Updates on Invisalign

ALIGN Technology, the company that makes Invisalign orthodontic aligners, has not yet made any indication that they will be reversing their decision on June 1st to require dentists and orthodontists to do a minimum of 10 cases each year and complete 10 hours of their Continuing Education courses each year.  The backlash among dentists and orthodontists, however, continues to get stronger, as this is a fairly blatant move by a for-profit corporation to intrude on a doctor’s autonomy and decision-making rights as to which cases are appropriate for Invisalign and which are not.  Several professional organizations, including the Academy of General Dentistry and the New York State Dental Association, are already responding with letters to ALIGN Technology’s Board of Directors and President, stating that there is simply no evidence that the so-called “proficiency requirements” have any basis in science, and unless they can come up with something to substantiate the claims the company is making, they should immediately withdraw the requirements.  If ALIGN Technology continues on this course, patients should fully expect to see an enormous drop in the availability of Invisalign as more and more dentists and orthodontists simply drop their service.

The good news is that there are alternatives to Invisalign, and they work as well or better, AND they’re even less expensive!  For some info and examples, check out our Six-Month Smiles in Charlotte!  Then you can Request a Complimentary Consultation to see how fast you can feel good about your smile again with straight, white teeth!  And if you’re concerned about cost, if you sign up for our Dental Discount Plan or choose Interest-Free Payment Plans with Care Credit, you can save some real money, too.

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A short video on Six-Month Braces

As I mentioned in a previous post on dental photography, I’ve been working to create Before/After videos of the different procedures we offer, and while they do take some time to put together, I am getting more of them completed.  Here’s one that describes a little more about the process of Six-Month Braces and what we can do for you to create a more beautiful smile.

A Smile Makeover with Porcelain Veneers and Short-Term Braces

This will be the last cosmetic dentistry/Smile Makeover video that I will post for a little while, as I next want to devote some time to showing how destructive “Grinding” of the teeth can be and why it is NOT something that you should take lightly.  Bruxism/Parafunction (the general term for both grinding and clenching, which are 2 separate things) can cause major problems for patients, and often in ways not easily visible because it takes time to develop or they’re under the surface.  I believe this is an area of dentistry that is often neglected, and it only makes things worse for patients.

With that said, I do hope you enjoy the way we combined different kinds of treatments to achieve a dramatic Smile Makeover for Daniel, as visible in this video.

Don’t forget – if you want to see all of the videos for our practice, check out our YouTube channel: SmilesbyPayet.

Combination Porcelain Veneers and Short-Term Braces

New Patient Education videos now in the office!

Oh, it feels so good to finally be able to announce this, as I’ve been working on it so hard for so many nights after my family has gone to bed, but FINALLY I have begun producing some new Patient Education videos to help explain a number of options that we offer by using pictures of many similar cases.

Over the last 4 years, I have amassed a catalog of about 38,000 digital photographs of the work that we do.  You can see my Photography Blog post on the subject of Patient Communication with Digital Photography for more info on how/why we take pictures of our work, but now I’m finally able to turn a lot of those photos into various video formats to highlight problems that many patients have, often without even realizing it, and to let our patients actually see what they can expect once the treatment is completed.  It’s really quite exciting!  We’re not talking about “stock” photography here, of work that someone else did.  EVERY SINGLE ONE of the pictures that you’ll see were taken by Dr. Payet (me), and every completed procedure was performed by Dr. Payet (me) and my Team.  (Hope you don’t mind me talking about myself in the 3rd person for a moment there; I was having a Bob Dole flashback after reading some political articles.  🙂

We’ll look forward to showing you these new videos when you come in!

Don’t have any of those videos in Web format quite yet, but keep an eye on our website, Smiles by Payet Dentistry, for them to begin appearing there within the next few weeks.  You’ll be able to see and understand so much more easily, I promise!

Six-Month Braces – Great Results — FAST

We just finished up this case today — doesn’t need much explanation, just that it took about 6 months and the patient was thrilled.  🙂

A dental patient of Dr. Charles Payet in Charlotte, NC, who's thrilled with her smile after 6-Month Braces.

