Key Issues:
Crooked teeth can impact various aspects of your life, both physically and psychologically. Key considerations include:
- Oral Health Challenges: Misaligned teeth create tight spaces and unusual gaps, making effective brushing and flossing difficult. This can lead to plaque buildup, increasing the risk of gum disease, cavities, and oral infections.
- Speech Difficulties: Gaps, overbites, or overcrowded teeth can impede clear pronunciation of certain letters and sounds, potentially causing lisping or poor articulation. This can affect communication in both professional and social settings.
- Increased Risk of Systemic Health Issues: Oral bacteria associated with crooked teeth can enter the bloodstream, leading to inflammation and contributing to heart disease. Additionally, misaligned jaws can contribute to sleep apnea, which is linked to heart problems and high blood pressure.
- Chronic Pain and Discomfort: A misaligned bite can strain jaw and facial muscles, resulting in frequent headaches and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction. This condition causes pain in the jaw, neck, face, and shoulders, affecting daily comfort and quality of life.
- Psychological and Social Impact: Individuals with crooked teeth may experience self-consciousness, leading to reluctance in smiling, laughing, or engaging in social interactions. This can affect self-esteem and result in social isolation.
Addressing dental misalignment through orthodontic treatments can alleviate these issues, enhancing both oral health and overall well-being.
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Those who have lived with crooked teeth for a long time may believe they no longer think about how their smile looks or worry about what others think of their appearance. Often, though, their underlying lack of confidence in their smile shows up loud and clear in behaviors that have become so internalized they don’t even think about them anymore. Hesitance to laugh out loud or smile at strangers. Reluctance to meet new people or smile fully when they’re being introduced for the first time. Hating to have their picture taken and resisting being in social media posts.
If any of this sounds uncomfortably familiar, know that any of these reasons are enough to consider having your teeth straightened with braces or clear aligners—after all, everybody deserves to be confident and comfortable with their smile! But beyond the psychological effects and potential social isolation of having crooked teeth, there are significant physical issues that can arise from having misaligned teeth. Correcting the problem can avoid serious consequences that you may not realize can be affected by your teeth.
Physical Problems That Can Be Caused by Crooked Teeth
Some of the physical complications from having crooked teeth may seem obvious, while others are less so. These include problems with:
Eating and chewing: When teeth are crooked, jaw alignment can be affected and/or teeth may rub together uncomfortably when you’re trying to eat. Another common issue is that the teeth don’t connect (as in an open bite), making it impossible to shear some foods or bite through a sandwich. If these issues cause you to avoid healthier foods that are harder to bite and chew, this can affect nutrition and overall health.
Maintaining good oral hygiene: Brushing and flossing effectively is more difficult when teeth are crooked, overlapping, or too close together. Misalignments create tight spaces and unusual gaps where food particles, bacteria, and plaque can build up, increasing the risk of gum disease, cavities, and oral infections.
Bad breath: Bacteria that cause gum disease and tooth decay also cause bad breath. Reducing the bacteria and eliminating the source of bad breath is much more difficult with crooked teeth.
Heart disease: Oral bacteria are also associated with an increased risk of heart disease. When those bacteria enter the bloodstream, it can cause inflammation and exacerbate atherosclerosis, potentially leading to blocked arteries and heart attacks.
Clear speech: Gaps, an overbite, or overcrowded teeth can make it difficult to clearly pronounce certain letters and sounds. Lisping, poor articulation, or whistling noises can impact the ability to communicate professionally and prove challenging in both workplace and social situations.
Sleep apnea: Overcrowded teeth and misaligned jaws can make it harder to breathe properly when you sleep. This leads to sleep apnea, in which you stop and then restart breathing repeatedly throughout the night. The most obvious result is daytime fatigue, but sleep apnea can also cause a heightened risk of heart problems and high blood pressure.
Headaches: Frequent, unexplained headaches can be a symptom of a misaligned bite that puts constant pressure on jaw and facial muscles. The strain on the head and neck causes tension headaches that can be relieved when the bite is corrected.
TMJ dysfunction: Temporomandibular jaw dysfunction affects the joints of the jaw as well as the surrounding muscles and ligaments. It causes pain in the jaw, neck, face, ear, and shoulders, and is very often related to a misaligned bite.
State-of-the-Art Solutions for Beautiful, Healthy Smiles
At B Orthodontics, we believe that it is never too late to have the healthy bite and beautiful smile you deserve. We offer a range of treatment options, including braces (traditional or clear), lingual braces, and clear aligners, that give our patients choices in selecting what works best for their lifestyle and treatment goals.
Whether you’re already experiencing issues like discomfort when you eat from misaligned teeth, or you’re simply tired of hiding out from group photos when the photographer prompts “Everybody say cheese!”, we’re here to help you put the negative effects of having crooked teeth in the past. That way, one day you won’t think twice about sharing a joyful moment with your friends on social media. To schedule your consultation, contact us here today.
