UT Southwestern Medical Center offers a fully staffed orthodontics practice, which provides patients with services and procedures to correct malocclusions, or “bad bites.”
Our skilled orthodontists have extensive experience in the design, application and control of corrective appliances such as dental braces. These appliances are able to bring teeth, lips and jaws into proper alignment.
Patients who undergo orthodontic treatment enhance their physical appearance, improving self-esteem and self-confidence. Better yet, they achieve improved long-term oral health. And newer technologies, like invisible braces, spare adult patients the embarrassment of the shiny, obvious braces of the past.
Straight teeth help to effectively bite, chew and speak. Teeth that are in alignment are less prone to tooth decay, gum disease and injury. Furthermore, correcting a bad bite prevents excessive wear on tooth surfaces.
Untreated orthodontic problems can result in tooth decay, gum disease, destruction of the bone that holds teeth in place and chewing and digestive difficulties. Treatment by an orthodontist to correct a problem early may be less costly than the restorative dental care that will be required in later years to correct serious conditions.
Fortunately, healthy teeth can be moved at any age, making it possible for adults as well as children to receive orthodontic care. In fact, one in five orthodontic patients is an adult.
New patients receive a thorough evaluation by a team of orthodontic specialists that generally includes the gathering of medical and dental history, a clinical examination, plaster study models of teeth, photos of the face and X-rays of the mouth and head.
Our physicians then create a comprehensive, individualized treatment plan that may include a variety of orthodontic appliances and techniques, such as dental braces, elastics, hooked to teeth, headgear, functional appliances and palatal expanders. For severe orthodontic problems, surgery may be recommended.
UT Southwestern physicians provide expert and compassionate care, which makes an important difference in our patients’ treatment and changes their outlook on the future. Our physicians show patients how they can achieve a renewed state of health they may have not thought possible.
