Two Phase Treatment

    The preventive approach typically requires two separate phases of treatment, with each phase lasting about one year.  Phases I and II are usually separated by a 12-24 month interval where patients are free of appliances and can enjoy all the foods they had to give up during active orthodontic treatment.  Click here to download our Two-Phase Treatment brochure.  Make sure you have the free Adobe Reader software installed on your computer.

Phase I Treatment (Preventive)

The goals of Phase I treatment are:
    1) to widen the jaws to accommodate all of the permanent teeth, and
    2) to correctly relate the upper and lower jaws to each other

A great variety of appliances may be used to accomplish these goals.  A  comprehensive examination and diagnostic workup allows the orthodontist to choose the correct ones for each patient.  Active treatment typically takes about 12 months, followed by a year or two of observation time while permanent teeth are erupting.  Some examples of preventive appliances are palate expanders and lip bumpers which are shown here.

Preventive treatment greatly reduces:
    1) the need to extract permanent teeth to correct crowding,
    2) the need for jaw surgery to correct misaligned jaws, and
    3) the time a patient will need to wear full braces

Phase II Treatment (Corrective)

    Each permanent tooth has an exact position in the mouth where it is in harmony with the cheeks, tongue, jaws, jaw joints, and other teeth.  The goal of Phase II treatment is to get each tooth to this ideal position.  This phase of treatment is initiated when all the permanent teeth have erupted, usually requires full braces, and typically lasts one year.