How to address crowded teeth

The jaws are essentially parking lots for the teeth. If the jaws don’t form properly during growth, then the teeth cannot align, resulting in crowding. Crowding can range from mild to severe. Unfortunately, crowding tends to worsen on its own as we get older, especially in the lower arch.

It is well known that many people with crowded teeth report low self-confidence and often state hiding their teeth when they smile or just not smiling at all, which is really sad. But besides cosmetics, crowding teeth can cascade multiple dental and health problems that increase over time:

• Crowded teeth make it more difficult to keep them clean, increasing the buildup of plaque and bacteria and ultimately accelerating tooth decay. This same bacteria has been associated with heart disease!
• Speech difficulties
• Gum disease, gingivitis, or tooth loss
• Harmful wear patterns on the teeth

In order to make space to realign teeth, you either have to (1) extract teeth or (2) expand the jaws to increase the space available.

It is our philosophy and objective to treat each patient without extracting teeth. This is especially true in young patients, where we have the capability to expand/grow the jaw wider. In non-growing patients in their late teens and adult patients, this objective becomes increasingly difficult because their jaws are no longer growing. In saying this, please refer to the examples below of how we creatively gained space and were able to treat these very crowded mouths, most without extractions.