How to Choose an Orthodontist

An orthodontist is a dentist who completed two to three additional years of full-time residency training after dental school, focused entirely on tooth movement, jaw growth, and bite correction. Any licensed dentist may legally offer braces or aligners without that training. That difference is the single most useful thing to understand before you choose.

This page is written to be useful whether or not you end up coming to us.

Orthodontist vs Dentist for Braces

Dental school teaches a little orthodontics, as it teaches a little of everything. An orthodontic residency is different in kind, not just in length.

Residents spend those years treating orthodontic cases full time under supervision, several hundred of them, across every category of problem. They study craniofacial growth in depth, because moving teeth in a nine-year-old whose jaw is still developing is a fundamentally different problem from moving teeth in a forty-year-old whose jaw is not. They learn biomechanics, meaning how force applied to a tooth actually translates into movement, and what happens to the root and bone along the way.

The practical consequence shows up when a case does not go as planned. Straightforward crowding often responds well to almost any reasonable approach. It is the case that stalls, or the tooth that will not track, or the bite that closes in the wrong place, where diagnosis matters and where the training becomes visible.

Dr. Richard G. Rosenbloom completed his orthodontic residency at the University of Connecticut and received his Certificate in Orthodontics there in 1989. He has practiced orthodontics, and only orthodontics, for 37 years.

Questions Worth Asking at a Consultation

You are allowed to interview an orthodontist. Most people do not realise this and simply accept whatever the first office tells them.

Who will actually be treating me? In some practices you see the doctor at the first visit and rarely again. Ask who adjusts your appliance, who reviews progress, and how often the orthodontist personally looks at your case.

How many cases like mine have you treated? Experience is not everything, but for an unusual problem it counts for a lot. A practice that has been in one community for decades has typically seen your situation before.

What is included in the fee, and what is not? Ask specifically about records and X-rays, adjustment visits, emergency visits, and retainers at the end. Practices differ substantially here, and a lower headline fee sometimes excludes things another practice includes. 

What happens if treatment runs longer than estimated? Ask whether the fee changes. Ours does not.

What are my options, and what would you do if it were your child? A good answer usually includes trade-offs rather than a single recommendation delivered with total certainty.

Credentials That Are Worth Checking

Specialty training. Ask directly whether the doctor completed an orthodontic residency and where. This is a yes or no question with a verifiable answer.

Membership in the American Association of Orthodontists. The AAO admits orthodontic specialists, so membership is a meaningful filter. Dr. Rosenbloom has been a member for 30 years.

A record you can look at. Published research, long-standing hospital or society roles, and peer recognition all indicate a career that colleagues have engaged with. Dr. Rosenbloom’s research on orthodontic treatment has been cited more than 560 times in the professional literature, and he has served as Treasurer of the Dutchess County Dental Society.

Whether they will tell you that you do not need treatment. This is the most underrated signal available. Any practice will happily start treatment. Far fewer will look at a seven-year-old and say the honest thing, which is often that nothing needs doing yet and we should watch for a couple of years.

Do You Need a Referral?

No. You can contact an orthodontist directly and book a consultation yourself, and that is true almost everywhere in the United States.

Many patients do arrive on a dentist’s recommendation, which is helpful because the dentist has usually watched the problem develop. But a referral is not required, not by us and not by any orthodontic practice we know of. If your dentist has recent X-rays, ask them to send those along. If not, we take our own.

Practical Considerations That Matter More Than People Expect

Treatment lasts one to three years and involves regular visits. Distance and scheduling stop being minor details fairly quickly.

Think about where the office is relative to school or work, whether appointments can be made outside the middle of the day, how easy it is to reach the office when something breaks, and whether the practice will still be there when your retainer needs replacing in eight years.

And pay attention to how you are treated at the consultation, particularly whether questions are welcomed or deflected. You are going to be in that chair many times.

Come and Ask Us These Questions

The consultation is free, takes about 45 minutes, and requires no referral.

Call or text (845) 471-1186, or request an appointment online. We are at 1145 Route 55, Suite 1 in LaGrangeville, serving Poughkeepsie, Fishkill, Wappingers Falls, Hopewell Junction, Pleasant Valley, Hyde Park, and Poughquag.