really like the friendly professional atmosphere. While in the office all of the staff members acknowledge you and say hello, whether they are entering the reception room to get another patient or you pass them in the hall. I've never experienced that in a Dr. office before. I also really like that they work as a team and their communication is impecable. Explanations are very thourough and they listen to my input and always answer my questions. I couldn't be more confident that I'm in excellent care.
Not all crossbites have to be corrected necessarily, either with braces or Invisalign. This really depends on the goals of treatment between you and your orthodontist. But if you are using Invisalign to correct your bite, fixing a crossbite with the aligners alone can prove to be a very challenging movement, and one that could take more time to correct in aligners alone, versus correcting the crossbite in an intial phase. I would consult your orthodontist to determine the best course of action for treatment.
This really depends on the preference of your orthodontist. Some orthodontists choose to finish their cases with an Essix (or clear) retainer that is thicker, yet similar to Invisalign trays with the exception that in general they do not apply pressure to teeth. You would weat these on the top and bottom, for in general 6 months full time, then to bed lifetime. However, some orthodontists insist on Hawley retainers. If you are concerned about the metal, there are different varieties of metal that can be used to bend the retainer if you have an allergy, so I wouldn't be concerned with that. Regardless, follow what your doctor recommends as this will give you the best result for all of your hard work and time in braces.
For many patients, elastic wear is crucial to an excellent result with Aligner wear if their posterior bite is off. Elastics are generally worn off of buttons directly bonded to the teeth, or off of hooks that are milled into the aligners directly. But in all cases, elastics are worn on the outside of the aligners. Your doctor will tell you how often you should wear you elastics, but proper wear is important to treatment success.
The question probably needs to be more specific, however, regarding proper timing or age for Invisalign, generally speaking, you would prefer to have all permanent teeth erupted as Invisalign will only work well if the trays have sufficient surface area of teeth to grab onto. If the child is too young and teeth are partially erupted, this may cause the trays not to work predictably. Regarding the other end of the spectrum, you are really never too old for Invisalign, you just need to make sure that you have a positive oral health grade as you would not want to move teeth in the presence of any active oral disease (ie periodontal disease). If you have a clean bill of health, then you are good to go. As always, check with you orthodontist first to have a proper consult.
The orthodontist may choose to use braces or Invisalign to correct this problem, but how he or she corrects the underbite tendency depends on if the nature of the correction involves dealing with a skeletal or dental problem. If your daughter has a severe skeletal issue where the top jaw is too far back, the bottom jaw too far forward, or a combination of the two, then she may require jaw surgery to correct her bite in combination with braces. If the underbite tendency is from a dental problem where there is a tooth size discrepancy (i.e. commonly on the upper, the lateral incisors may be too small causing the upper teeth to be too far back with a resultant edge-to-edge or underbite), then the way to address this would be to create space around affected small teeth to make them the right size, or to remove tooth structure from the opposite arch (lower teeth) with extraction or shaving of the teeth so they can be brought back towards the tongue as space closes. All the above scenarios have a multitude of variables (i.e. degree of crowding, your daughters' profile, etc) that can alter the decision of the practitioner, so the best idea is to see the orthodontist for a specific treatment plan tailored to your daughter.
