I'm Dr. Courtney Lavigne of Anchor Orthodontics in Wakefield, Rhode Island. I couldn't be happier to be providing orthodontic care in my home state. My story is a bit of an atypical one, but I think my background is also what lends itself to giving me the passion that I have to treat each and every patient as a very unique individual with a very customized treatment plan. I focus my orthodontic treatment plans first and foremost on either maintaining or creating improved airway and breathing health. Secondly, I like to make sure that I'm doing growth modification in our child and adolescent patients whenever it's appropriate. And finally, with my background in cosmetic dentistry, I like to ensure that every single case I treat focuses on both dental and facial aesthetics. I was born and raised in Rhode Island and attended the North Kingstown Public School System through eighth grade. I then went on to attend LaSalle Academy for high school followed by receiving my undergraduate degree from Creighton University, which is in Omaha, Nebraska. After four years in the Midwest, I came back to New England and completed my doctorate at the University of Connecticut. I spent a decade practicing as a general dentist in the Boston suburbs where I had my own practice focused on cosmetic dentistry and where I treated patients with more complex dental needs. During those ten years, I also became a board accredited cosmetic dentist through the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. I started lecturing both nationally and internationally, helping to train other dentists on these more complex treatment modalities. At this point, I really thought I had hit my stride in my career. But in the background of all of my focus and training on aesthetics, I was dealing with my own undiagnosed sleep disorder and medical issues. After countless medical exams without any true diagnosis, it was serendipitous that I was at a course in Arizona where I recognized all of my signs and symptoms circled back to sleep disordered breathing, something that actually integrates with dentistry. The orthodontic treatment that I had during adolescence gave me straight teeth and a nice smile, but it wasn't necessarily the most ideal plan for my underlying health needs. While my orthodontic treatment didn't cause my sleep disorder, it may have been a contributing factor to its progression. When I underwent my first round of orthodontic treatment in middle school, not much was known about how the teeth or the position of the jaws relate to breathing and sleep. Now we have new research emerging all the time, especially in the areas of sleep physicians and a lot of research from our ENT community. And all of this research put together lets us know that what we do inside of the mouth and how we grow both forward and in the horizontal direction contribute to how we're going to be able to breathe, sleep, and function throughout our lives. As I started to go through my adult phase of orthodontics to reconfigure some of the treatment I had gone through in adolescence, I started to recognize that even though this information and this research is becoming available more and more day by day, kids were still being treated the same way that I was treated when I was younger. I came to this realization, and that passion just grew where I recognized I could be somebody that could help kids so that they don't have to go through a lot of the treatment I had to as an adult. Although it was a difficult decision, I ended up selling my practice in the Boston suburbs, and I attended Tufts University where I completed an orthodontic residency. Although my background in aesthetics wasn't the impetus for going back to residency, it certainly lends itself to better treatment outcomes in orthodontics. I feel like I look at each patient through a different lens because of that background, and it especially lends itself to working closely with general dentists when patients need braces or clear aligners in conjunction with their restorative needs like crowns, veneers, and implants. Today, I'm the only practitioner in the country that is both a board certified orthodontist as well as a board accredited cosmetic dentist through the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. Although I'm limiting my practice to orthodontics, having this dual training allows me to better serve each and every patient. At Anchor Orthodontics, I treat all kinds of patients with all kinds of orthodontic needs. Whether a patient needs just a few crooked teeth lined up or whether it's a child that's missing some of their permanent front teeth and it's a more complex case, I approach every case with my unique background to be as conservative yet as comprehensive as I can be to reach each and every patient's desired results.
