Orthodontic Care

Our orthodontist offers several types of braces to ensure that we can find the treatment that is right for you. All bracket options utilized at Payson Orthodontics are upgraded self-ligating braces that move your teeth more quickly and with less force and less side effects leading to quicker and better outcomes. We offer three main types of braces:

• Metal Braces – This is the most common type of braces. Metal braces are made of high-grade stainless steel, and thanks to advances in technology and materials, metal braces are now smaller, more comfortable, and more attractive than ever before.
• Ceramic (Clear) Braces – Ceramic braces are made of a translucent material that is virtually clear. This makes them popular among our patients who are interested in maintaining a more natural-looking aesthetic during treatment, especially adults.
• Clear Aligners – Invisalign®, ClearCorrect™, and other similar treatment options are clear aligner systems that use custom-made plastic aligners to gradually move your teeth to their proper positions. These aligners are designed through computer simulation to ensure optimal results. Because clear aligner therapy is a nearly invisible way to straighten your teeth, it is a very popular treatment among adults and other patients who would like a more discreet treatment option.

During your initial visit with our team, we will help you determine which type of braces would best meet your personal needs and preferences. For more information and to schedule your consultation, call us today.

Invisalign® provides you with the unique opportunity to get the beautiful smile you want – without braces! Using proprietary technology, the makers of Invisalign will create a 3D digital design of the existing position of your teeth as well as the final desired results. Dr. Ben McDowell will then determine the ideal method and speed to move each tooth to that final desired location. Invisalign will then fabricate a series of clear plastic trays that will fit over the teeth. Each aligner will gently move your teeth little by little, taking you closer to the end result. These trays are usually changed every two weeks to continue tooth movement. The number of aligners needed depends on your individual situation, but usually ranges from 16 to 30, taking 8 to 15 months to recreate your smile. In some instances, a refinement period may be required to fine-tune the result.

These clear trays are nearly invisible and can be removed as needed so you can eat what and when you want. In addition, you can continue with your normal oral hygiene routine, easily brushing and flossing your teeth. However, this removability provides its own challenge – it demands excellent compliance on your part (these trays must be worn 22 hours per day) to ensure success. But as with so many other things in life, when you put in your best efforts, you get the best results. Invisalign aligners are comfortable and fit closely against the teeth. They contain no metal that may cause sores against your lips or cheeks. There are no wires to tighten and your visits to Dr. Ben McDowell are typically quick and painless. The best part of this whole process is that many people won’t even know you are undergoing orthodontic therapy – they’ll just see a beautiful smile!

As a trained orthodontist and certified Invisalign provider, Dr. Ben McDowell has the ability to adequately diagnose your malocclusion and identify how your teeth will need to be moved to achieve a beautiful smile. While there are many different types of cases that can be treated with Invisalign clear aligners, managing the treatment correctly is vital to you getting the results you anticipate.

Call Payson Orthodontics for a free consultation to see if Invisalign in Payson, Arizona, is right for you.

It's never too late to achieve a healthy, confident smile. At Payson Orthodontics, we provide customized orthodontic treatment for adults using today's most advanced technology, making treatment more comfortable, discreet, and effective than ever before.

Whether you choose traditional braces, clear braces, or Invisalign®, Dr. Ben McDowell will create a personalized treatment plan designed around your unique smile and goals. While adult teeth may move a bit more slowly than those of younger patients, excellent results are possible with the right approach.

If you've been thinking about straightening your teeth, now is the perfect time. Schedule your free consultation and discover how adult orthodontics can transform your smile and confidence.

“Shouldn’t I wait to get my child braces until they have all their permanent teeth?” The answer to that question depends on many factors. Ideally, your child’s orthodontic needs can be addressed most quickly and easily during adolescence, when Dr. Ben McDowell can utilize your child’s growth to obtain ideal functional and facial aesthetics. However, there are many circumstances that, if not addressed before adolescence, will result in a much more challenging, long, and even compromised orthodontic result.

