Common Orthodontic Issues

Crowding of the teeth

This boy started treatment at age 11 and wore braces for 26 months. He loves his new smile.

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Open bite: front teeth don’t touch

This girl sucked her thumb as a young child. She started treatment at age 13. She had braces and and was a great rubberband wearer. Now she can bite through the pepperoni on that pizza!

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Deep overbite: lower front teeth bite into palate

This adult patient, age 25, had braces to correct his severe overbite. Bites like this can cause trauma to the palate and severe wear of the lower front teeth.

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Missing lateral incisors

This girl was born without lateral incisors. Sometimes the teeth are moved orthodontically to allow replacement with implants or bridges. In this case, treatment with Invisalign closed the spaces, substituting the adjacent canines for the missing teeth.

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Underbite: lower front teeth in front of upper teeth

This young man's underbite was causing him jaw joint discomfort and excessive wear patterns on his teeth. After about 30 months of treatment starting at age 22, he now finds smiling and chewing much easier.

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Spacing of teeth

This patient was bothered by the spaces between his teeth. Braces closed the spaces and gave him an ideal bite in 24 months. 

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Overjet: protruding front teeth

At age ten, this girl 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 and the second aligned her teeth and bite. At age 13, she was proudly displaying her new smile.

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Non-braces treatment

Sometimes braces are not needed to get noticeable improvements in 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.

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Phase One

This girl's parents were concerned about both aesthetics and the health of her permanent teeth when they brought her to the orthodontist at age nine. After 12 months of Phase-One treatment with partial braces, the patient’s appearance and dental function were vastly improved.