Tongue thrust is a swallowing pattern where the tongue pushes forward against or between the front teeth, instead of up against the roof of the mouth, every time a person swallows. Because swallowing happens hundreds of times a day, that repeated forward pressure can gradually push the front teeth out
An open bite is when the upper and lower front teeth don’t touch at all when the back teeth are biting together, leaving a visible gap. It’s usually caused by a combination of genetics and childhood oral habits — things like prolonged thumb sucking, tongue thrusting, or chronic mouth breathing
Power chains are a continuous strip of connected elastic links that an orthodontist places over the brackets of your braces to close gaps or shift several teeth in the same direction at once. Unlike an individual rubber band tie, which mostly just holds the archwire in the bracket, a power
A tongue-tie or lip-tie is a piece of tissue — called a frenulum — that’s tighter or shorter than normal, restricting how freely the tongue or lip can move. When one of these ties is significant, it can influence how a child swallows, speaks, and rests their tongue, and over
Headgear is an orthodontic appliance worn outside the mouth, attached to braces with straps or bands, used to guide jaw growth or move upper and lower molars relative to each other in ways that braces alone can’t accomplish. It’s recommended far less often today than it was a generation ago,
You can absolutely whiten your teeth while wearing Invisalign — and in some ways, clear aligners make whitening more convenient than braces do, since they’re removable. That said, timing and product choice matter: whitening gel applied under an aligner tray isn’t the same as a standard take-home whitening kit, and
Yes — chronic mouth breathing in children can absolutely contribute to orthodontic problems. When a child habitually breathes through their mouth instead of their nose, the tongue rests low in the mouth instead of up against the palate, and over months and years that changed posture can narrow the upper
Spacers and separators are both small devices placed between teeth before braces go on, and the terms actually describe the same step in treatment — most orthodontic offices use them interchangeably. Their job is to gently push your back teeth apart just enough to create room for the metal bands
Serial extraction is a planned, staged removal of specific baby teeth (and sometimes a few permanent teeth) over time, timed to guide incoming adult teeth into better positions as a child’s jaw develops. It’s recommended in select cases of significant crowding, where creating space gradually and predictably produces a better
