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Crooked teeth and bite problems do more than interrupt your smile. They can cause gum disease, create tooth wear, increase risk for tooth injury, trigger chewing difficulties and more. Studies also show that your smile is one of the top three things that another person will notice about you. You want that smile to both make an impression and you want your smile to be healthy. Unhealthy smiles are ones that tend to have the teeth fall out over time, and once that happens, you can’t get your teeth back. Orthodontics can help improve a smile in countless ways. Here are some major ways that orthodontics can change your teeth and how the process works!
Dentist, Orthodontist examining a little girl patient's teeth with green braces. Close up of girl head and dentist, orthodontist hands with blue gloves
Crooked Teeth: How Can They Affect a Smile?
If you have crooked teeth, you might want them straighter for more aesthetic appeal. However, your oral health is what actually improves the most. That’s because crooked teeth will give you a significantly greater risk for oral health diseases.
The American Association of Orthodontists recommends that every child has their first appointment with an orthodontist by age 7 or 8. This is a time when the baby teeth are starting to fall out and the permanent, adult teeth are starting to come in. An orthodontist can see if those adult teeth are coming in correctly or if there are orthodontic issues starting to form that will be there for life without intervention. The permanent teeth will generally be in the mouth by ages 12-14 and a teen will have 32 teeth. That includes 4 wisdom teeth that will still be hidden in the mouth.
Making sure that all the teeth come in where they should is vital to having a healthy mouth. When the teeth are shifted out of place or crooked, they can break or fracture easier. Speech can be affected or it can become difficult to form words correctly. The teeth should form an arch both on top and bottom in an adult’s and child’s mouth. When it doesn’t, speech impediments ensue and some issues can even hinder eating and drinking, which can lead to malnutrition and disability.
Oral health issues caused by simple crookedness can end up being major issues without intervention. We care about these issues because not correcting the oral issues through orthodontics will mean we keep seeing the same children and adults in our office for cavities, gum disease, tooth breaks, root canals, extractions and other procedures.
What If You Can’t Do Orthodontics?
Don’t have 18-24 months to invest in orthodontics? Technology has come a long way since the invention of orthodontics. You do have other options such as porcelain veneers if you need a straight smile quickly. Veneers are custom-made tooth shells that replace the front sliver of your natural tooth. It creates a natural-looking perfect smile in 2 office visits and is the type of dental service many celebrities use to get their perfect smiles. If you want to know more about how dentistry and orthodontics work together.
