Maple Ridge Braces | Your Complimentary First Visit

What actually happens

The visit starts with why you came. A parent who has noticed crowding, a general dentist who flagged a crossbite, an adult whose lower teeth have shifted over twenty years and a teenager who hates their photographs are four different conversations, and the examination follows from that.

The orthodontist then examines the teeth, the bite in function, the jaw joints and the soft tissues. That means looking at how the teeth meet on closing and in side-to-side movement, not simply how straight they look from the front. Alignment is the visible part of orthodontics. The bite underneath it is the part that determines whether a result holds.

If treatment looks likely, we take records: intraoral and facial photographs, a digital scan or impressions, and the radiographs needed to see root position, unerupted teeth and the jaw relationship. Diagnosis without radiographs is not diagnosis. An impacted canine, a resorbing root, a missing adult tooth or a retained baby tooth can all sit invisibly behind a smile that appears fine.

What you leave knowing

Whether braces, aligners, an appliance, or nothing at all is the right answer today.
What is actually being corrected, described in plain terms rather than jargon.
An estimated treatment length, with the honest range rather than a single flattering number.
The fee, in writing, and exactly what sits inside it.
If waiting is the right call, what we are waiting for and when we will look again.

When the answer is "not yet"

A meaningful share of children who are examined should be watched rather than treated. Growth is an asset in orthodontics, and using it at the right moment is the whole point of early treatment — but that moment is specific to the child. Where a bite genuinely needs early intervention to set the jaw foundation and reduce the risk of extractions or surgery later, we say so and explain why. Where it does not, the child goes on free recall visits until the timing is right. Those visits do not cost anything.

Bringing a child

Children do not need to be nervous about this appointment and usually are not once they are in the chair. Nothing is done to the teeth at a first visit. There are no needles and no drills in orthodontics at all — a point worth making to a child who is imagining a filling appointment.

Come with any recent radiographs from your general dentist if you have them, a list of medications, and your dental insurance information if you carry it. If your child has a habit you have wondered about — thumb sucking, mouth breathing, snoring, grinding — mention it. Those observations change what we look for.

Adults

Roughly one in four orthodontic patients is an adult, and adult treatment differs in detail rather than in kind. Teeth move at any age as long as the bone and gums are healthy. What changes is that adults arrive with dental history — crowns, bridges, implants, old fillings, previous gum treatment, sometimes previous orthodontics that relapsed. That history shapes the plan, and gum health is confirmed before anything is bonded.

Before you come

Bring	Why
Recent dental radiographs	Avoids repeating imaging your dentist already took
Insurance details	Lets us estimate coverage at the same appointment
Your questions, written down	People forget them in the chair, every time
The referring dentist's name	Keeps your general dentist in the loop through treatment

Your first visit