Most people assume their teeth are “not bad enough” for orthodontic treatment. Then they see a photo of themselves mid-laugh, or they start noticing jaw soreness that wasn’t there five years ago, and that assumption quietly falls apart. The reality is that orthodontic problems are more common than most people think, and most of them are very fixable. Here are the six issues a Brookhaven orthodontist sees most often, what’s actually causing each one, and what modern treatment looks like for your specific situation.

1. Crowding: The Most Common Complaint

Crowding happens when your jaw doesn’t have quite enough room for all your teeth to sit in a clean line. Teeth start to overlap, rotate, or get pushed slightly out of the arch. You’ve probably seen it on yourself or someone you know: that one incisor that sits just a little too far forward, or the lower teeth that look like they’re fighting for position.

 

According to a 2024 study published in PubMed Central, crowding was the most common orthodontic problem treated among adult patients, affecting 40.6% of those seeking care, making it far and away the most frequent reason people book a consultation. Crowded teeth aren’t just a cosmetic concern; they can also pose significant oral health challenges because they’re harder to clean effectively.

 

Treatment depends on severity. Mild crowding responds well to clear aligners or standard braces. Severe crowding sometimes requires creating space through careful tooth movement, and occasionally through strategic extractions. The main thing to understand is that crowding doesn’t improve on its own. Left alone, it tends to get worse as you age, particularly in the lower front teeth.

2. Overbite: When the Upper Teeth Overlap Too Far

Some overbite is normal. The problem starts when the upper front teeth extend so far down that they cover a significant portion of the lower teeth. Severe overbites can cause the lower teeth to bite into the roof of the mouth, contribute to uneven enamel wear, and create jaw discomfort over time.

 

Think about Marcus, a 34-year-old who figured his “deep bite” was just how his teeth were. He’d had it his whole life, so it felt normal. It was only when his dentist flagged progressive wear on his lower incisors that he realized the bite was actively damaging his teeth, not just sitting quietly. That’s a genuinely common story. Many people live with correctable bites for years simply because the problem doesn’t announce itself with sharp pain early on.

 

Braces and clear aligners can both address overbites by gradually repositioning the upper and lower teeth relative to each other. When a significant skeletal component drives the overbite, tooth movement alone may not fully resolve the jaw relationship, and orthognathic surgery may accompany orthodontic treatment in severe skeletal cases. For most patients, though, it’s a straightforward alignment correction.

3. Underbite: The Lower Jaw That Sits Ahead

An underbite is the opposite situation. The lower jaw or lower teeth sit in front of the upper teeth when you bite down. Beyond the cosmetic aspect, underbites can affect chewing efficiency, create uneven pressure on your teeth, and sometimes contribute to speech patterns that are harder to correct the longer they go untreated.

 

Early treatment during childhood makes underbites significantly easier to address because the jaw is still growing and more responsive to guidance. For adults, clear aligners and braces can handle dental underbites, while skeletal underbites may require a combined approach with jaw surgery. The takeaway is that waiting tends to narrow your options.

4. Crossbite: When Your Bite Doesn’t Line Up Side to Side

A crossbite means that some upper teeth sit inside the lower teeth when you close your mouth, instead of outside them where they belong. It can affect just a couple of teeth at the front (anterior crossbite) or the back teeth on one or both sides (posterior crossbite).

 

Research has found that severe malocclusion, including crossbites, can cause notable psychosocial harm in addition to physical impacts. More concretely, an uncorrected crossbite puts uneven pressure on specific teeth and can cause the jaw to shift slightly to one side over time, which shows up as asymmetric jaw wear and sometimes facial changes.

 

Crossbites are often treated with palatal expanders in children, or with braces and elastics in teens and adults. Catching a crossbite early in a child gives the orthodontist more room to work with, but adult treatment is absolutely viable and produces excellent results.

5. Open Bite: When Front Teeth Don’t Meet

An open bite means that the upper and lower front teeth don’t touch when your mouth is closed. There’s a visible gap even when you bite down fully. Open bites are often tied to habits like prolonged thumb-sucking or tongue thrusting, though skeletal factors also play a role in some cases.

 

Patients with open bites frequently report difficulties with speech, mastication, and facial aesthetics, which can negatively affect oral health-related quality of life and psychosocial well-being, according to a 2025 systematic review published in PubMed Central. The good news is that treatment outcomes are strong. A National Dental Practice-Based Research Network study found that 93% of adult open bite patients finished treatment with a positive overbite, which is a notably high success rate for what’s considered a more complex problem to solve.

Treatment varies by cause. Tongue thrusting habits may need to be addressed alongside orthodontic work. Skeletal open bites in adults sometimes respond to temporary anchorage devices, and more severe cases may be candidates for surgical correction.

6. Spacing and Gaps: When There’s Too Much Room

Spacing is the opposite of crowding. Extra room between teeth can result from teeth that are naturally smaller than average, missing teeth, or habits that created gaps over time. The most familiar version is the diastema: a gap between the two upper front teeth. But spacing can appear anywhere in the arch and can involve multiple teeth.

 

Spacing issues involve extra room between teeth, leading to noticeable gaps, and may be due to small teeth, missing teeth, or habits like thumb-sucking. Braces and aligners work well to close gaps and align teeth, improving both function and appearance. Retention after treatment is especially important for spacing cases since gaps have a tendency to reopen if the teeth aren’t held in position long enough for the surrounding tissue to adapt.

Who Actually Gets Orthodontic Treatment Today?

There’s still a persistent mental image of orthodontic patients as middle-schoolers with a mouth full of metal. That image is well behind reality. According to the American Association of Orthodontists’ 2025 Economics of Orthodontics and Patient Census Survey, the total estimated number of adult patients being treated in the U.S. by AAO members reached approximately 1.91 million in 2024, up significantly from 1.64 million in 2022.

 

“It’s a common misconception that orthodontic care is just for adolescents,” said Morris N. Poole, DDS, then-president of the AAO.

The Bite Problem Decision Map: A Simple Way to Know What to Do Next

Before you book anything, it helps to run through a quick self-assessment. This isn’t a diagnosis; it’s a filter designed to help you figure out whether to start with your dentist or go straight to an orthodontic consultation.

  • Are your teeth visibly overlapping or rotated? That’s likely crowding. Prioritize an orthodontic evaluation.
  • Do your top front teeth cover your bottom teeth by more than a few millimeters? Possible deep bite or overbite. Worth assessing soon.
  • Does your lower jaw sit in front of your upper teeth when you bite? That’s an underbite. Earlier treatment is better, especially in kids.
  • Do some upper teeth sit behind your lower teeth? That pattern suggests a crossbite. A palatal expander or braces can address it.
  • Is there a gap between your upper and lower front teeth when your mouth is closed? Open bite. Check whether you have any tongue-thrusting habits, and mention it at your consultation.
  • Do you notice visible spaces between multiple teeth? Spacing case. Aligners or braces close gaps reliably; the key is what retention looks like after.

If you checked more than one of those, that’s normal. Many people have a primary problem and a secondary issue layered on top. A thorough clinical exam will sort them out definitively.

Getting the Right Care in Johns Creek and Brookhaven

Knowing what your problem is makes the first consultation significantly more productive. You show up with specific questions instead of vague anxiety, and you can have a real conversation about the tradeoffs between braces and clear aligners, how long treatment is realistically going to take, and what retention looks like on the other end. If you’re in the northern Atlanta area, Brookhaven Orthodontics Johns Creek offers complimentary consultations where you can walk through exactly these questions with an experienced orthodontist before committing to anything.

None of the six problems above are permanent.