New technique cutting the time with braces in half

In our Ask the Doctor segment this morning, straightening your teeth with braces can sometimes take years to pull off. But Melissa Wilson finds out about a new technique that is cutting that time in half.

She reached out to me to find out if there's anything new on the market because she wants to straighten her teeth, but she has a big event coming up in about a year and she wants it quickly. Is that possible?


It is possible. We have two new procedures that are available for people that want to speed up their braces. One is called propel, and I have the little propel gadget here. This is basically a type of surgery. And the way it works, there's a little needle right there that comes out. So what the patient has to do on the teeth that are difficult to move, like maybe this one's rotated a bunch, a surgeon can go up in here and poke little holes through the gum into the bone, and it's just like poking an ice cube. The bone kind of shatters like that. And that's not like a broken bone, but there's little microscopics. So because the bone now has these little fractures, the teeth can move much faster and spin around and do all kinds of things. So this can improve the speed by about 40 to 50% in most cases.

Oh, my goodness. So you're really making it a whole lot faster.

Yeah.

Almost doubled the time. Okay. Now what about the pain factor? You said you numbed them up, so obviously it doesn't hurt at the time, but what about afterwards?

No, the patients that I know that have done this have had literally nothing. They take an Advil or something. It's a little sore, like somebody poked it with a piece of hard cracker or something, but not pain, pain.

How interesting. And then who is the best person to qualify for this? Someone who wants them off quickly?

Oh sure. I mean that's the only reason you would do it is to speed it up.

Right.

And so if you don't want to speed... It costs more money, so you have to go do that. So if you're not in a rush, why do it?

Right.

But if you're in a rush, we got it.

Okay. But it is more expensive than regular braces?

Yes. This adds roughly about $800 to the cost of your braces.

Okay. So it all depends on your timing and how fast you want those off.

That's right.

And it goes along with regular braces? You would just have the typical braces?

You can do it with Invisalign or with regular braces, yes.

Okay. Thanks for the information.

Okay.

Very interesting. If you have a question to ask the doctor, you can reach out to Melissa on her Facebook page or on Twitter.