If your teeth are misaligned, you may be experiencing more than social discomfort. Before considering direct-to-consumer remedies, it is important to talk to your dentist about any problem in your mouth and to understand how a DIY approach could compromise your overall health.
The Connection Between Your Health and Misaligned Teeth
It’s hard to remove plaque and bacteria from misaligned teeth. This can lead to inflamed gums, soft tissue damage, receding gums, pockets between teeth and gums, bone loss, and tooth loss. Problems that start in your mouth can spread to the rest of your body. Severe gum infections may increase the risk of:
heart disease
stroke
lung diseases
problems in pregnancy
complications related to diabetes
Alzheimer’s disease
Health care professionals are trained and licensed for good reason. Whenever patients take health treatment into their own hands or patients enter into a DIY health care situation, they are risking the chance of missing important contributing factors or introducing resulting factors in care that your doctor is trained to identify.
What You Should Know About DTC Aligners
The full policy can be accessed at MouthHealthy.org/DIYdentistry and includes four key factors for consumers to be aware of:
The policy includes the sale of partial dentures, teeth whitening trays, snoring appliances, veneers and mouth guards in addition to DTC orthodontic services.
Without the consultation of a dentist, the self-delivered, unsupervised dental treatment may cause damage and irreversible harm.
Patients lose quality control checkpoints without the supervision of a dentist when purchasing dental laboratory services.
If patients experience issues with DTC manufactured dental prosthetics, it can be more difficult to resolve the conflict without a dentist who has prescribed the prosthetic device.
In response to Better Business Bureau complaints for certain direct-to-consumer companies, as well as other reviews and stories where individuals are claiming issues with certain direct-to-consumer services, the American Association of Orthodontics (AAO) has issued a consumer alert, which can be viewed at https://www.aaoinfo.org/_/online-orthodontic-companies/.
Truth in Advertising (TINA.org) has also written articles addressing DTC products.
Talk To Us
Keystone Dental Arts | Certified Invisalign Provider Doctors
Overall patient health and well-being are at the heart of our practice philosophy. As a patient-centered practice, Dr. Christian, Dr. Roberts, and our staff take care to be respectful, mindful and responsive to individual patient preferences and needs to ensure that patient values guide all clinical decisions.
Dr. Roberts is a Doctor of Dental Surgery and Certified Invisalign Provider offering:
Free initial consultation.
Financial planning and payment plans.
The experience that comes from completed Invisalign cases.
A free scan and AI-powered visualization of how your teeth will get straight with Invisalign. (A recent full mouth set of x-rays may be needed.)
Examination of your oral health by a trained and experienced dentist who knows how to identify underlying conditions that could cause more problems if not resolved prior to treatment.
Professional and in-person oversight with situational advice throughout your course of treatment.
Your best health is our priority and that is why your initial consultation for planning cosmetic treatment is free. To protect your health and investment, contact us to arrange your appointment today. Request an Appointment online or call us to schedule your consultation at 603-692.9229.