Extraction therapy is a technique where some teeth are removed to make room for the other teeth in your child’s mouth. This is in contrast to non-extraction therapy where one expands a patients’ jaw and shave down some teeth to make everything fit.
Years ago, everyone got extraction therapy. Now, most adolescent patients have non-extraction therapy. A gadget called a palatal expander is used to expand the adolescent’s jaw. Adult patients are still treated via extraction therapy, however, because once someone stops growing, it takes major surgery to expand someone’s jaw.