How Does At-Home Accelerated Orthodontics Work?

Orthodontics has improved over the past few decades, and it’s easier than ever to correct your teeth. With accelerated orthodontics, you can reduce the months of wearing braces or aligners, straightening your smile faster and more comfortably. Even better, home treatments only take five minutes per day. 

At Chapman Smiles Orthodontics in Happy Valley, Clackamas, Oregon, orthodontist Dr. Gary Chapman provides accelerated orthodontics you can use at home to speed the tooth-straightening process.

Speeding up the orthodontic process 

The field of orthodontics has expanded immensely over the past few decades. Where traditional braces used to be the standard, many patients felt the process was slow and arduous. Not only did you have to wear braces for over a year, but you had to have them regularly tightened and adjusted. 

Clear aligners like Invisalign® and Spark™ remove the wires and brackets, but it can still take 6-18 months to correct your teeth. Most patients don’t mind waiting for their results to take shape, but if you’re eager to show off your new smile as soon as possible, accelerated orthodontics can shorten the wait. 

At ChapmanSmiles Orthodontics, we speed up the process using Propel devices, such as the VPro™. 

How it works 

Orthodontic treatments reshape your jaw by putting pressure on your teeth, causing the alveolar bone that supports them to break down and rebuild itself. However, this must be done incrementally, and it can take time to slowly shift everything into place. 

Propel devices work using high-frequency vibrations (HFVs), which stimulate the healing process by creating micro-osteoperforations™. 

These are small microfractures in the alveolar bone, which your body begins to heal on its own. Your braces or aligners hold your teeth in place, encouraging your jawbone to heal according to this new alignment.

So, by speeding up the breakdown of your jawbone, you can begin rebuilding it sooner. 

Taking it home

You can receive accelerated orthodontics treatments one of two ways: at home or in the office. 

The Propel Excellerator® is a quick, in-office treatment that only takes a few minutes, but not everyone has the time to visit the dentist for such short appointments. If this is the case, Dr. Chapman might recommend the Propel VPro. 

This is a small, U-shaped device that you can use at home. For five minutes every day, simply bite down on the VPro and hold it in place while it delivers the HFVs to your jawbone. Within weeks, you’ll begin noticing that your teeth are shifting and straightening faster and more effectively. 

To learn more about accelerated orthodontics, talk to Dr. Chapman. You can call 503-336-1883, request an appointment online, or ask for a virtual consultation.