When dealing with crossbite, your dentist has a few treatment options to be flexible to your smile’s needs.
Crossbite is a relatively common bite misalignment problem where a section of your upper teeth sits behind the lower jaw when your mouth is closed. It is closely linked with another type of malocclusion called underbite, but the two are not the same. With underbite, the upper teeth are still positioned behind the lower ones, but this affects the entire jaw rather than specific teeth or areas.
If a crossbite is left alone, it can lead to several other dental issues:
Teeth and jaw pain
TMJ disorder
Sleep apnea
Difficulty speaking correctly or saying certain sounds
Chronic headaches
Cracks, chips, and breaks in teeth
Tooth decay
Gum disease
There are several different ways you can correct your crossbite. Whether you need one or more of them depends on the severity and complexity of your malocclusion. In most cases, you will need to see an orthodontist to treat the root of the problem.
Invisalign
A common way orthodontists bring your crossbitten teeth out from behind your lower jaw and into the spotlight is with Invisalign treatment. Clear aligners allow you to correct a wide range of orthodontic issues quickly and efficiently without anyone being the wiser. They can be challenging to notice even around dental professionals. This discreteness makes them much more popular with teens and adults who don’t want to advertise their dental work. While there are clear braces that use ceramic brackets to mask traditional braces’ look, they can’t compare to Invisalign.
Invisalign is often called the invisible braces method, but it doesn’t actually rely on metal brackets and wires to adjust your smile’s alignment like traditional braces. Instead, clear aligners use transparent orthodontic trays that are custom-made using digital and 3D scans of your mouth. By meticulously planning every step of the process with each new tray, your orthodontist can give you a much gentler treatment without the intense soreness and discomfort expected with braces.
Invisalign trays are switched to the next in the series every two weeks, allowing for a more seamless and gradual straightening than with braces’ tightening every four to eight weeks. Each aligner focuses on specific areas at a time, isolating any discomfort to those teeth rather than your whole smile. On average, Invisalign can take between 12 and 18 months to complete. For more minor crossbite issues, you might require as little as 6 months. Compared to braces’ 18 months to 3 years, you can be entirely done with your treatment, retainer and all, while you’d otherwise still be dealing with brackets and wires.
Palate Expander
For more serious crossbite cases, you may need a preliminary palate expander before getting clear aligners or braces. Expanders are required when the upper jaw, or palate, is too-narrow for your teeth to come in normally. Some teeth fall behind or angle themselves inward to better fit, leading to a crossbite. With a palate expander, we can widen the upper mouth and open up space for your orthodontist to move the teeth where we want. Along with crossbite, expanding the upper palate helps with:
Overcrowding
Tooth impaction
Breathing problems
An expander spans across the roof of the mouth, using spidery wires branching out from a bulky metal body to cling to and hug your teeth. Your orthodontist turns a key inside the body every few weeks to extend these wiry arms out and gradually push your jaw out. Once your palate is wide enough and the bones in your jaw have stabilized, you will be able to start Invisalign. This entire process usually takes about six to nine months to complete.
Porcelain Veneers
In some minor crossbite cases, you don’t need comprehensive orthodontic treatment. Instead, standard cosmetic dentistry can be used to correct one or two misaligned teeth and make them appear flawless. Porcelain veneers take the “smile makeover” approach to aesthetic procedures. Instead of specializing in one aspect, they can instead fix a wide variety of cosmetic issues:
Crooked teeth
Stains and discoloration
Gap teeth
Minor chips and cracks
Lumps, bumps, and other tooth shape problems
How do veneers work? Veneers are thin, porcelain shells that are crafted to look exactly like an idealized tooth’s enamel. These dental facades are placed over your natural tooth to completely recreate its appearance. Your enamel is slightly filed down—about 0.5mm—to give your porcelain veneers a good surface to bond to without looseness or bulkiness. Although this may seem drastic, your cosmetic dentist never goes deeper than the hard outer enamel, leaving the sensitive inner tooth intact and healthy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Invisalign As Good As Braces?
Invisalign may look great, but many patients want to know whether there’s more to clear aligners than aesthetics. As they are still relatively new to the orthodontics world, it’s not strange to wonder if they measure up to traditional metal braces. Since their invention over 20 years ago, they have become amazingly versatile and efficient in solving moderate and even severe orthodontic issues. Just like bracket braces, Invisalign can do more than fix just crossbite or even underbite. Clear aligners can also tackle:
Crookedness
Overcrowding
Overbite
Open bite
Gaps between teeth
Other jaw alignment issues
Plus, aligners go above and beyond to compensate for some of the most common complaints people have about braces treatment.
Removable
Invisalign trays aren’t fixed to your teeth like braces but can instead be removed quickly and effortlessly. They only need to be worn for 22 hours each day, giving you plenty of time to take them out when eating or brushing your teeth. You don’t have to worry about changing your diet habits to prevent damaging brackets and wires. And you don’t have to adapt your dental hygiene routine just to keep your oral health on track.
Comfortable
While braces get the job done, they aren’t the most comfortable treatment available. Wires can poke at your soft inner cheeks and lips, and bulky brackets are rough and can rub painfully or even cut these sensitive tissues. Bracket braces can take weeks or months to adjust to wearing, but Invisalign cuts this time down significantly. By using smooth plastic trays that aren’t abrasive, clear aligners are less likely to cause much discomfort.
Invisalign is an incredibly effective treatment option for patients wanting to correct their smile alignment issues. However, there are some instances that they can’t fully fix. Who is not eligible for Invisalign? Your orthodontist may instead recommend bracket braces or, in the most severe cases, even jaw surgery:
Severe or complex alignment problems
Teeth that need to be moved vertically, not horizontally
Teeth rotated more than 20 degrees
However, for many crossbite-only patients, Invisalign is more than enough to give them the perfect straight teeth they want. If you’re unsure about which choice—Invisalign vs braces—is right for you, you can call our Bellflower dental office at (323) 486-6579 today. We can schedule an orthodontic consultation to discuss your treatment options with you. We can also go over your Invisalign cost, your treatment plan’s specifics, and any other questions you may have.
Can Adults Have Palatal Expanders?
Expanders are typically seen as a children’s procedure as they are especially common parts of early orthodontic treatment. Between ages 8 and 14, the jaw is still developing and growing, so the mouth is more responsive and malleable to our needs. However, you don’t have to content yourself with misaligned teeth because you believe you missed your “prime window of opportunity.” Adults can still use a palate expander as part of their crossbite correction treatment if necessary. It will likely just take a bite longer to complete.
Are Veneers High Maintenance?
Porcelain veneers take a bit of tooth-prepping before they can be placed. As such, some patients wonder whether there will be any special care instructions for them too. Luckily, veneers are pretty easy to keep clean and healthy. Each veneer acts as a separate tooth. Even if you need two or three in a row, you don’t have to treat them as one big piece like you would with a bridge or denture. This means you can brush and floss just as you would any other tooth.
Porcelain is also an incredibly durable material. It is resistant to stains, so you don’t have to beware of staining foods or drinks like coffees, teas, or tomato sauces. It’s also much less prone to chipping and cracking than composite bonding resin. On average, veneers last around 10 to 15 years. However, with excellent care and attention, you can extend their lifespan to more than 20 years.
