Why Smithtown Families Choose an Orthodontist, Not a Dentist
Where Your Confident Smile Begins
Choosing between a dentist and an orthodontist for braces is the first real decision most families make. Smithtown Orthodontics is an orthodontic specialty practice, not a general dental office that also does braces, and Dr. Duane Shank is a board-certified orthodontist who has treated patients on East Main Street since 1991.
Most people looking for braces or clear aligners in Smithtown have two kinds of offices to choose from. There are general dental practices that offer orthodontic treatment alongside cleanings and fillings, and there are orthodontic specialists who do nothing else. Both can put brackets on teeth. They are not the same training, and for anything more complicated than mild crowding, the difference shows up in the result.
Experienced Care You Can Trust
At Smithtown Orthodontics, Dr. Duane Shank brings decades of experience, precision, and personalized care to every patient. We treat children, teens, and adults with a focus on improving alignment, oral health, and long-term confidence through thoughtful, detail-oriented orthodontic care.
A Comfortable, Patient-First Experience
We create a welcoming, supportive environment where patients feel relaxed and cared for at every visit. Our team takes time to listen, understand your goals, and make each step of your orthodontic journey smooth, positive, and comfortable from beginning to end.
Flexible & Affordable Options
We believe everyone deserves access to quality orthodontic care. That’s why we offer flexible payment plans, convenient monthly options, and guidance with insurance to help make treatment fit comfortably within your budget and your family’s financial needs.
Advanced Treatment for Every Smile
We offer modern orthodontic solutions including braces and Invisalign®, customized to fit your lifestyle and goals. Using advanced techniques, Dr. Shank creates personalized treatment plans designed to deliver healthy, natural-looking, and long-lasting smile results.
What an orthodontic specialist actually is
Every orthodontist starts as a dentist. The difference is what happens after dental school: two to three additional years of full-time residency in one subject, which is how teeth and jaws move and what happens over the following decades if they are moved wrong.
That residency is competitive and most dentists never do it. A general dentist offering aligners has usually taken a manufacturer’s course, which teaches a product. A specialist has spent years on the underlying biology and mechanics, which is what you need when a case does not go the way the plan said.
Dr. Shank finished his orthodontic specialty training in 1988 and has practiced only orthodontics ever since. Dr. Shank is also a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics, a voluntary certification that requires an orthodontist to submit real treated cases for review by a panel of examiners and to renew that standing every ten years.
Why some dentists steer patients away from clear aligners
The honest answer is not a conspiracy. Clear aligners are excellent at some things and poor at others. They tip and rotate teeth well, and they struggle with cases needing real vertical movement, significant bite correction, or extraction space closed cleanly.
A dentist who has taken only a short aligner course may not be confident predicting which of those a given mouth needs, so the safe answer is to recommend braces or refer out. That is good judgment. What a specialist adds is the ability to look at the same mouth and say which tool will actually work, including that aligners are the wrong choice when they are.
Dr. Shank treats with both aligners and braces, and will tell you at the consultation which your case calls for.
A practice that has been here long enough to be judged on results
Dr. Shank has treated roughly 7,000 patients here, and many are now bringing their own children in. In a town where families stay put, that is a harder credential to fake than anything on a website.
The practice holds a 5.0 star rating from more than 100 Google reviews. Dr. Shank is the highest-rated orthodontist in Smithtown, and he has also sponsored local Little League for thirty years and backs teams at Accompsett and Great Hollow Middle Schools and at Smithtown East, Smithtown West, and Hauppauge High Schools.
A doctor who teaches the specialty
Dr. Shank is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Orthodontics at Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine, where he teaches residents in training. He has logged more than a thousand hours of continuing education through the Academy of General Dentistry, the Suffolk County Dental Society, and the AAO.
It is one thing to keep up with the specialty. It is another to be asked to teach it to the people entering it.
What treatment here is actually like
You see Dr. Shank at your appointments. He does the examination and explains the plan himself rather than handing you to a coordinator with a brochure.
One fee covers the course of treatment: records, all appliances, every visit, emergency visits, and your first set of retainers. Payment plans are run in-house with no interest, starting around $150 a month. The office accepts most dental insurance plans and will tell you plainly that it is not in-network before you commit.
Appointments start at 8:00 AM Monday and Thursday, Tuesday runs to 8:00 PM, and Wednesday and Friday are mornings; full hours and parking are on our location page. Digital scanning replaced putty impressions here years ago.
Come and get a second opinion
The consultation is free, with no obligation. If you already have a treatment plan from somewhere else, bring it. A second opinion from a specialist costs you an hour and nothing else.
Call (631) 265-3666 or request an appointment online.
Smithtown Orthodontics 200 E Main St. Smithtown, NY 11787 (631) 265-3666
Questions about choosing an orthodontist
Why don’t dentists recommend Invisalign?
Usually because the case is not a good fit for aligners. Clear aligners handle tipping and rotation well, and are less predictable for bite correction, vertical movement, and closing extraction space. A dentist without specialty training may not be able to tell which category a case falls into, so recommending braces or referring out is the cautious call. A specialist can look at the same mouth and choose on the merits.
What is the difference between an orthodontist and a dentist?
All orthodontists are dentists first. An orthodontist has completed two to three additional years of full-time residency devoted entirely to tooth and jaw movement, and then limits their practice to it. A general dentist covers the whole mouth, including cleanings, fillings, crowns, and extractions, which an orthodontist does not do.
Is it better to get braces from a dentist or an orthodontist?
For minor cosmetic alignment, either can work. For anything involving the bite, growing children, extractions, or teeth that have not come in properly, an orthodontist is the better choice, because that is the specific problem the extra training exists to solve. The American Association of Orthodontists makes the same point: a dentist offering aligners is not thereby an orthodontist.
What can an orthodontist do that a dentist can’t?
Diagnose and plan around jaw growth, guide the eruption of permanent teeth in a child, correct skeletal bite problems with appliances timed to growth, manage extraction cases, and coordinate treatment with an oral surgeon when jaw surgery is part of the plan. Those all depend on the residency training that separates the two.
How do I choose an orthodontist in Smithtown, NY?
Ask three things. Is the doctor an orthodontic specialist, and are they board certified? Will the doctor personally examine you and follow your case, or will you mostly see assistants? And is the fee one number covering the whole course of treatment, or a base price with add-ons? Any office worth choosing will answer all three without hesitating, and a consultation should be free.
