Early orthodontic treatment can have a lasting impact on your child’s bite, jaw development, and facial balance. The Invisalign Mandibular Advancement System is a modern solution for children with developing overbites, offering a comfortable and discreet alternative to traditional functional appliances.
At Dental at Keys, we provide advanced early orthodontic intervention to guide jaw growth and reduce the need for complex treatment later in life.
This treatment is most effective for growing children aged 9 to 14, when jaw growth is still active.
Your child may benefit if they have:
A noticeable overbite
A small or retrusive lower jaw
Difficulty biting or chewing
Crowded or misaligned teeth
Early signs of jaw imbalance
Treating these issues early can reduce treatment time later and lower the risk of extractions or jaw surgery.
Invisalign Mandibular Advancement works in two ways at the same time:
Special features in the aligners guide the lower jaw forward in small, controlled steps, encouraging healthier jaw growth. This is known as functional therapy.
At the same time, the aligners gradually move the teeth into better alignment.
This dual approach makes it an efficient option for Class II early treatment.
There is now a new version of Invisalign Mandibular Advancement that includes occlusal blocks, similar in concept to a traditional Twin Block functional appliance.
These occlusal blocks are built into the aligners and sit between the upper and lower teeth. They help to:
Hold the lower jaw in a forward position more effectively
Improve control of jaw posture during growth
Provide better vertical bite management
Increase stability during treatment
This design offers the biomechanics of a Twin Block appliance with the benefits of clear aligner therapy, making it an excellent Twin Block alternative for suitable patients.
If you are concerned about your child’s overbite or jaw growth, early advice is invaluable. The Invisalign Mandibular Advancement System, including the newer occlusal block design, offers a modern and effective approach to early jaw correction. Contact Dental at Keys today to book an orthodontic assessment and learn more about Invisalign for children.
Whether using the standard or occlusal block version, Invisalign Mandibular Advancement offers:
Clear, discreet aligners for better confidence
Improved comfort compared to bulky appliances
Removable design for easy cleaning and eating
Digital treatment planning for accuracy and predictability
Simultaneous jaw correction and teeth straightening
Early functional treatment can improve facial balance, bite function, and long-term orthodontic stability.
At Dental at Keys, treatment begins with a detailed orthodontic assessment, including:
Digital 3D scans
Bite and jaw evaluation
Growth analysis
If suitable, a personalised treatment plan is created. Most children wear a series of aligners for 12 to 18 months, with regular reviews to monitor growth and progress.
Our team provides modern early orthodontic solutions tailored to each child’s growth pattern. We focus on:
Child-friendly care
Advanced digital technology
Individualised functional orthodontic planning
Long-term oral health outcomes
Early assessment can make a lifelong difference in jaw development and smile confidence.
Early orthodontics is basically doing orthodontic work while a child still has a mixture of primary (baby) and permanent teeth. This typically occurs between the ages of 7 to 12 although this can vary depending on the dental development stage of the child.
The advantage of early treatment is that the early diagnosis and treatment of your child may help an orthodontic problem earlier whilst often minimizing more serious orthodontic problems from occurring. By lessening these problems early, later orthodontic treatment may be shorter and easier (or not required in some cases).
Partial Braces are braces worn on the adult teeth, while your child still has primary teeth. These normally only involve the front 4 incisors and the first adult molar. This may or may not be used in conjunction with springs which help with some expansion. These are typically used to help resolve crowding in younger children.
Clear Aligners such as Invisalign First offer the same type of treatment that Partial braces do with the added benefit of removable Clear Aligners
Jaw expansion is typically done with maxillary expanders (more information here). These can either be removable or fixed. Maxillary expanders help to widen the upper jaw by pushing the teeth and bone outwards, and typically involve turning a super screw. Alternative expansion devices include the Invisalign Palatal Expander.
Mandibular advancement devices (functional appliances) include the MARA appliance, Herbst appliance, Twin-Block appliance or Clear Aligners (Angel Aligner A6 & the Invisalign Mandibular Advancement System). Again, these can be removable or fixed. These appliances help to position the lower jaw in a more forward position, thereby encouraging faster growth of the lower jaw into a more favourable position (eliminating an overjet).
Early treatment typically ranges from 6 to 18 months. This varies depending on the complexity of treatment.
Orthodontics is not just simply about straightening teeth. Here at Dental at Keys we aim to create a beautiful full smiles. We pay particular attention to the curvature, width and height of the smile. All of these aspects involve a lot more work than just straight teeth. The last thing we want for you is to have a flat straight smile (ie. Denture smile).
We also pay great attention to the profile of your face. Not only should your smile be full, but your facial profile should match it is as well. There is no point in extracting teeth in a patient who already has a sunken profile. Similarly, patients with lips that are too full should not have this worsen. This is why we say we treat the face, and not just the teeth.
It’s time for the school holidays soon. Have you started noticing that kids are getting braces and plates younger and younger than when you were at school. Why is this?
There is a big push towards early intervention orthodontic treatment. Lots of fancy words but it essentially means that when kids have problems with crowding/bite that they can be seen earlier and hopefully get the problems corrected earlier too.
As with all things, it’s not suitable for every cases and needs to assessed by the dentist.
The most common problem is crowding of the teeth where it looks like there are too many teeth for such a little mouth! In cases like these, sometimes a plate is fixed to open up the mouth and slowly expand to make room for the teeth.
Another problem is when a bottom tooth bites on the outside of the top tooth! This can create a lot of permanent damage on the top tooth so early treatment moves the tooth back where it is meant to be!
If you’re not sure about your kid’s teeth and have any questions, let us know.
Dr Bruno does early intervention orthodontics at Dental at Keys so he can do a consult for you!
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