What is an Orthodontist?

An Orthodontist is a professional who has followed his/her general dental education with 2-3 additional years of full time post-doctoral study in an orthodontic program and institution accredited by the American Dental Association.

What is a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics?
Obtaining Diplomate status (Board Certified) requires the combination of vigorous coursework and conventional continuing education applied to the real world of patient care. Throughout this process oral and written exams must be taken and passed. Afterwards the culmination of this process is a formal presentation of treatment results for critical review, by a panel of nationally-respected Orthodontists. Once the panel approves of the candidate, the orthodontist then becomes Board Certified and a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics. Because of the difficulty of this process, only a select few orthodontists are rewarded with this certification. The Orthodontist at Comfort Care Dental, Dr. Serena Hsu, is one of the few that has obtained the status of Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics.

What is orthodontics?
Orthodontics is the branch of dentistry that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of dental and facial irregularities. The practice of orthodontics requires professional skill in the design, application and control of corrective appliances to bring teeth, lips, and jaws into proper alignment and achieve facial balance.

How do Orthodontists straighten teeth?
Tooth movement is a normal response to light pressures exerted on teeth. Pressure is applied by using a variety of orthodontic appliances, the most common being a brace or bracket attached to the teeth and connected by wires. By tightening the wires, the teeth receive the needed pressure.

Orthodontics at Comfort Care Dental

We offer orthodontic braces in our office in order to better accommodate our patients and provide a better quality of braces that is currently not offered in Rancho Cucamonga. Patients are not required to have orthodontic services done here at our office. We will be more than happy to refer out to our other local orthodontic specialists and continue general dental care for our patients here at our office.

We can only offer our services for braces on 2 Mondays per month. If these days do not work for patients, we can refer patients to other orthodontic offices.

The orthodontic technology that we use here at Comfort Care Dental is called self-ligation and the brackets that we use are the 3M Smart Clips. We do not offer standard braces here at Comfort Care Dental. In fact, we are the only office in the Inland Empire who offer 3M Smart Clips as the ONLY source of braces for orthodontic services.

Reasons why we choose to use self-ligation techniques with 3M Smart Clips:

1. Decreased chair time needed to complete orthodontic treatment compared to standard braces. Therefore the potential for fewer and faster appointments.

2. 3M Smart Clips are engineered to produce less stress and discomfort to patients teeth compared to standard braces.

3. 3M Smart Clips are smaller with no use of elastic O rings, resulting in less plaque build up and therefore can reduce the chance of getting cavities during orthodontic treatment (oral hygiene is still the main factor in caries prevention).

4. 3M Smart Clips have smooth, contoured surfaces that offer a more comfortable fit compared to other standard braces.

Our fees for 3M Smart Clip Braces include orthodontic treatment, diagnostic casts, orthodontic x-rays, cephalometric analysis report and tracings, profile photos and final retainer(s).