If your teeth are crooked, crowded, or misaligned, flashy metal braces aren’t your only option for straightening them out. Depending on your budget, particular issues, and the severity of your case, we offer several methods for giving you the beautiful, even smile you want.

To schedule a consultation with Silver Leaf Dentistry of Longmont, CO, fill out our convenient online contact form or call our office at 720-504-2539. We’d love to help you straighten your smile without braces with one of the options below.

Invisalign

Introduced in the late 1990s, Invisalign transformed the field of orthodontics. Now we can get results comparable to those of traditional metal braces using removable aligners that are invisible on the teeth. Invisalign treatment consists of a series of these aligners — custom made for your mouth to achieve a particular result — that are changed out every couple of weeks. Invisalign can correct crowded teeth, crooked teeth, overbites, underbites, gaps, and other orthodontic issues.

Dental Veneers

Dental veneers don’t actually move your teeth, but they can hide any imperfections, including minor crookedness, misalignment, and gaps. A dental veneer is a custom-made shell that’s permanently bonded to the front of a tooth. Veneers can be made out of a variety of materials, but porcelain is common and gives a beautiful, lifelike appearance. Typically, a small amount of tooth enamel is removed beforehand to enable the dental veneer to fit. You can get veneers on one tooth or many, depending on your needs and issues. With good care, dental veneers last many years.

Teeth Bonding

Teeth bonding is a relatively simple and inexpensive procedure that is appropriate for covering minor blemishes on the teeth — including small gaps. Typically, treatment is quick (under an hour) and requires no anesthesia. We use a putty-like composite resin, like the type we use for composite fillings. After preparing your enamel, we will apply the resin to your tooth, meticulously shaping and molding it. It is then hardened using a special light. After it’s cured, we will make any final adjustments.

Enamel Shaping

Enamel shaping (or recontouring) is sort of the opposite of tooth bonding. In this procedure, we actually remove small amounts of your tooth enamel to alter the appearance of your smile. It’s often used to eliminate rough spots or shorten teeth that are too long or pointy. It can also be used in cases of slightly overlapping teeth. We will take digital X-rays before our procedure so we know exactly where your enamel ends and the dentin of your tooth begins. We will then use special tools to remove just the right amount of enamel. As the procedure only affects the enamel layer of the teeth, it is painless.

While traditional metal braces are highly effective and appropriate for many situations, lots of  people, especially adults, just aren’t willing to wear them in order to straighten their smiles. And it’s often not necessary with all the other alternative orthodontic solutions that exist. At Silver Leaf Dentistry, we have many excellent options for straighter teeth. To book a consultation at our Longmont, CO office, call us at 720-504-2539 or fill out our online contact form and we will be in touch shortly.