Orthodontic Problems in Boutte, LA | Louisiana Dental Center

Crowding: Too Many Teeth, Not Enough Jaw

Crowding is the complaint we hear most at our Hwy. 90 office. When the jaw runs out of room, teeth overlap, twist, or bulge outward to make do. Beyond the look, crowded teeth are a cleaning nightmare: plaque hides in the overlaps where no brush or floss easily reaches, and cavities and gum trouble follow. Braces or Invisalign create order by moving each tooth into the space it was meant to hold.

Gaps and Spacing

Spacing is crowding in reverse: extra room between teeth, whether from small teeth in a normal jaw, missing teeth, or childhood habits like thumb-sucking. Small gaps are often purely cosmetic, but wider spaces pack food at every meal and can throw off how the bite comes together. Aligners close modest gaps beautifully; braces handle the bigger ones.

Overbite: The Deep Overlap

A little overlap of upper over lower front teeth is normal. Too much, and the lower teeth can bite into the roof of the mouth, chip, or wear down ahead of schedule. Deep overbites are also the reason some smiles look “all front teeth.” Correction usually involves braces or aligners plus small rubber bands that guide the bite into balance over several months.

Underbite and Crossbite: When the Jaws Disagree

An underbite puts the lower row in front of the upper row, which strains chewing, speech, and the jaw joints. A crossbite flips individual teeth, uppers fitting inside the lowers instead of outside, and left alone it can grow a jaw unevenly and wear the same few teeth for years. Both respond especially well when caught in childhood, while the jaws are still being written, though adults see real improvements too.

Open Bite: When Front Teeth Never Meet

Close your back teeth and the fronts should touch. When they do not, biting into a sandwich turns into tearing with the back teeth, and certain sounds come out lispy. Open bites often trace back to thumb-sucking or tongue thrusting that outlasted the toddler years, and orthodontic correction retrains where the teeth, and often the tongue, come to rest.

What Happens When Nothing Gets Fixed?

Teeth that meet poorly wear unevenly, chip sooner, and crack under chewing loads that a balanced bite would shrug off. Overlapped teeth collect the plaque that seeds cavities and gum disease. Jaw joints that compensate for a bad bite can ache. None of this is guaranteed to happen, but the pattern is common enough that our orthodontic program treats alignment as health care, not vanity.

How We Size Up Your Case in Boutte

A complimentary evaluation settles all of it. Dr. Luong examines the bite, studies the images, and explains what is trivial, what is worth watching, and what is worth correcting, in words a middle-schooler can follow. Treatment recommendations come with the full picture: which appliance, roughly how long, and what the monthly payments look like through CareCredit and Sunbit. Details are on our financial options page.

No referral across the river, no new patient folder at a stranger’s office. Just a short drive down Hwy. 90 and a straight answer from the team that already cleans your teeth. Check our hours and come by.

One last thought on timing: early evaluation costs almost nothing in time or money, while correction gets longer, pricier, and more involved as problems mature. A seven-year-old whose crossbite gets guided today may skip jaw-level correction entirely; the same bite in an adult asks more of both braces and budget. Whether the answer is “watch it” or “fix it,” you will hear it straight from us.