Orthodontics in Monterey and Watsonville California

What is the difference between an Orthodontist and a regular Dentist?

An orthodontist is a dentist who has undergone specialized training to diagnose, prevent, and treat dental and facial irregularities in patients. They are required to complete an additional two to three-year advanced residency program in orthodontics following the completion of their four year graduate dental degree. Each of these programs must be accredited by the American Dental Association's Commission on Dental Accreditation. Orthodontics, are also known as malocclusion or "bad bite specialist”. The American Association of Orthodontics is “the branch of dentistry that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of dental and facial irregularities”.

Orthodontics is a specialty of dentistry concerned with the study and treatment of malocclusions (improper bites), which may be a result of tooth irregularity, disproportionate jaw relationships, or both. The word comes from the Greek words orthos meaning straight or proper, and odons meaning tooth. Treatment is most often prescribed for practical reasons such as providing the patient with a functionally improved bite.

Orthodontics is formally defined by the American Association of Orthodontics as, "The area of dentistry concerned with the supervision, guidance and correction of the growing and mature dentofacial structures, including those conditions that require movement of teeth or correction of malrelationships between and among teeth and facial bones by the application of forces and/or the stimulation and redirection of the jaws within the craniofacial complex."