Dental Diseases: Irregular Teeth
Your face is your identity, and teeth make an important part of your face, besides giving you a
beautiful smile, which adds a new dimension to your personality. This smile can be ruined
if teeth are placed abnormally. Teeth may be placed in more forward
position or may have improper alignment or may have too many spaces between them.
Technical term to describe this abnormal alignment of teeth is "Malocclusion".
The specialists who treat these irregularities best are known as orthodontist.
Usually the milk teeth are less likely to get these problems. Naturally there are
spaces between the milk teeth because of small size. If the spaces are reduced or
completely absent, one can predict that such a child has a high possibility of getting
irregular teeth in future.(In such case start an early consultation with your specialist)
Many people ask why such problems? Most of these problems are because of small jaw size
and comparatively larger teeth size, so teeth either project out or if the lip muscles are
strong, teeth become irregularly aligned. Why such things occur, there are two main
explanations:
1.Some times it is told that genetically the child may get small jaw size from mother
and big teeth from father.
2. But more important as we see, most of children don’t eat enough hard food.
Present day kids eat a lot of chocolates and soft pressure cooked food, this does not give
any exercise to jaws and its muscles, and jaws remain small in size and can not
accommodate all the teeth.
Habits also are an important factor. These days where both
parents work child has more insecurity and psychological problem, such children are more
likely to suck thumb or finger. Such habits can cause teeth to project out if the habit is
continued beyond age of 4 years. Mouth being kept open because of large tonsils or nasal
obstruction has the same effect. These problems should be treated immediately by
consulting the specialist.
Another most common cause is the neglect of the milk teeth during early years. When the
milk teeth get large cavities at an early age and are pulled out they lead to shifting of
teeth at the backside. When new teeth come there is no space for them to come out.
Jaw growth also can be out of proportion, sometimes the lower jaw may grow more than
the upper or vice versa. Such problems also can the treated by the orthodontist.
Many a time it is asked what is the correct age to treat these problems? An average age
is twelve, but there are variations and it is best left to the specialists to decide the
best timing for treatment. If the gum health is good this treatment can be done for adults
also, patients as old as 50 years also have been treated with excellent results. Special
transparent attachments are available to make the smile look less metallic for such
adults, this makes treatment for adults more acceptable and less embarrassing.
Apart from making your smile beautiful, correction of irregular or projecting teeth
also helps to :
- Improve your gum health.
- Get you rid of bad breath as your teeth can be easily cleaned by brushing.
- Improves your chewing efficiency.
- Reduces chances of getting cavities.
The Myth:
Teeth extraction: Because of the size of the jaw being unable to accommodate all
the teeth, as a part of treatment orthodontist often advice removal of certain teeth. This
allows the remaining teeth to be aligned in proper way. Many a patient asks whether it
will effect the eyesight. There is no scientific evidence to show any such effect.
Teeth becoming weak: Patients also ask if teeth will become loose after the
treatment with clips. If the gums are healthy before starting the treatment and a
competent specialist has done the treatment, you should enjoy normal teeth health for rest
of your life.
Spaces will be left: Patients ask "if the teeth are pulled out for treatment
whether spaces will be left"? If the treatment is done after careful planning no
spaces are left after the treatment and one normally can not make out if any teeth were
removed at all. With the improvement in the treatment techniques and materials lesser
number of patients now require the extraction of teeth for improving the alignment.
Ten Questions to ask your orthodontist
See Treated cases
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