Clinical Protocol for Phase 1 Orthodontic Treatment of the Mixed Dentition with Invisalign First aligners
Dr. Mark Garlington, Long Beach, CA, is a board-certified orthodontist in solo practice in Long Beach, CA. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in biology from UCLA and received
both his DDS and his orthodontic specialty training from the University of Southern California. Dr. Garlington is a member of the Angle Society and the AAO. He and his wife are involved with several community programs in Long Beach, including the YMCA, BLAST, LBCC Foundation, Rotary, and Rancho Los Amigos Hospital. Dr. Garlington was one of only twenty doctors in North America invited to participate in the Invisalign First limited market release and has started or finished over sixty Invisalign First cases in the past 12 months. Dr. Garlington is a Diamond Level Invisalign Provider.
Efficient Phase 1 orthodontic treatment in our office means achieving our treatment goals in 6 to 9 months with no emergency visits, excellent oral hygiene maintained throughout treatment, and positive expectations generated in anticipation of Phase 2 treatment.
Our practice consistently delivers efficient Phase 1 orthodontic treatment when we do the following: (1) use appliance systems that accomplish multiple tasks in parallel rather than in series, (2) streamline our appointment scheduling protocols into a consistent process, and (3) use digital dental technology to minimize chairtime.
By using Invisalign First clear aligners and a digital workflow enabled through the iTero intraoral scanner, our office is able to efficiently achieve excellent Phase 1 treatment results in mixed dentition patients with anterior spacing, anterior crowding, mesial drift from premature tooth loss, constricted dental arches, anterior dental crossbite, protruded incisors, and/or deep overbite.