As early as age seven, certain problems can arise that are best addressed immediately. An uncorrected posterior crossbite can result in your child positioning his/her jaw to one side in order to chew better. This may result in an altered growth pattern in which one side of the jaw grows faster than the other. If this continues for an extended period of time, the resultant asymmetry may not be able to be corrected without jaw surgery. Anterior crossbites should also be corrected as early as possible. In cases where this is due to a lack of growth of the upper jaw, our orthodontist can utilize an orthopedic appliance to accelerate its growth. However, if not treated before age 10, there is usually very minimal skeletal correction that can occur. Also, incisors that are left in a crossbite will usually develop significant wear and damage to the tooth that will remain even after the teeth are aligned.

Thumb or finger sucking has negative effects on the position of the incisors and can produce a significant narrowing of the jaws. This habit should be stopped at age six at the latest to avoid significant consequences like a posterior crossbite and incisors that stick too far forward. If needed, we can utilize appliances to aid your child in stopping thumb or finger sucking.

Impacted canines and eptopic eruption (teeth growing in the wrong location) can frequently be avoided if addressed early. A simple X-ray can show us if the teeth are developing in the right direction. If they are not, depending on the location of the tooth, Dr. Ben McDowell can prescribe something as simple as an extraction of a particular baby tooth or utilize orthodontic appliances to move teeth to redirect and prevent an impacted tooth. When an impacted canine is allowed to continue moving in the wrong direction, it can result in a much longer orthodontic treatment, with costly surgical assistance, to bring it into the right location. Even worse, an impacted canine may be so severe that it will cause significant damage to the roots of the adjacent incisors and may even result in the loss of one or more teeth.

Again, we want to emphasize that most children will not need this early interceptive treatment and can be placed in the Payson Ortho Kids Club where we will continue to monitor their growth and development at no cost as part of our free consultations. But, when treatment is needed, our orthodontist would love to help your child avoid significant, costly problems in the future by providing interceptive orthodontics in Payson, Arizona. We invite you to contact Payson Orthodontics today to learn more and to schedule your child’s visit free consultation.

If you only have a few teeth out of alignment, then we invite you to visit Payson Orthodontics for our limited and express orthodontic treatment. Dr. Ben McDowell will be able to more quickly move these teeth at a lower cost than traditional straightening procedures. Contact our orthodontist today if you want to learn more about our limited and express orthodontics in Payson, Arizona.

A limited, or express, orthodontic treatment is used to align only certain areas of the mouth. For example, if the back teeth are in a good position but the front teeth are crooked, then we will use an orthodontic appliance designed to move only the front teeth. Limited orthodontics are often used if you had braces while you were young but didn’t keep up on retainer wear. We also use limited orthodontics if we need to move teeth to prepare for the placement of implants, bridges, and other dental restorations.

There are many benefits to our limited orthodontic service. For one, treatment time and cost is usually much lower than comprehensive (or full) orthodontics. Additionally, having localized orthodontia can make the treatment more comfortable for patients than a full treatment. In fact, we often use the smooth aligners of Invisalign® for limited orthodontics. If you would like to learn more about this service, then call our practice today.

Just because your braces are off doesn’t mean your orthodontic treatment is over. You went through a lot of work to achieve this smile and now it is time to make sure we maintain it. According to research, only 33% of individuals will have their teeth stay relatively straight after the orthodontic appliances are removed if retainers are not used long term. For the other 66% of patients, the relapse in crooked teeth, a deep bite, or spacing will be moderate or even severe. Typically, the teeth will move towards their original crooked and un-aesthetic position. Don’t let this happen!

Not everything is doom and gloom, though. Everyone can maintain that Hollywood smile for the rest of their life if they so desire. Dr. Ben McDowell will identify the best methods to keep your teeth straight and will prescribe the retention appliances that will work best for you and your individual circumstances. Our orthodontist will continue to see you over a 2-year period and will help you make needed adjustments to enhance the stability of your orthodontic result. Potential retention appliances include clear plastic retainers, acrylic Hawley retainers, or permanently glued-in retainers that fit on the back side of your teeth or any combination of the three.

