Orthodontics

1. Orthodontics By: Alexa Glatfelter

2. What is an Orthodontist? • An orthodontist is a specialized dentist who work on treating crooked teeth, misaligned bites, and messed up jaws. • Orthodontists have to have: • A full college experience, plus more • Specialized skills • Many roles and responsibilities • Orthodontists take x-rays of patient’s mouths so that they can then form a plan on how to best treat their patient

3. College • Before becoming an orthodontist you must go through a few years of Training: • After High School, your job is to go to college to get a BDS or Bachelor Degree in Science, which takes 4 years. This gives you the label as a Dentist. • But to be an orthodontist, you need to take three more years and get a Master’s Degree in Dental Science (MDS). • To add to all of this training, there are many test you also need to take to even get into the college’s and specialization school made for orthodontists.

4. Skills Needed For Orthodontists • To be an orthodontist, you need to have down a few skills: • Intelligence to be able to multitask; by staying updated while doing your work or practicing. • You need to be a hard-working, dedicated, and patient person to work with your patients, go through college, and put in lots of work hours. • You also should have a passion for this work. People always say, you should love what you do full time, or else you’re going to have a tough life. • Orthodontists must have communication skills to talk to their patients • Orthodontists also need to have detailed organization and orientation skills to handle and work on their patients effectively

5. Roles and Responsibilities • Orthodontist do treatment by applying pressure to their mouth with braces or retainers, or headgear. • Braces help to align the teeth and make them become straight • Headgear helps to pull back the teeth to get rid of an overbite, underbite, or cross-bite