Short-Term Orthodontics, aka Six (6) Month Braces, make crooked teeth straight FAST in Charlotte

In the last post, I talked about the ways that Porcelain Veneers (laminates) could be used to correct crowding of the front teeth.  Veneers are an excellent option, but there are 2 primary drawbacks:

1) There is usually irreversible loss of tooth structure to allow the lab to make the porcelain look truly beautiful, and because all dentistry fails eventually, you will need the veneers replaced 1 or more times during your life, and

2) They require a significant financial investment.

Given those 2 issues, many people have avoided doing anything about the crowding of their front teeth because they assumed that otherwise they would have to go through braces for 2-3 years.  However, that is really not the case for all patients; in fact, for many patients, assuming that your bite is stable and you have no jaw pain/tooth pain, it is often possible to correct crowded front teeth in 4-6 months with limited orthodontics.  All orthodontists can do this, of course, but their usual goal is to help you achieve a more ideal, overall result.  The good news is that, here at Smiles by Payet Dentistry, we also offer this exciting service that offers a couple significant advantages over veneers:

1) No real loss of tooth structure or dental restorations that will eventually have to be replaced, and

2) The investment is much much lower.

With no further ado, let me introduce Jeremy, whose case we just finished today.  He plans on whitening his teeth in 2009 to complete the Short-Term Ortho Smile Makeover.  And please keep in mind: We achieved this result for Jeremy in only FOUR MONTHS! Needless to say, he was a very happy camper when we took off the brackets today.  Wouldn’t you be, too?

Crowded front teeth straightened with Six (6) Month Braces

Our new website is live!

It’s been a long time coming – a much needed makeover for the Smiles by Payet website.  Thanks to Marie McClaflin of Arc Brand Marketing, we took what was still most useful from the old site, updated the info on our outstanding Team (portraits of each will be online soon, too), added better ways to contact us (we now have email addresses for each individual Team Member), and soon we’ll be adding new info on our CEREC CAD/CAM system, the Zeiss PICO dental operating microscope, and plenty more links to really useful and informational websites on many dental topics.

In the near future we also plan on adding video testimonials from a number of patients who’ve benefitted from the NTI-tss, the only FDA-approved and non-medication treatment for Migraine and Chronic Tension Headaches (I’ll be posting more on this soon), as well as some short video introductions for myself and our Team Members – Rosie Bonnett, Kerri Rucker, Marie Whittington, and Kim Pleasants.

We also have a number of recent Smile Makeovers and Short-Term Adult Ortho cases that will showcase just how dramatic a change can be achieved by either of these techniques, as well as some new examples of Deep Bleaching (you will be amazed, I promise!), and Before/After pictures of those will be posted soon, as well as here.

The website name is still the same, but it’s a whole new look!  SmilesbyPayet.com

Smiles by Payet Dentistry – Welcome!

Welcome to the Dental Blog for Smiles by Payet Dentistry, the office of Dr. Charles Payet, where our goal is to provide Beautiful Smiles and Lifetime Care.  This blog will keep you up-to-date on happenings in our office, about our Team, new technologies that we’re adding, articles about how dental care (or the lack of it) impacts your daily life.  Here’s a little video to introduce you to me……

As of May 20th, Smiles by Payet Dentistry is moving to a brand-new dental office on Park Rd., just a couple miles and less than 10 minutes from our old office near the SouthPark Mall, in beautiful Charlotte, NC. We are very excited about the move, as we will have more rooms available, we’ll be hiring more great team members to care for you promptly and with great customer service.  Want to read what many of our current patients have to say about us?  Read our Google reviews!

We offer a unique combination of services that allow us to treat the entire family, from kids up to retirement and beyond:

LANAP: comfortable and truly effective treatment for gum disease with the Periolase

Dr. Payet now offers Six (6) Month Braces for amazing Smile Makeovers in Charlotte, NC.

Dental care for the whole family is affordable with the Quality Dental Plan.

To make an appointment, you can Request an Appointment Online or call us at 704-364-7069.

We’ll look forward to meeting you soon!