Dr. Gary L. Carlson

Many significant technological advances have been realized in orthodontics.

Dental models are prepared with special instruments that provide information on the "harmony" of your bite and jaw joint relationship.

The basic orthodontic appliance, or "braces," are much smaller, more comfortable, and more esthetic.
Most often, we can cement the small, "direct bonded brackets" just to the outer tooth surface.
The "bands" that go around the entire crown are used only on some of the back teeth.
We offer stainless steel and gold braces, as well as the Clarity ™ Aesthetic Brackets made by 3M Unitek. The Clarity braces have an attractive, translucent appearance that makes the braces virtually invisible, and they perform as well as they look.
For the young or the young at heart, we offer plastic ties that hold the orthodontic wires in place in every color you can imagine.
New orthodontic wires such as the very flexible, nickel-titanium type, developed from technology in the NASA space program, provide for very gentle tooth movement.
The new Invisalign orthodontic system is a new means of orthodontic treatment. A series of "aligners" that are fabricated using 3-D computer technology move the teeth without the placement of the fixed brackets.

While the Invisalign system is quite new and is only applicable to relatively less complicated problems at this time, the approach does have promise.

An extremely important consideration if planning to use the Invisalign system is that dental models prepared in "centric relation," that is, with the lower jaw properly positioned in the jaw joints must be prepared and evaluated. If there is a poor harmony of the bite and the jaw joints, the Invisalign system should not be considered.