When people come to us in a panic about an overbite, we know that it’s not just about aesthetics, its effects go way beyond how a person looks in the mirror. We’ve helped a bunch of people right here in Miramar with overbites at Specialty Smiles, and heard their whole range of problems, some were pretty self-conscious about their smile, while others were having trouble chomping down on their favorite foods or were in real pain with their jaw. Folks often ask us how braces can fix this specific issue and we’re more than happy to dive in and give you the lowdown so you know what to expect from treatment. Braces for Kids help young patients achieve healthy, aligned smiles early, ensuring long-term dental stability and confidence. Early orthodontic care can prevent more complex issues and promote proper jaw development.
First off we need to define what an overbite is, it’s a word that’s bandied about in different ways. In the world of orthodontics an overbite is when your top front teeth stick straight out over your bottom ones in a straight line. Now a little bit of overlap is totally normal, we’re talking a couple of millimeters at most. But an overbite is what we consider a problem when that overlap gets way too big. Some people will use the term to refer to an overjet, that’s when your top teeth just jut out horizontally past your lower ones, it’s a different thing altogether though, and needs a different kind of fix. Braces for Teens provide effective and stylish options designed to fit busy lifestyles while improving dental alignment. With clear or colorful choices, teens can express their personality while achieving a perfect smile.
People have loads of different reasons for having an overbite. Sometimes it’s just the way their teeth grew in. Their upper teeth came in at angles that make them look way too vertical in relation to the lower ones. Other times, the real problem is actually with their jaw bones themselves. Maybe the upper jaw just grew too big, or the lower jaw came in underdeveloped, or some combination of the two. Knowing what caused the issue is a big help in figuring out how to fix it.
We generally begin at Specialty Smiles with a full on exam, that includes taking measurements, snapping some pictures, and gathering up all sorts of diagnostic data. We need to figure out if this is a dental overbite issue that’s caused by the position of the teeth themselves, or if it’s a skeletal overbite that’s affecting the jaw bones itself. This makes a world of difference when it comes to figuring out how to treat the problem. Now, most patients, especially adults whose jaws have pretty much stopped growing up, this means we’re mostly working with where the teeth are sitting. But we can still make some changes to how the jaws line up with each other.
Braces work by moving teeth around, and in some cases, they can even move the jaw itself. The brackets and wires do this by kind of tugging on the teeth in different ways, like tipping them, rotating them, pushing them up or down, or moving them back and forth. To fix an overbite, we usually have to move the teeth up or down, and sometimes we need to adjust the angle at which they come together. This can mean moving the upper front teeth up into the bone, the lower front teeth down, or maybe even both.
When it comes to fixing an overbite, the archwire really plays a crucial role. To manage the vertical position of the teeth, we use wires that are kind of special, with curves built right in. These curves of modifications help keep everything even and prevent too much overlap. As we keep working on the overbite, we’ll keep changing up the shapes and sizes of the wires to get the top and bottom teeth fitting together perfectly.
Elastic rubber bands are super useful when it comes to fixing overbites. We’ll have patients wear elastics that hook onto the upper back teeth and then hook onto the lower front teeth, the arrangement can vary, depending on what kind of correction we need to make. These elastics put a bit of force on the jaws that helps to move them closer together and adjust the way the top and bottom teeth fit together. Now, it’s really important to wear these elastics exactly as instructed every single day if we want to fix that overbite.
Younger patients, whose jaws are still growing, have a few more treatment options available to them. We might use special equipment that can actually help change the way the upper and lower jaws grow. These functional items can enhance that skeletal connection by making the lower jaw grow forward, or even by stopping the upper jaw from growing. This is called growth modification, and it takes advantage of the natural changes that happen during adolescence, changes that might not be possible in an adult.
If we’re dealing with a really severe skeletal overbite in an adult, braces might not be enough to fix it on their own. In some cases, we might recommend combining orthodontic therapy with orthognathic surgery. Braces get the teeth in the right place in each jaw, and the surgery moves the jaw bones themselves. This combined approach can tackle bigger problems than braces can on their own. We always give it to you straight during consultations, we’ll let you know if braces alone will do the trick, or if we think other treatments might be needed.
The amount of time it takes to fix an overbite can vary pretty widely, it depends on just how bad it is, and how complicated it is to fix. It can take up to two years or more to fix a really serious overbite, but a mild one might take less than a year and a half to fix. We’ll keep track of your progress at regular adjustment appointments, and we’ll make changes to the treatment as needed to keep things moving.
As you go through the treatment process, you’ll start to notice that the connection between your upper and lower teeth is getting better. We’ve found that how well patients follow instructions can have a big impact on how well the overbite correction works. Wearing those elastics is key, and we know it can be tough to remember to do, especially if you’re a busy teen or adult. So we help our patients figure out ways to make it easier to wear their elastics as instructed.
At Specialty Smiles, we use all sorts of advanced technologies to make fixing overbites faster and easier than it used to be. We’re talking about self-ligating brackets, improved wire alloys, and super accurate bracket positioning. These new technologies make orthodontics work way better and way faster than it used to.
Once we’ve fixed the overbite and got everything in the right place, it’s super important to keep it that way. That’s where retainers come in, they keep the teeth in their new places while the bone and tissues around them get used to them. If we don’t keep them in place correctly, teeth can start to move around again, and the overbite might come back. We give you detailed instructions on how to wear your retainer, and we set up follow-up consultations to make sure things stay on track.
Fixing an overbite can do more than just make your smile look better, it can also help with how well you can use your mouth. We often see patients who experience better chewing efficiency, improved speech patterns, especially if the overbite was impacting pronunciation, and even relief from jaw discomfort when they get the bite aligned properly. These functional improvements can really make a difference in your overall oral health and quality of life.
If you or a family member are based in Miramar and feeling a bit worried about that overbite of yours, then we’d be happy to see you in for a visit. We’ll take a really good look at the condition and let you know whether it’s actually a dental thing or something more to do with the way your jaw bones have developed, and go over what treatment would actually be like for you. We’ll fill you in on just what to expect from the timeline, how those elastics and all the other tools of the trade work, and do our best to answer any questions you have about the whole process. Knowing just how braces actually work to sort out overbites might just help you feel a bit more at ease with the whole idea of going through treatment.