Common
Orthodontic Treatments
Crowding
of teeth- Patient started treatment at age eleven and wore
braces for twenty-six months. He loves his new smile.
Open
bite- front teeth don’t touch. Patient sucked her
thumb as a young child. She started treatment at age thirteen. She
had braces and a special appliance — called a crib —
to retrain the tongue, for twenty-eight months. Now she can bite
the lettuce out of a sandwich.
Deep
overbite- lower front teeth bite into palate. This adult
patient (age twenty-five) required braces and jaw surgery to correct
his severe overbite, with treatment taking two years. His problem
could have been corrected without surgery if he had been treated
before he was a teenager.
Missing
Lateral incisors- This patient's lateral incisors were
congenitally missing. She had braces for twenty months to move the
teeth into the correct position, then the missing teeth were replaced
with bonded “Maryland” bridges.
Underbite-
lower front teeth in front of upper teeth. Patient's underbite was
causing her jaw joint discomfort and excessive wear patterns on
her teeth. After thirty months of orthodontic treatment starting
at age thirty-two, she now finds smiling and chewing much easier.
Spacing
of teeth- Patient was bothered by the spaces between his
teeth. Braces closed the spaces and gave him an ideal bite in twenty-four
months. Special glued-in retainers help keep the spaces closed.
Overjet-protruding
front teeth. At age ten, patient had a big overjet with the top
teeth protruding beyond the bottom. She had two phases of treatment.
The first helped her jaws to grow more harmoniously; the second
aligned her teeth and bite. At age thirteen, she was proudly displaying
her new smile.
Non-braces
treatment- Braces aren’t always required to correct
issues with tooth alignment. This patient was first seen at age
seven for crowding of the lower permanent teeth. A procedure was
performed to reduce the width of the adjacent baby teeth and the
permanent incisors aligned on their own in nine months.
Phase
1- Patient's parents were concerned about both aesthetics
and the health of the erupting permanent teeth when they brought
him to the orthodontist at age eight. The lower front teeth were
crowded and they touched the palate, and the upper front teeth were
extremely displaced from their normal positions. After twenty months
of Phase I orthodontic treatment with an expander and partial braces,
patient's appearance and dental function was vastly improved.
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