Orthodontic care is a service, not a commodity. Like snowflakes, no two malocclusions are alike. Think about your best friend in middle school. At some point in time you may have been as much as a foot different in height. And just because both of you needed braces, your treatment was probably slightly different because your problems were slightly different. We call that ANALOGOUS but not HOMOLOGOUS (Thank you Dr. James Ackerman), similar but not identical. Take a recipe out of your favorite Julia Child Cookbook. Make two meals, but alter the ingredients without altering the recipe. They will not taste the same. It’s my job as an Orthodontist to properly evaluate all of the pertinent diagnostic data and make sure that the final result demonstrates optimum function, esthetics, and stability.
Once I have attained a complete diagnostic picture, I must then decide on achievable treatment goals, and then choose the appropriate gadget, appliance, “brace,” to achieve those goals. I may choose fixed braces which will give us a 90-95% improvement for growing children, or an 80-85% improvement for non-growing adults. I may choose removable acrylic trays which provide about a 70% overall improvement, or other removable or semi-removable appliances with more modest treatment achievability. There are a myriad of problems and a myriad of treatment appliances. It’s a matter of choosing the best one, based on years of training and experience, to achieve the desired result. As my other used to say, “There’s a pot for every lid.”
