Straight to the point

Surely any dentist could straighten our teeth… right?  Many can, but your dentist may not be necessarily the best person to do so. The alarming results of a recent survey found that only 64 per cent of people could correctly identify that an orthodontist specialises in straightening teeth.

The survey was conducted on behalf of an organisation called The Invisible Orthodontist (www.theinvisibleorthodontist.co.uk), a network of specialist orthodontists throughout the UK, and highlights that as a nation we are surprisingly ignorant about specialists within the dental profession. 

Approximately half of those surveyed (48 per cent) were unaware that a specialist orthodontist had completed up to three vital years of extra training after qualifying as a dentist (with 56 per cent of men even more unaware than women).

So why are we confused?
The confusion may have arisen because many dentists claim to have a ‘special interest’ in orthodontics; they may have completed courses on particular teeth straightening systems which means that they are able to offer orthodontic treatment to their patients.  But a dentist with ‘special interest’ in orthodontics is very different from a registered specialist orthodontist!