What is Inter-proximal Reduction (IPR)?
Depending on your treatment plan, interproximal reduction (IPR) may be necessary to create space between your teeth, in order to shift into the right position and alignment through treatment. IPR is a quick polishing of the edges of the tooth enamel. This helps to create a bit of space for crowded teeth.
There are some misconceptions about what is actually involved because every practitioner will do it differently. This will clarify how it’s done at MBO. You will see that there are no needles or blood involved – it is a quick and painless filing down of the side layer of tooth enamel. It is done without anesthesia. This procedure may be indicated for non-extraction tooth crowding cases, tooth size discrepancies or to reshape oddly shaped teeth.
Patients are often surprised how simple and painless the procedure is. Oftentimes, the space created is barely visible. The typical amount of space created is 0.25 mm. Sometimes it can range from 0.15mm- 0.4mm.
Inter-proximal reduction is a very common procedure associated with clear aligners such as Invisalign orthodontic treatment. In this video, we demonstrate the process of IPR.
