In the modern world of orthodontics, your straight smile treatment plan is as high-tech as your smartphone. With advanced gadgets for everything from digital impressions to 3D printing, 21st-century braces, and clear aligner technology are made for accuracy, convenience, and comfort. At Hemphill Orthodontics, we invest in the most up-to-date technology so that your service, experience, and quality of care are at the highest level possible, giving you the dream smile you’ve always wanted.
Ortho Technology at Hemphill Orthodontics
#1: Intraoral Scanners
In previous generations of orthodontic treatment, patients looking to get braces had one thing to look forward to at their initial consultations: impressions. These goopy, gaggy molds of your teeth required patience and resilience – and if you got them as a child, you remember how uncomfortable they were.
Fortunately, Dr. Hemphill’s intraoral digital scanners remove the necessity of old-fashioned impressions, replacing them with digital versions that are cleaner, more comfortable, and more accurate than ever before. By moving the scanner’s camera-equipped wand around the patient’s mouth, we can capture thousands of high-resolution images per second to create a 3D image of the mouth without the need for a physical mold. And since it is a digital file, it can be saved forever!
This quick process requires much less time than older scanners, and our patients find it much more comfortable as it eliminates the physical impression materials that might cause gagging. These digital impressions can easily be shared with dental laboratories or used in-office for various orthodontic treatments, including the design and fabrication of aligners, retainers, and other orthodontic appliances. The precision of these digital models helps in creating more effective and personalized treatment plans, enhancing your child’s overall quality of orthodontic care.
#2: 3D Printing
Once we have an accurate scan of your child’s smile, we use these images to create a digital model of their teeth. Then, we utilize a 3D printer to create an exact replica of the top and bottom teeth. Because of the high level of accuracy of modern 3D printing technology, we can produce devices that are tailored to the exact needs of your child’s dental anatomy, ensuring a better fit, improved comfort, and more effective treatment outcomes.
Integrating the technology of digital intraoral scanners and 3D printing makes the entire treatment process that much more accurate and convenient from start to finish.
#3: In-House Aligners
Clear aligners are a high-tech treatment option all on their own, but having the ability to make clear aligners in-house really ups our game. Before we introduced in-house aligner technology, we used to outsource all of our aligner treatment plans to outside manufacturers like Invisalign.
Now, however, the in-house system gives Dr. Hemphill the option to create clear aligners in our office for simpler orthodontic cases. This means he takes an even greater hands-on approach to customizing your clear aligners, which reduces the overall cost of your treatment plan and reduces the amount of time you’ll have to wait between your consultation and the first day of treatment.
It’s worth noting that we may still send your child’s 3D scans to an orthodontic lab for appliance manufacturing – but having this option opens the door to additional options and treatment plan personalization.
#4: Lifetime Retainer Insurance Program
As Dr. Hemphill will always remind you, active treatment with braces or clear aligners is only half the battle of straightening your smile for life. In order to keep it straight once treatment is over, you or your child will need to wear retainers. It is typically required just at night, but it is a long-term commitment: “night time for lifetime!”
That’s a long time! While you may feel confident that you won’t lose or break your retainer, life and unexpected things tend to happen. And more often than not, you’ll need a replacement sooner than you think. (Not to mention, it’s healthy to replace retainers every now and then. You wouldn’t use the same toothbrush for five years, would you?)
Anticipating this need is your best bet, which is why we offer a lifetime retainer guarantee. If you opt for this program, we’ll use the most updated 3D scan of your teeth (taken at your braces-off appointment or your final aligner check-up) to create your first set of retainers AND a backup set automatically. Then, we’ll save the digital files of your scans and register you into our Lifetime Retainer plan. Should you ever need a replacement for any reason at all (lost, bent, broken, new crowns or fillings, worn out, etc), we’ll make new ones at no additional cost, NO QUESTIONS ASKED! With Lifetime Retainers, you’ll never pay us for another retainer again.
#5: Wire Bending Machine for Bonded Retainers
For patients interested in bonded retainers, you’re in luck. The Bender II by Yoat is the newest addition to our straight smile technology arsenal, and we think you’ll appreciate it, too. This high-tech ortho machine is a wire-bending robot that fabricates perfectly-fitting retainer wires, which increases comfort, effectiveness, and easy/accuracy placement.
Before the Bender II, Dr. Hemphill would bend every retainer wire by hand. Although he was a pro at getting the wires just right, there’s no beating the pinpoint accuracy of the wire-bending machine, because it is also designed digitally from your 3D scan. Plus, this machine means you’ll have one less appointment that stands between your orthodontic treatment and life without brackets, wires, or clear aligners!
Hemphill Orthodontics: High Tech = High Quality
All in all, your orthodontic treatment plan will always be improved by additional technology. At Hemphill Orthodontics, we understand this, and that’s why investing in high-tech appliances and machinery is such a priority for us: because it makes your treatment experience more comfortable, more accurate, and higher quality than it would be without it.
So, are you ready to experience what 21st-century technology can really do for your smile? Schedule your free consultation to get started today!
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Dr. Hemphill