS). The Laster Perfect Smile uses clear aligning trays to straighten your teeth. The process of wearing your aligning trays and cleaning your teeth is the same as the name brand aligners. The difference is that Dr. Laster custom developed the LPS system with the latest technological advancements in plastics and software. The end result is that the LPS clear aligners work faster and are less expensive.
These teeth aligning trays work faster because Dr. Laster is always researching and updating his method. Currently, he is participating in a fellowship for advanced aligner design so that he can stay up-to-date on the latest advancements in teeth straightening. Dr. Laster also teaches aligner design and mechanics classes at UNC as well as to many local and national study clubs. We are very fortunate to have a local expert in clear aligner design and fabrication in the Raleigh area. Dr Laster established North Carolina’s first clear aligner lab, and has designed and printed more high quality aligner cases than any other North Carolina doctor.
The Laster Perfect Smile is less expensive because the aligners are created in our office. This means that your treatment plan isn’t sent to an overseas lab, and your aligners aren’t mailed back to our office. In fact, when aligners travel through the mail, they can get lost or damaged. Not to mention, the costs of the overseas lab and shipping are passed on to you, which can dramatically increase the price of your treatment. In addition to lower cost our Laster Perfect smile patients love the convenience of not having long periods of time to wait for the overseas lab to design, fabricate, and ship your case. Laster Perfect Smile’s aligners are a true win – win situation for our patients and are becoming increasingly popular as people see just how amazing the results are.
The Dangers of Mail-Order Aligners
If you are looking for a low-cost way to straighten your teeth, you may be tempted to choose a company that offers mail-order aligners. To straighten your teeth using mail-order aligners, you contact the company and they send you a kit so that you can take DIY impressions of your teeth. Then, you mail the impressions and any other needed info back to the company. Once they arrive, an employee looks at your impressions and determines if your teeth can be straightened using their method. The problem with this is that the individual looking at your impressions isn’t an orthodontist or a dentist. Instead, this individual has either gone through on-the-job training or the company’s training program, which is limited in scope. If you are determined to be a good candidate, your impressions are turned into aligning trays and mailed back to you with instructions on how to wear the aligners.
While you will get low-cost aligners from a mail-order company, they may not work for your specific situation. This is especially true if you have cavities or gum disease or severely crooked teeth or a severe over, under or crossbite. In these scenarios, aligning trays won’t work. In fact, they could make your oral health problems worse.
Just in the past few weeks we have done multiple consults with patients who had unsuccessful treatment with Smile Direct. One patient lost two teeth because of poorly designed aligners. Another patient could no longer bite or chew properly, and many patients have complained of poor fit and unsatisfactory results. In the past month NBC news, Fox news and the New York Times have all run articles on how this company is often causing more harm than good to its customers
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/21/technology/smiledirectclub-smile-nda.html
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/smiledirectclub-dentist-risks-losing-license
The media and consumers are definitely seeing that unsupervised movement of teeth is extremely dangerous. Unfortunately because the company spends heavily on advertising many people get pulled into something that is a big mistake. At Laster Perfect Smiles we are making relatively inexpensive aligners that are well designed and supervised. One patient who switched from Smile Direct to Laster Perfect Smiles noticed an immediate difference in terms of the quality of the aligner and the effectiveness of the movement of her teeth. The fact is that trying to save a few bucks has often cost mail order aligner patients a lot of money in the dental and orthodontic work that was needed to fix the problems caused by the mail order aligners
For example, if you have cavities, putting aligning trays over your teeth may actually make the dental decay worse because you’ll be trapping bacteria inside the tray against your teeth. If you have gum disease, straightening your teeth won’t correct the condition, and since gum disease requires professional treatment in order to restore the health of your gums, getting aligning trays and delaying treatment could result in advanced periodontal disease, which causes bone loss and loose teeth. Additionally, many mail order aligner patients complain that their bite feels and fits together worse after treatment. It really is essential to have a doctor supervise and care for your teeth and bite as movement occurs because not everybody responds the same way to pressure being applied to their teeth with plastic trays.
For these reasons, it’s always best to visit a professional, experienced and licensed orthodontist before straightening your teeth. An orthodontist can examine your entire mouth, find and fill cavities and provide treatment for gum disease before you get your aligning trays. By correcting pre existing conditions first, you’ll get a better outcome. Dr. Laster loves doing clear aligner treatment, and is the local expert on design and fabrication of aligners. When it comes to aligner treatment his best advice is don’t make the big mistake of doing mail order aligners! Working with an experienced professional will give you a better result, and also ensure that you don’t have potentially painful and expensive complications.
Clear Aligners from A Traditional Orthodontist
Getting your clear aligners from a traditional orthodontist rather than mail-order aligners offers a few advantages.
- Laster Perfect Smile Aligners are made in Raleigh, NC, not a 3rd world country
- Dr. Laster will spend more than a few minutes on your case
- Offered with accountability, meaning you can talk to Dr. Laster any time you have a question or concern
- Explained thoroughly so that you understand whether or not you are a good candidate for aligning trays as well as your other teeth straightening options
Schedule a Free Consultation with Dr. Laster
To schedule a free consultation to see if clear aligners would be right for you, give us a call at 919-676-0541. We have locations in Raleigh, Rolesville and Zebulon, NC. Our free consultations are designed to answer your questions and determine if you would be a good candidate for the Laster Perfect Smile. To learn more visit www.lasterortho.com
At Laster Orthodontics, we help families develop healthy, life-changing smiles using customized treatments, cutting-edge technologies, and caring relationships. Our individualized treatment plans help our patients achieve their perfect smile in the quickest, most painless way possible by utilizing a wide range of options from traditional braces to propel accelerated treatment to Dr. Laster’s in-house aligner program, Laster Perfect Smile. With three locations throughout the Triangle Area, we create life-changing smiles every day.