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A South County parent's guide to choosing an orthodontist in Wakefield, RI. Meet the doctors, see what makes the approach different, and learn when to bring your child in. Serving Wakefield, South Kingstown, Narragansett, Kingston, North Kingstown, and Westerly.
If you live in South County and you have been searching for an orthodontist near you, the options tend to run together fast. Everyone lists braces. Everyone lists Invisalign. So how do you actually choose for your child? This guide is for South County families who want to understand what orthodontic care looks like at Anchor Orthodontics in Wakefield, and how to think the decision through.
Our Wakefield office is at 24 Salt Pond Road, Suite A3, right in the center of South Kingstown. We see families from Wakefield, Peace Dale, Narragansett, Kingston, North Kingstown, Matunuck, Green Hill, Charlestown, Saunderstown, and out toward Westerly. We also have a second office on the East Side of Providence, so the same doctors and the same philosophy are available at both locations.
Anchor Orthodontics was founded by Dr. Courtney Lavigne, who grew up in North Kingstown and went to LaSalle Academy, so South County is home. She is a board-certified orthodontist who is also an Accredited Member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, a distinction held by fewer than 1% of dentists worldwide. She completed her orthodontic residency at Tufts and lectures nationally on early intervention and airway-focused orthodontics.
Dr. Lauren Cardarelli sees patients alongside her at both offices. She trained at the University of Connecticut, where she served as Chief Resident, and brings published research in 3D imaging to her cases. Both doctors are at the Wakefield and Providence locations, Monday through Thursday.
Most orthodontic care looks at one question: are the teeth straight. We start one layer underneath that, with how your child breathes and how the jaw is growing. Dr. Lavigne uses a house foundation analogy. You would not build a fifteen hundred square foot house on a thousand square foot foundation. The same logic applies to a child's jaw. If the foundation is too narrow, straightening the teeth on top of it misses what is actually going on.
That is why an evaluation here looks at the airway, the bite, and the growth pattern, not just the front teeth. For some kids that changes nothing. For others it changes everything.
We care for kids, teens, and adults across South County. That includes early intervention for younger children, traditional metal braces, LightForce 3D-printed custom braces, Invisalign and other clear aligners, palate expanders, and adult orthodontics. Our Wakefield office also has iCAT CBCT 3D imaging on site, which gives us a far more complete picture than flat X-rays when we are evaluating jaw growth and the airway.
A lot of South County families assume they need their dentist to refer them before they can see an orthodontist. You do not. You can book an evaluation directly, and we are glad to coordinate with your dentist afterward if that is helpful.
The American Association of Orthodontists recommends a first orthodontic evaluation by age seven. That does not mean treatment at seven. It means a baseline, so we can catch the handful of things that are far easier to guide while a child is still growing. If your child is older, it is not too late, and we will tell you honestly where things stand.
You will find us at 24 Salt Pond Road, Suite A3 in Wakefield, with easy parking and weekday hours built around busy families. Book online at anchororthodontics.com/booking or call (401) 782-1221. If Providence is easier for you on a given week, you can see the same doctors at our East Side office. One practice, two locations, the same care.
