CAN I JUST FIX ONLY THE UPPER OR THE LOWER TEETH?
CAN I JUST FIX ONLY THE UPPER OR THE LOWER TEETH?
EXPECTATIONS From DIGITAL ORTHODONTICS - Solo Edition by Dr. Bak Nguyen
This question is tricky. The answer is yes and no. As a general rule, it is not possible because the top teeth are today molding the lower teeth and vice-versa. If you change only one arch, the other arch will mold it back to what it is today.
That said, there is a way to cheat but it comes with a great cost, biological cost. In some cases it can be possible to treat only one arch. If you were looking to straighten teeth, you will have to aggressively create space with extraction or IPR, interproximal reduction to align your teeth within a restricted space.
Keep in mind that the modern science of orthodontic is to straighten your smile with minimum invasive technics, aggressively removing tooth material is usually not the right mindset.
Once done, retention will be of prime importance since all the forces on the mouth (that put the teeth where they were in the first place) will be pushing to recreate the same balance. To understand the balance, every time you close your mouth to swallow, to chew, to drink, your muscles are pushing against your teeth until your teeth find a contact.
On the outside, the lips are pushing the anterior teeth backward until the back of the upper teeth (if not in crossbite) touches the front of the lower anteriors.
At the same time, the tongue is also pushing your teeth forward until it finds contact. The position of your teeth is mainly determined by that interaction of these natural forces. By straightening your teeth, we are remolding the bones and the emergence of your teeth, but the balance of forces still remains the same.
It is imperative to create a balance in which your upper arch is supported by the lower arch and vice-versa. That is mainly why changing one will require you to also take care of the other. We have to be smart approaching this, you cannot win for long, looking to outsmart our body.
Changing only one arch is more a cheat than an alternative of treatment and will only be possible to align the front teeth. The posterior teeth have to come together in occlusion, there is no way to modify one without modifying the other. Today, you have a balance that is stable and working, nature was the architect of that one. Even if you do not like how it might look, it is a stable balance.
Going through an orthodontic treatment, your attending will be replacing that balance with a new one, one more pleasing to the eye, but he or she will need to achieve a new occlusion and balance for you to function and to have a chance to keep the result stable in the long run (with the help of retention appliances).