What’s the Difference Between a Dentist and an Orthodontist?
Many people think that dentists and orthodontists provide the same dental treatment to cure dental problems. But that’s not true because they both provide different dental services and have different expertise.
Dentists perform regular dental problem practices such as treatment of the teeth, gums, mouth and tongue. On the same side, an orthodontist provides orthodontics treatment that helps to correct the teeth alignment, spaces and jawline.
They receive special training in addition to general dentistry to achieve better alignment. As a result, they both may look similar but are different from each other.
This article will explain the key differences between the dentist and orthodontist. But, first, let us take a deep dive to the post.
What Can a Regular Dentist Do?
Dentists are general dental doctors who help in maintaining oral health and provide primary treatment. Typically, a dentist is trained to deal with general dental issues such as an oral cavity, root canal treatment, oral hygiene and teeth filling.
They have gained expertise in diagnosing oral diseases and help to treat gum disease, and keep the mouth healthy. Aside from this, they can maintain the overall dental hygiene and offer other dental services, which are as follows:
- Fill the teeth cavities.
- Conduct dental X-rays to interpret the teeth condition
- Extract the decayed teeth
- Dentists help to repair the cracked tooth
- They help to bond the teeth and fill the teeth gap with fillers
- They provide oral hygiene treatment and treat several gums related diseases such as gingivitis
- The dentist also offers teeth whitening treatment and also installs the crown.
- The dentist can also perform oral surgery.
These are a few of the basic treatments offered by general dentists. But the general dentist cannot offer surgical treatment such as correction of the teeth alignment, facial bones and others.
What Does the Orthodontist Offers to the Patients?
Norwalk orthodontics also provides dental services, but these services are different from what general dentists offer. In simple terms, orthodontists gain special training and certification to handle severe dental problems such as teeth alignment, jaw misalignment and many more.
The best orthodontists gain special training to treat crooked teeth, overcrowded teeth, misaligned teeth and spaces between the teeth. Moreover, they provide advanced treatment such as mouth framing to correct the teeth’ alignment due to accidental injuries.
Furthermore, they also provide services to reduce the spaces between the teeth and straighten the overcrowded teeth. Other than this, the orthodontists offer several Norwalk orthodontics services, which are as follows;
- Diagnose and correct the misaligned jaw and teeth
- Monitor the growth of the teen’s teeth and check the jawline alignment.
- Perform surgery to correct the teeth alignment
- Provide braces treatment that helps to fix the teeth space and correct the overbite and underbite issues
Orthodontics services also include palatal expanders, and installing several dental appliances into the mouth to achieve better smiles.
What is the Qualification of a General Dentist and an Orthodontist?
Orthodontists and general dentists achieve the same basic education. But to be the best orthodontist in Norwalk, the dentist must gain additional certification and training before they start practicing. Dentists require a pre-dentistry degree, general training, and residency before practicing as certified dentists.
But the orthodontist also gains additional training with these degrees and training. So they spend a few more years as an orthodontist. The orthodontist also attends the orthodontic residency for two years and more with additional three years of training to achieve a certificate in orthodontics.
They are concerned about offering specific surgical and dental services to correct the alignment of the teeth and help deal with other accidental facial trauma.
To Whom You Could Seek for Correcting the Teeth Space?
If you wish to treat the teeth spaces and achieve perfect smiles, you should seek an orthodontist specialist’s help. They are capable of treating the teeth spacing and provide specific treatment to straighten the teeth.
Moreover, if you have tooth crowding, jaw malocclusion and other issues, you must visit the orthodontist instead of a general dentist. They can offer better treatment to treat crooked teeth too.
Bottom Line
So, now you have a clear difference between the dentistry and orthodontics. They both may be dealing in the same profession but serve different treatments to maintain oral health. The orthodontist also receives additional residency training to install the braces, Invisalign, which helps fix the misaligned jaw.
