Why Visit an Alexandria Family Dentist

As a local Alexandria dentist, we treat patients of all ages, and our goal is to help our patients maintain healthy teeth for a lifetime. When you visit our family dentist office, we will discuss your health history, what you do and do not like about your smile, conduct a physical examination, and take x-rays. All this helps us to get to know you so we can create a customized treatment plan for your dental care.

Benefits to Visiting a Local Dentist

In our family dentist office, we build relationships. We do not treat patients like a number in a long line of appointments. Instead, we value the relationships we build with our patients and believe these relationships allow us to identify potential health problems before they arise, leading to fast treatment times and successful preventative care. These benefits are also clear:

Continuity of care. When you bring the entire family to our dentist office, we can provide a continuity of care you would not receive by visiting multiple practices. Continuity is essential when it comes to properly diagnosing conditions and preventing new ones from developing. We do not need to ask for records because we already have them. We do not need to ask what happened to your tooth three years ago because we would have been the one who fixed it. When you expand this throughout the entire family, the level of care you receive will go up significantly, as will the convenience.

Easy appointments. As a family dentist, we understand how busy our patients are. Parents running from work to soccer practice and driving kids to SAT prep may find that there is very little time left over for taking care of things like dental care. This is why we make it a priority to make dental appointments fast and easy. In our dentist office, we can set an appointment for all of your children, or just you, around the same time. This way, you only need to make one trip to our office and receiving dental care will become significantly more convenient.

Preventative care saves time. When you visit our dentist office for preventative care, you are saving yourself time and a headache in the future. By cleaning your and your children's teeth twice a year, we can prevent many of the common oral health problems from ever developing. Cavities and gum disease, for example, will be less likely to occur. As a result, you will not need to worry about receiving intensive treatments in the future. This is beneficial because these routine visits take less time to complete, are more affordable, and more comfortable than it would be to remove an infection or complete a restoration. We can provide you with all these services in our family dentist office, but our goal is to keep you healthy so you do not need them.

Call us to schedule an appointment with our dentist office so you can learn how important preventative care can be.

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Does Invisalign® Work? Answers From a Cosmetic Dentist

As a cosmetic dentist, we want to help answer a few questions about Invisalign®. The most important thing any patient wants to know before they get involved with any treatment is the effectiveness of the treatment. In other words, does Invisalign® actually work? With so much hype and advertising, it is often easy to lose focus, but the real point of any treatment is to achieve the desired results. In the case of visiting a cosmetic dentist for an Invisalign® treatment, the point is to get straighter teeth. So let's look at whether or not Invisalign® actually works, why or why not, and what can affect the reliability of a treatment like this.

When a cosmetic dentist uses Invisalign®, does it actually work?

The simple answer to this question is yes. Invisalign® is a revolutionary new product designed with the sole purpose of moving your teeth out of their misaligned position and into one far more attractive and functional. While there are additional benefits with Invisalign®, like being able to remove them for oral hygiene and not having to see the orthodontist every four weeks like you would need to do with braces, Invisalign® has never forgotten its key purpose of straightening teeth.

How does Invisalign® work?

Invisalign® is actually designed to do very much the same kind of work braces do. It is an age-old and proven way of straightening teeth; the only difference is the method. With braces, you will have wires and metal brackets attached to your teeth. Every four weeks, your orthodontist will need to adjust your braces, tightening them to gradually move the teeth. With Invisalign®, your cosmetic dentist works out an entire plan with you. Every two weeks, the laboratory sends you a custom set of clear aligners that fit over your teeth. The aligners are .25mm (up to .35mm) misaligned from the current position of your teeth. As you wear the aligners for 22 hours per day, they force the teeth to move, eventually making it so your teeth are in perfect alignment with the aligners. At that point, a new set arrives.

Is there anything that would prevent Invisalign® from working?

Like with any product or treatment, it is important to note that failure is a potential if you do certain things. First and foremost, it is critical that you wear the aligners for 22 hours a day or more. This allows the aligners to work on your teeth the entire time. Taking off the aligners constantly or leaving them off could result in the teeth not moving the correct amount, which will offset the entire treatment. Before you ever get to the aligners, however, there is an important need to have a realistic expectation of time. With your cosmetic dentist, you will draw out an exact timeline for treatment and need to be patient. Straightening teeth, even with the most revolutionary product, takes time, but is worth every second.

Invisalign Dentist  >  Best Dentist