Oral Surgery for Orthodontics

When there isn’t enough room for an orthodontist to successfully move teeth into alignment, extractions can help alleviate crowding. Most often, it’s the bicuspid teeth that are removed. Other times, primary teeth may not have fallen out on schedule, or a permanent tooth may have erupted alongside a primary tooth, rather than pushing it out. 

An unerupted tooth sometimes needs to be exposed to move forward with orthodontic treatment. This involves removing some of the bone and soft tissue overlying the unerupted tooth to be accessed. Once the tooth is revealed and a bracket is attached, your orthodontist can begin to pull your tooth into its proper position.

Temporary anchorage devices are tiny "screws" placed in the upper or lower jaws to provide a fixed anchor for space closure, molar uprighting, correction of open bites, and other tooth movements. Treatment usually lasts a few months, and once the desired direction has been achieved, the "screw" is removed.

Used to correct misalignments or other abnormalities in the upper and/or lower jaw, orthognathic (jaw) surgery addresses jaw or tooth alignment problems and improves breathing, occlusion (bite), chewing ability, or speaking. The surgery often dramatically affects appearance as well, although this is usually not the primary reason the surgery is performed. Orthognathic treatment is conducted in stages and can last from a few months to a year or more.

Frenectomies are performed to release the “frenum,” a connective muscle between two tissues. A labial frenectomy helps prevent a gap between the front teeth by treating the tissue that connects the upper lip to the gums. Lingual frenectomies help relieve ankyloglossia (“tongue-tie”) and improve tongue function by treating the tissue that connects the tongue to the floor of the mouth.