We invite you to contact Payson Orthodontics today to schedule a consultation and learn if a retainer in Payson, Arizona, is right for you.

We not only provide orthodontic services at Payson Orthodontics, but we can also correct jaw problems with our TMJ treatment. At times, a patient’s jaw may be sore or lock open and closed when they eat, speak, or yawn. At our office, we utilize the latest in techniques and technology to ensure that you receive the best care possible. We want to ease the pain that TMJ disorder can cause. The TMJ is the temporomandibular joint, or the joint that connects the lower jaw to the rest of the head. The term “TMJ” is often used to refer to TMJ disorder, also called TMD, which occurs when the jaw joint becomes stressed, injured, or misaligned. TMJ disorder may result due to several different factors, such as stress, bruxism (teeth grinding and clenching), arthritis in the TMJ, or trauma and injury to the head, neck, or jaw.

You may suffer from TMD if you experience frequent jaw pain or facial pain. TMJ disorders may also cause:

• Grinding, clicking, or popping sounds in the jaw when you open and close your mouth
• Inability to open your mouth wide to speak, yawn, or chew
• A locked or stuck jaw
• Pain when chewing and biting
• Pain in the neck, shoulders, or ears
• Frequent headaches

Our orthodontist can help you determine the cause of your TMJ disorder and recommend the appropriate treatment. Treatment for the TMJ will depend on the cause and severity of your TMJ disorder. TMD treatment may include jaw and facial relaxation exercises, lifestyle changes, restorative dental treatments, a mouth guard or night guard, or jaw surgery. To learn more about TMJ treatment and to schedule your consultation with our orthodontist, we encourage you to contact us today.

Our orthodontist may recommend orthognathic surgery in Payson, Arizona, if you have severe malocclusion problems that cannot be repaired with braces alone. Our Payson Orthodontics team will perform this service with skilled care in order to give you a healthier mouth and stronger bite. This surgery, which is also called jaw surgery, can be used in combination with orthodontic treatment to help produce optimal results. Dr. Ben McDowell has the training and experience required to determine which treatments are best in each individual case and to carry out those treatments efficiently.

Jaw surgery, or orthognathic surgery, may be needed if your oral health, function, and appearance are affected by problems that cannot be corrected through more conservative treatments. Surgical treatment may be needed to correct abnormalities in the teeth, jaws, or facial bones. It is especially important to receive the treatment you need if these abnormalities are causing difficulties in speaking, chewing, eating, sleeping, and other routine activities. In addition to making these activities easier and more comfortable, jaw surgery can help to improve your oral appearance and even the appearance of your overall facial profile.

At our office, we use the latest in technology, techniques, and materials to ensure that you achieve the best possible results. Before your treatment, we will review the procedure with you and show you the details of the treatment so you can feel comfortable with the care you receive at our office. You can rest assured that our team will provide you with a comfortable, positive experience. Following orthognathic surgery, you may need another treatment to help you reach optimal results. To learn more and to find out if jaw surgery is right for your smile, we welcome you to contact our orthodontist and team today. We are committed to improving your smile!

Want a straighter smile in less time? At Payson Orthodontics, we offer accelerated orthodontic treatments that can significantly reduce the time you spend in braces or Invisalign® while making treatment more comfortable.

We use advanced technology, including PROPEL® Orthodontics and AcceleDent®, to help teeth move more efficiently. PROPEL uses tiny micro-osteoperforations to stimulate bone remodeling, while AcceleDent uses gentle SoftPulse Technology® for just 20 minutes a day to encourage faster tooth movement. Both options are FDA approved and can reduce treatment time by up to 50% for many patients.

Accelerated orthodontics is a great option if you're hoping to achieve your smile before a wedding, graduation, or another important milestone.

Schedule a consultation with Dr. Ben McDowell to find out if accelerated orthodontics is right for you. We're here to help you reach your ideal smile faster and more comfortably.