We can make amazing improvements esthetically and functionally with orthodontic treatment alone; however, approximately 1-5% of the patients we see have jaw alignment issues that cannot be addressed by orthodontics alone. These cases require the jaws to be surgically repositioned in conjunction with orthodontic treatment. If the jaws aren’t lined up correctly, the teeth will never line up correctly as well. It takes a special team to make this happen and we are proud to work with outstanding surgeons on many of these cases.
How does it work?
Typically, we (the orthodontists) move the teeth to decompensate the dentition; that is, we line up the top and bottom teeth such that they will fit together AFTER the surgeon moves the jaw(s). Often times we intentionally make the bite worse so that the surgeon can make it better. It is exactly like the old saying: “ we’ve got to take one step backwards, before we can take two steps forward”.
