Can Invisalign Fix Underbites? | Dental Designs

Dr Tiffany Tan from Dental Designs Clinic walks through an Invisalign case, where a severe Class III underbite is corrected non-surgically using distalisation, IPR, expansion, and elastics. No surgery. No extractions. Just two years of precision treatment and patient compliance.

About The Video

In this episode of Before and Beyond, Dr Tiffany Tan presents a complex underbite case treated entirely with Invisalign. The patient presented with a full Class III molar classification, meaning the lower jaw sat almost a full tooth ahead of the upper. With surgery ruled out by patient choice, she designed a two-year non-surgical treatment plan built around maximising the space left by prior wisdom tooth extractions.

She details the specific techniques applied: distalisation to move lower teeth into extraction spaces, interproximal reduction (IPR) to create additional room, arch expansion, and full-time elastics to help guide the lower jaw position. With the patient's consistent compliance and carefully iterated Invisalign refinements, the treatment delivered a fully corrected bite, aligned teeth, and long-term dental stability.

Class III malocclusion, commonly known as an underbite, is traditionally considered one of the more challenging orthodontic conditions, often requiring surgical correction when skeletal discrepancy is severe.

In this case, Dr Tiffany demonstrates that Invisalign, when combined with strategic biomechanics, can achieve significant improvement even in complex presentations. The treatment relied on a combination of space creation techniques, including utilisation of wisdom tooth extraction space, interproximal reduction (IPR), and controlled arch expansion.

A critical component of success was the use of full-time elastics, which applied directional force to guide the lower teeth backward into a more favourable occlusion. Patient compliance played a decisive role, as consistent wear was essential for progress. Multiple refinement stages allowed continuous adjustment of tooth positioning.

While treatment duration was longer than simpler cases, the outcome shows that non-surgical correction can be a viable option for selected patients seeking to avoid orthognathic surgery or additional extractions.