Is a crossbite detracting from your child’s smile and making it difficult to eat and speak? Then schedule an appointment with My Orthodontist at one of their nine conveniently located offices in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, and Deptford Township, Lawrenceville, Medford, Bayonne, West New York, West Orange, Cherry Hill, and Paterson, New Jersey. The My Orthodontist team has transformed many crossbites into functional and beautiful smiles. Unlock your child’s dream smile today by calling one of the offices or booking a visit online.
A crossbite is a type of malocclusion, like an overbite or underbite. In a crossbite, a tooth or teeth in one of your jaws doesn’t correctly fit together with its “partner tooth” on the other jaw, leaving your teeth misaligned when you bite down.
There are two types of crossbites:
The upper teeth in the back of the mouth come down slightly inside of the bottom teeth.
Your upper front teeth come down behind the lower front teeth when biting down.
Some of the most common causes of crossbite include:
Chronic thumb sucking creates a lot of pressure in the mouth, which can lead to deformities when the bones are still developing. If the upper palate isn’t wide enough, it can lead to a crossbite.
Crossbites can occur when a tooth erupts late or in an abnormal direction and falls out of sync with the corresponding tooth on the opposite jaw.
Crossbites happen when the upper jaw is narrower than the lower jaw, and since jaw size is a genetically inherited trait, hereditary factors can sometimes cause a crossbite.
Untreated crossbites cause many oral health concerns, including:
Because a crossbite throws off a child’s oral alignment, it can also lead to chronic jaw pain, which can spread to the neck and shoulders.
The earlier you address your child’s crossbite, the better. The team at My Orthodontist can more easily guide a smile away from a crossbite alignment when they’re able to treat it during its development. For younger patients, a simple treatment with headgear can successfully fix a crossbite.
Some of the other common methods for treating a crossbite include a palatal expander that widens the upper jaw or elastic wear that attaches to braces and gradually guides the teeth into a better alignment.
Depending on the severity of your child’s crossbite, the team might suggest a surgical intervention to strategically break the jaw and use customized devices to guide it into a better position as it heals.
Don’t wait any longer to fix your child’s crossbite and improve their smile. Schedule a consultation today with My Orthodontist by calling the office or booking a visit online.
