Braces on the upper jaw can be a cosmetic and oral health solution for people who either can’t afford or don’t need braces on their lower jaw. While those who suffer from issues involving both jaws will not see full results with braces on only the upper jaw, some patients can take advantage of this cheaper treatment.
If you or your child needs braces, ask your provider whether upper jaw braces could be an option in your situation.
Want to find out if you or your child needs braces? Visit Reese Orthodontics in Charleston, SC for leading orthodontic care.
What are the Benefits of Having Braces?
Braces come with many treatment benefits, including:
- Repairing an overbite, underbite, or crossbite
- Fixing common malocclusions like crooked teeth, gaps, or spacing issues
- Healing jaw pain
- Treating a speech impediment
- Cosmetic improvements
Healing significant oral health issues requires braces on both jaws. Treating only one can change the issue without treating it since the bite will still be misaligned, and the jaw pain, speech issues, and other symptoms will remain.
However, braces on only one arch could be a viable treatment option for patients who want to make a purely cosmetic adjustment to their upper teeth or whose lower teeth do not require treatment.
How Do Teeth Become Misaligned?
Teeth usually become misaligned due to genetics, your oral health routine, your habits in early life, or a combination of factors. For example, someone prone to having a small jaw may be more susceptible to narrowing their palette through excessive thumb-sucking in infancy, leading to teeth with insufficient room to come in naturally. This commonly results in spacing issues, which can lead to a misaligned bite.
However, not all oral health problems are inherited. You may have been born with a proclivity to having straight teeth but lost your baby teeth prematurely in an accident, such as a blow in a contact sport or a fall. This may have caused your top teeth to come in incorrectly while the bottom ones are fine.
In a case like that, braces on the upper jaw could yield good results since the patient’s teeth and jaws would be healthy and just need to be returned to their natural state. Those with more serious misalignment issues may not be able to get by with only one arch.
What are the Cosmetic Benefits of Having Braces?
Another reason to get braces on the upper jaw only is if you don’t care about fixing your full oral health profile and just want to make a cheaper cosmetic adjustment to your most prominent teeth. Braces on the upper jaw can cosmetically improve your teeth by closing gaps in your upper arch or straightening crooked teeth.
For customer service professionals, office workers, students, and anyone who has a job that involves speaking or interacting with people, these cosmetic improvements can result in increased self-esteem, even if the oral health benefits are comparatively minimal.
What are the Risks of Braces on the Upper Jaw?
Receiving braces on the upper jaw only may not be a viable treatment option in your case and could even cause problems in the long run. In cases needing only minor health or cosmetic adjustments, upper braces can work. But major oral health treatment on only one jaw can be disruptive.
This is because changing the upper arch changes your bite, even if the treatment is not tailored to improving your oral health. These changes can alter the position of the patient’s arch, leading to a redistribution of bite forces that can cause TMJ pain, speech impediments, and more.
Speak with your oral health provider to learn whether braces on the upper jaw are a viable treatment option in your situation. The cosmetic results can be good in minor cases, but most meaningful oral health changes can only happen when braces are applied to both jaws simultaneously to prevent structural changes from causing more problems than they fix.
Choose Reese Orthodontics
If you’re an adult who is considering braces, you need professional advice on your treatment and payment options. For orthodontic treatments in Charleston, SC, Reese Orthodontics offers the latest technology and treatment plans. Our advanced and comfortable orthodontic treatments can be customized to suit your needs. A consultation with Reese Orthodontics includes scans, a comprehensive exam, and a conversation with the orthodontist to discover which treatment options are right for you.
Schedule an appointment with us today to stay ahead of your oral health and receive the best possible treatment in your area.