Crooked Teeth
Crooked teeth are generally a condition when your teeth are not straight and misaligned in nature. Your teeth might get overlapped or twisted due to genetic reasons or other factors and cause difficulty in chewing your food and many other problems associated with it. So today we will discuss the causes, symptoms, remedies, and other factors related to crooked teeth and what we can do for its treatment.
Symptoms of Crooked Teeth
- Improper Teeth Alignment: This is one of the most common symptoms of crooked teeth. The alignment of the teeth seems to get improper and it is a strong indication that you might be having crooked teeth.
- Difficulty in Chewing: Chewing difficulty is another very common symptom associated with crooked teeth. As your teeth do not remain straight and lose its alignment eating your food and chewing it with your teeth becomes very difficult and you need to consult a dentist immediately.
- Protruding teeth: Your teeth become protruding and it becomes difficult for you to close your mouth properly. It not only causes difficulty but also make you look odd and uncomfortable.
- Abnormal Meeting of Teeth: When you have crooked teeth your teeth do not meet each other normally and tend to get separated from each other. Teeth of your upper jaw and lower jaw do not meet each other normally and your side teeth also become misaligned.
- Mouth Breathing: When you normally breathe through your nose your mouth remains closed and your tongue rests on the top of your mouth. However, in case of mouth breathers, they keep their tongue on the mouth floor and the cheek muscles relax on the upper teeth. This results in the upper jaw getting narrower and ultimately leading to crooked teeth.
- Difficulty in Speech: As the shape of your mouth and jaw becomes abnormal in case of crooked teeth it becomes difficult for you to speak and might lead to unclear speech.
- Biting Cheeks & Lips: In the ideal condition, the teeth of your lower jaw should be slightly overlapped by the teeth of your upper jaw so that the pointed edges of the molar teeth should perfectly fit in the opposite molar groves. However, in the case of crooked teeth, as the alignment and shape become improper, it leads to accidental biting of your lips and cheeks leading to injury.
Causes of Crooked Teeth
- Genetic Factors: There is a strong association between genetic factors and crooked teeth. If your parents or people in your family have a history of crooked teeth then there is a high chance of having crooked teeth. Facial size and your jaws also play a vital role in having crooked teeth.
- Jaw Development: Improper development of your jaws at an early age can play a significant role in having crooked teeth. Having a wide palate is one of the key factors of developing healthy teeth and jaw in a child. Problems associated with the cranial nerve can have a deep impact on your mouth, jaw, skull, and vertebral bones. This might affect the growth of the bones in the upper and lower jaw leading to crooked teeth.
- Improper Tongue Positioning: The proper positioning of your tongue plays a vital role in ensuring the right alignment and shape of your teeth. The normal position of your tongue should be up against the palate. The upper palate should touch the tip and back of your tongue and should remain pressed with it. However, if the position of your tongue is low and in a forward position, it indicates the wrong posture of your tongue and might lead to misalignment of your teeth.
- Serious Injury: A serious injury of your face, mouth, jaw or teeth can be a major reason for crooked teeth. If your mouth or jaws are accidentally hit or injured it might move your teeth from its actual position and might lead to twisting or wrong alignment of your teeth. Your teeth and gums might also get overlapped due to an injury and might have serious effects on your teeth.
- Improper Swallowing: Wrong or improper swallowing habit can be a reason for your teeth getting crooked. A wrong swallowing habit involves a lot of movement in the bottom lip and the tongue pushes forward. The lip also wrongly pushes back when you are swallowing. This result in your front teeth to be pushed back and your teeth become crowded. The scenario becomes more complicated in case of children because they swallow two times per minute and an improper or wrong swallowing pattern, the facial muscles will get pushed back against the normal growth and the face will not be able to develop according to its genetic potential leading to crooked teeth.
- Age Factor: No matter we want to accept it or not, but our age plays a natural role in losing our teeth and gums. When we grow older our gums lose the ability to hold the teeth tightly together leading to its misalignment and fall. When we lose our teeth one by one during old age it creates a gap in our teeth structure which eventually leads to crooked teeth. Moreover, the density and stability of our upper and lower jaw bone also decrease and our teeth become crowded and lean forward.
Treatment & Remedies of Crooked Teeth
Generally, people identified with crooked teeth by their dentists are referred to an orthodontist for further treatment. An orthodontist is a person who is specialized in the treatment of misaligned jaws and crooked teeth.
Generally, the first step of the treatment involves X-ray photography of your entire face which includes teeth, mouth, and jaw. An x-ray of your will provide a detailed picture of the positioning of your teeth, gums, jaws, and other aspects of your mouth. Special cephalometrics or panoramic X-rays might also be done to understand the positioning of your jaws and its connection to your head.
Moreover, your teeth impressions might be taken for better diagnosis and understanding of the exact problem. The type of treatment you need will be determined based on all the tests mentioned.
Additional tests might be required depending on a case to case basis. Based on your teeth condition a removable retainer might be used to stabilize your teeth and bring them to their original position.
Removal of one or more teeth might be required in very rare cases depending on the situation. Braces are commonly used to correct the problem in the case of most people. In most extreme cases of overbite or underbite, surgery might be required depending on the condition of the patient.
What problem do you face if you have crooked teeth?
• It may affect your chewing. If you have crooked teeth, you cannot chew food properly. Sometimes, it will feel uncomfortable due to an overbite.
• It may produce a negative impact on you. As a result, it creates a self-consciousness feeling about their appearance.
• Crooked teeth increase the possibility of tooth-breaking due to a lot of straining in jaw muscle.
• Due to crooked teeth, you may suffer from tooth decay, cavities or opening in the mouth.
Does it create problems if you have a crooked tooth?
The answer is Yes. If you have crooked teeth, it creates lots of issues in your daily life. They are:-
• Jaw pain
If you have crooked teeth more in number causes, soreness, and pain in jaw muscle. When you eat, your jaw muscle will take extra stress and pressure for chewing. It affects your temporomandibular joint (TM) joint as well. However, if you ignore such pain, then you might face a lot of problem regarding this.
•Tough to clean teeth
Normally we know that straight and smooth are easier to clean than twisted teeth. So, if you have twisted and crooked teeth, it going to very hard to put your toothbrush into your mouth cavity. Then, what will happen? Simple, day by day a “plaque” will produce on your teeth and gum. After that, the plaque may create infection on your teeth and gum as well.
• Bad breathing
Ahhhhh…! Who as a nasty bad breathe? Nobody. The plaque then inflamed and sometimes it creates puss. If you don’t clean your teeth as well as the plaque, it will produce a bad smell. Sometimes, it feels annoying for your parent, friends, or your partner.
Can I fix my crooked teeth?
Yes, if there is a problem, there must be a solution. You should not worry about it. Consult with your doctor, he will fix this problem with the tool called, veneers and Invisalign or orthodontic braces. It will help you to keep your teeth in the right position as well as for a better smile.
Without braces can I fix my teeth?
Yes, you can fix teeth without braces. And, the process is Invisalign. It is an easy and reliable way to make your teeth straighten and beautiful.
How much time would it take to repair my crooked teeth?
It depends on patient to patient depending on their ages. But it will take approx one to two years. Consult with your doctor orthodontist for a better suggestion, the only doctor can tell you the exact date of recovery. In the case of Invisalign, it will take about 12 months to recover for adults.
How much does it cost to straighten your teeth?
It depends on many conditions and your requirements for teeth straightening.
The braces process almost cost $500-$1000. Without braces, in the case of Invisalign, it will charge more than braces. The price is around $2000-$3000, depends on the condition.
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