For many, the fixing of an overbite can make them more confident with their smile. There’s something truly pleasing to the eyes when it comes to white, clean, and properly-aligned teeth.
Apart from aesthetics, correcting an overbite can eliminate the risk of injuring the teeth and reduce issues in speaking and eating. In fact, a lot of children and adults experience an overbite or other malocclusion of some sort, whether it be minor or severe. But before considering overbite correction, it is crucial to delineate what the condition is and the possible cause (typically, overbites, spaced teeth, and crooked teeth are considered hereditary traits).
Causes of an Overbite
Even though some overbites are inborn, others are due to malformed jaws. The jaws can definitely develop unevenly under the pressure of specific habits when a person is young. This can lead to an overdeveloped upper jaw or underdeveloped lower jaw.
Aside from these, the habits formed at early childhood, for instance; prolonged bottle-feeding, thumb-sucking or tongue-thrusting; can cause overbite. Meanwhile, habits developed later in life like nail biting can lead to overbite as well.
However, there are other causes of misaligned bites such as:
- A faulty fit of dental restorations like crowns or fillings
- Loss of primary teeth or secondary teeth sooner than expected
- Excessive pressure on the gums and teeth
- Gum disease
- Tumors of the jaw or mouth
- Misalignment of the jaw after suffering from an injury
- Tongue thrusting, thumb sucking, or prolonged use of bottles or pacifiers
Fortunately, there are solutions available for mild cases of protruding and crooked teeth. Complicated dental problems such as serious underbite, overbite, and malocclusion can also be addressed.
Whether you suffer from crowding teeth or gapping teeth, there is a cost-effective teeth-straightening option for you.
But first, you have to learn more about these conditions and how to treat them.
Teeth Crowding
Teeth crowding pertains to lack of space for the teeth to conform normally within the jaws. The teeth may be protruding, overlapping, or blocked out of line.
This takes place when the teeth are bigger than the space available or there is a disproportion in the tooth-to-jaw-size ratio. This can also be due to an improper eruption of adult teeth and early loss of primary teeth.
An orthodontist can help make space for one’s crowded teeth. This is done by recontouring wide teeth to make them narrower or through expanding the jaw. In turn, this can help avoid extracting the teeth. Typically, dentists only consider pulling out the teeth if there is excessive crowding.
Spacing or Spaced Teeth
This happens when the teeth are too narrow for a broad jaw and if teeth are missing. Poor appearance is the most typical complaint from people with disproportionate space. But the condition of the gums can be endangered if space goes on for longer periods of time.
Fortunately, closing the spaces between the teeth is easy. Dentists consider veneers in cases that the space is too disproportionate to close to perform orthodontics treatment alone. Other options compose of lingual braces, clear braces, or metal braces.