Alignment is not only about appearance

Crowded teeth are harder to clean, which shows up years later as decay between them and as gum inflammation in the places floss never properly reached. Teeth that meet unevenly wear at different rates and load the jaw joint unevenly. Straightening is a long-term maintenance decision that happens to look better.

It is also not always the right answer. If the complaint is one chipped edge, bonding solves it in an afternoon. Alignment is for situations where the position of the teeth is the problem.

What aligners do well, and where they struggle

Being straight about the limits at the beginning is the difference between a satisfied patient and a disappointed one.

  • They handle mild to moderate crowding, spacing and relapse after previous treatment predictably.
  • They struggle with large rotations of round teeth, significant vertical movement and cases where the bite relationship itself has to change substantially.
  • They depend entirely on being worn. An aligner in a case on the kitchen counter moves nothing.
  • They are removable, which is a real advantage for cleaning and eating and a real risk for anyone who will not put them back in.
  • Some cases genuinely belong with fixed appliances or with someone who has completed additional formal training in tooth movement, and you will be told if yours is one of them.

How the appointments fall

  1. Assessment

    Examination, images and records to establish whether the case suits aligners at all, and what the finished result would realistically be.

  2. Planning and delivery

    A digital plan is produced and the trays are made. At delivery you are shown how to seat and remove them and told what the wear expectation is.

  3. Check-ins

    Short appointments at intervals to confirm the teeth are tracking the plan. These are the visits where the drive costs more time than the appointment does, so several trays are usually issued at once.

  4. Retention, which does not end

    Teeth drift back toward where they started for the rest of your life. A retainer is not the end of treatment, it is the permanent part of it. More on clear aligners.

Before you start

How many hours a day do I really have to wear them?

Effectively all of them except when eating, drinking anything other than water, or cleaning your teeth. Treatment time stretches in direct proportion to how much that slips.

How often would I need to come in?

Ask at the assessment, and say that you are driving from Ahwahnee. Where it is clinically safe, visits can be spaced further apart with more trays issued at a time.

What happens if I stop wearing my retainer after treatment?

The teeth move. Not all at once, and not always back to exactly where they were, but they move. This is the most common reason people end up doing alignment twice.

The route from Ahwahnee

Highway 49 runs east into Oakhurst and meets Highway 41 in town, and Road 426 branches off from there. It is a straightforward drive with no highway change until you are already in Oakhurst.

All of it happens at one address, 49414 Road 426 in Oakhurst. There is no second location, and the hours are Monday to Wednesday 8:30 am to 5:00 pm and Thursday 7:30 am to 4:00 pm.

The clinical detail without the travel notes is on the orthodontics page. Everything else written for this community is on the Ahwahnee page.