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About Orthodontics

Orthodontics is the area of dentistry including the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of dental and facial irregularities. The technical term for these problems is “malocclusion” which means “bad bite”.

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Orthodontic Problems

Crooked Teeth

Crooked teeth are usually the result of crowding of the teeth which in turn can be the result of poorly growing jaws, early loss of baby teeth, thumb sucking habit, muscle imbalance and so on.
Crowded Teeth

Crowding can be a result of the jaws not growing large enough for the teeth to fit in. Crowding can also be the result of the early loss of baby teeth that allowed other teeth to shift in a detrimental way.
Mismatched Jaws

When the lower jaw is too short relative to the upper jaw it will appear that the upper front teeth are sticking out too far. The profile will show a weak or retrusive chin and a convex profile.
Poor Overlap of Teeth

This is when the upper front teeth are too far ahead of the lower front teeth to fit properly. The upper front teeth are usually around 2mm ahead of the lower front teeth.

Extra or Missing Teeth

It is fairly rare that there are extra teeth but is does occur. One of the most common areas that this occurs is at the second from the centre teeth on the upper teeth.
Impacted Teeth

If there is a delay in an adult tooth growing into the mouth it could be that the tooth is missing or it could be that the tooth is impacted.
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Orthodontic Solutions

Braces

Braces are what most people think of when they consider orthodontics.Braces consist of brackets that are glued to the outside surface of the teeth and an archwire that is attached to these brackets.

The bracket is like a handle placed on the tooth and the archwire provides the light force through these bracket “handles” to the teeth in order to move the teeth. With self-ligating brackets the archwire is held into the brackets with a sliding clip that holds it in place.

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Aligners

Aligners is the dominant provider of clear aligners for orthodontic treatment and therefore has the name recognition.

It should be noted that there are other clear aligner providers in the marketplace such as Clear Correct or Orthoclear. Instead of using braces to move and align teeth a sequential series of thin clear aligners are used to move and align teeth.

This method of orthodontic treatment has become much more sophisticated and reliable over the approximately 20 years of development. One positive aspect of clear aligner treatment is that the aligners are almost invisible so others will not likely notice that you are in orthodontic treatment.

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Retainers

Retainers are required following orthodontic treatment in order to hold the alignment of the teeth and the fit of the bite.

Without retainers there are muscle forces and forces within the gum tissue that will try to move the teeth partially back to their original positions. The most common retainers are Hawley retainers, Essix retainers, or Bonded retainers. The Hawley and Essix retainers are removable retainers while the Bonded retainers are glued in place.

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