If you have crooked teeth, gapping, uneven crowns or a misaligned bite, your dentist may suggest braces. Braces can drastically change the total appearance of your smile, making it look straighter and healthier.
However, crooked teeth don't just affect the look of your smile, they can actually affect your overall oral health, leading to decay, pain and lots of dental procedures. If you want to know more about how braces can improve your smile besides looks, keep reading.
Make it Easier to Clean Teeth
Teeth require a lot of work to keep them clean. With straight smiles, cleaning between teeth is easy because the bristles and floss can easily reach every side of every tooth. With crooked teeth, however, some areas may be too tight to properly clean, leading to hidden decay or gum irritation.
If left untreated, this decay can destroy your entire tooth, and gum irritation can lead to gum recession or even gum disease. While wearing the braces, it will be even harder to clean your teeth, but once they are straight, it should be easier to keep your mouth clean from decay and odor-causing bacteria.
Crooked teeth alone may not cause too much damage to healthy teeth, but if the teeth are severely crooked, they may push against each other, causing cracks and chips. If caught quickly, this damage is easily repaired, but depending on the extent of the damage, you may need to have the tooth pulled or capped with a dental crown.
If you have a misaligned bite, such as an overbite, under bite or cross bite, chips and cracks are more likely. This is due to uneven pressure being applied to the teeth. For example, if you have an under bite, your upper canine teeth may be the only teeth that touch the lower teeth. This means these teeth are taking all the pressure, increasing the risk of damage. This may also happen if your teeth are uneven in length.
In extreme cases, your crooked teeth can even cause constant pain. Not only does this include pain from teeth hitting at the wrong time and pain from chips, but it also includes pain in the jawbone and jaw joint. This often happens when eating because the teeth can't hit properly.
If you have a misaligned bite, your jaw may be in an awkward position, which can put pressure on the jaw joint (where your lower jaw connects to the upper jaw). This area may feel tender, swollen or throbbing due to stress from the improper position of the lower jaw.
Improve Your Speaking and Eating
Your voice box may be what creates the sounds needed when speaking, but your tongue and teeth are invaluable tools to help form words. For example, when you say a word such as face, your bottom lip uses the upper teeth to help make the F sound. Similarly, when you pronounce the end of the word, you put your teeth together to say ace.
When your teeth are crooked, the tongue may not be able to hit the front teeth properly, resulting in slurred speech. If you have missing teeth from poor oral hygiene due to your crooked teeth, your speech is even more affected. This is not commonly a problem with back teeth, but crooked back teeth are more likely to trap food particles.
Braces will make your crooked smile look better, but they can also be a valuable tool in preventing future complications and decay. If you are ready to talk about braces, or if you still have more questions you need answered, contact us at Donald E. Snyder Orthodontics today.
