What is a Narrow Jaw?
It is a condition where the upper jaw is significantly narrower than the lower.
Signs of a narrow jaw include crowding on the upper front teeth and/or the side and back teeth biting inside of the lower teeth.
A smile in a narrow jaw appears narrow rather than broad. Spaces may also be seen on the side of the smile, instead of where teeth should be.
Why does a Narrow Jaw need to be corrected?
The upper jaws are connected with the nose and in children with narrow upper jaws, the nose passage is smaller. This may cause a child to breathe through their mouth, snore at night or wake up with a dry mouth due to mouth breathing.
Heavy mouth breathing can change the way a child’s jaw grows, also causing a smaller lower jaw and an overbite naturally worsening. It is also one of the main reasons why the upper teeth appear crowded.
There is a time frame where the upper jaw bones and their connections have not hardened in a child and early teen, where the upper jaw can widened effectively without surgery.
What are the treatment options?
- In children: Fixed or removable upper expander, sometimes a lower expander is placed.
- In early to mid teenagers: Upper expander, although it is beneficial for an upper narrow jaw to be treated earlier.
- In late teenagers to adults: An expander may not be suitable. Correcting a narrow upper jaw will usually involve surgical jaw widening. Alternatively, we may accept the jaw size and straighten the teeth only. This can still have a significant improvement in one’s smile.