Global treatment design milestones guide treatment by your entire dental team.
Your global treatment design is a very important part of your treatment. But actual treatment must always include three things: reflecting back to the design at milestones, evaluating whether your treatment is continuing in a healthy manner, and communication to you.
We plan for success in every situation, but we also plan for contingencies in case something goes wrong. Our plans are always based on evidence in research, as well as our team’s extensive experience.
Checks and Balances Identify Issues
Today’s digital dental office allows accurate diagnosis of issues at levels never seen before. We design your treatment timeline to include frequent checks and balances. These checks might include visual inspection, photos, models of your teeth, or 3-D radiographs to evaluate many aspects of treatment. The records taken by your general dentist play a part in this, as well. Your doctors and the team of certified orthodontic assistants evaluate the overall health of your mouth–teeth, gums, and bone–at each visit to ensure that your treatment is on the right track and also to detect when something is not going as planned.
Knowing that something is going wrong is just as important as knowing that everything is right
We are happy to discuss treatment progress with you and are obligated to discuss treatment alternatives in the event that things are not proceeding as originally planned. In that event, we communicate with the entire dental team about the issues and discuss treatment options in order to obtain the healthiest result possible for you.
There are many risks associated with any health procedure. Orthodontics definitely includes risks, which are covered in your informed consent. Always know the risks of treatment, and if you don’t understand them, ask us.