General — 6 min read
Orthodontic Treatment
Straightening teeth is the visible part. Correcting how the arches meet is the part that determines whether the result holds.
Screened and introduced free, usually within a few hours. Sunny Isles Beach, Florida and the surrounding corridor.
Indications
Orthodontic assessment is worth having if
Orthodontics moves teeth through bone using sustained light force. The appliance — aligners, fixed braces, or a combination — is a delivery mechanism. The diagnosis and the treatment plan behind it are what actually matter.
- Crowding, overlapping or rotated teeth that are difficult to clean
- Gaps you would like closed without cutting tooth structure for veneers
- An overbite, underbite, crossbite or open bite
- Teeth wearing unevenly because they meet in the wrong places
- A midline that is visibly off-centre relative to your face
- Relapse after childhood orthodontics because retainers stopped being worn
Good candidate if
- Gum health is stable, or is being treated first
- You want radiographs and a real diagnosis before treatment
- You will wear retainers afterwards, indefinitely
- You want alignment corrected before any cosmetic work
No cost, no obligation, no lead list.
The detail
Aligners versus fixed appliances, honestly
Straightening teeth is the visible part. Correcting how the arches meet is the part that determines whether the result holds.
Clear aligners handle mild to moderate crowding, spacing and many bite corrections extremely well, and they are removable, comfortable and nearly invisible. Their weaknesses are specific: large rotations of round teeth like premolars, significant vertical movement of individual teeth, and closing extraction spaces bodily rather than tipping the crowns. They also depend entirely on being worn twenty to twenty-two hours a day, which is a genuine variable.
Fixed appliances remain more precise for complex movement, work regardless of compliance, and are often faster for severe cases. Many modern plans combine them — aligners for most of the treatment with a short phase of fixed brackets, or vice versa. The important distinction is not the appliance but who is planning it. Mail-order aligner services that never take radiographs cannot see root position, bone levels or periodontal disease, and moving teeth in a mouth with untreated bone loss causes harm that is expensive to reverse.
The sequence
What actually happens, in order.
Timings vary between practices and cases. The order does not — and a plan that skips a step is worth asking about.
Diagnostic records
Panoramic and cephalometric radiographs, photographs, digital scans and a clinical examination of the joints and bite.
Treatment plan
A digital simulation of tooth movement, with the sequence, expected duration and any extractions or attachments made explicit.
Active phase
Aligner changes every one to two weeks, or adjustments every six to eight weeks with fixed appliances.
Detailing
The final millimetres — bite settling, midline, contact points. This phase is what separates good results from adequate ones.
Retention
A bonded wire behind the front teeth, a removable retainer at night, or both. Permanently. This is not optional.
Getting the right hands
Who should be doing your orthodontic treatment.
This is the variable that decides your result, and it is the one you have least ability to assess from the outside.
Not years in dentistry. How many of these they do in a month, and what the difficult ones looked like.
Anyone can photograph a result on delivery day. We want to see it after it has been used.
CBCT, microscope, scanner, printer — whichever this case genuinely requires, on site rather than referred out.
For anything ceramic, the technician is half the result. A dentist who cannot name theirs is outsourcing blind.
Orthodontic Treatment FAQ
What people ask us about orthodontic treatment.
Including the cost question, answered with a real range rather than a request to call.
In South Florida, comprehensive clear aligner treatment typically runs $4,500 to $8,000, and fixed braces $4,000 to $7,500. Limited treatment addressing only the front teeth can be $2,500 to $4,000. Many practices offer interest-free payment plans across the treatment period.
For a large proportion of cases, yes, when planned by an orthodontist. Braces retain an advantage for severe rotations, substantial vertical movements and complex extraction cases. The bigger determinant of outcome is the quality of the plan and the operator, not the appliance.
No. Teeth move through bone at any age, and adults now make up a large share of orthodontic patients. The only real requirement is healthy gums and bone — active periodontal disease must be treated and stable before teeth are moved.
They skip radiographs and in-person examination, which means no assessment of root position, bone levels or joint health. For genuinely mild crowding in a healthy mouth some people do fine. The cases that go wrong go wrong expensively, and the saving is a few thousand dollars against that risk.
Yes, without retention. Teeth have a lifelong tendency to drift, and relapse after successful treatment is nearly always a retainer problem. Expect a bonded wire behind the lower front teeth and a night retainer, indefinitely.