Regular teeth brushing and flossing sometimes aren’t enough to ensure good oral health. Smiles of crooked teeth, plagued by malocclusion, can make it significantly harder to protect teeth from damage, cavities, and ineffective cleaning. How else can unbalanced smiles lead to poor oral health?
What Is an Unbalanced Smile?
An unbalanced smile is one where a person’s teeth are crooked, tipped, or rotated. Visually, these characteristics can make a person’s smile look jagged or uneven.
When you think of an ideal smile, you imagine one where the teeth are in alignment. Balanced smiles are made up of teeth that are straight and don’t overlap. They photograph well and give their wearer confidence as opposed to an unbalanced smile which can leave people uncomfortable exposing their teeth when they smile.
Effects of an Unbalanced Smile
Say the physical aesthetic of an unbalanced smile has no hold on your impression of a smile’s beauty, what effects may it have on a person’s health? Unbalanced smiles, those affected by malocclusion, can lead to:
- Teeth that are harder to clean
- Mouth breathing
- Oral irritation
- Damage to teeth
Harder to Clean
Teeth that overlap, and sit crooked in a person’s mouth, can be harder to clean. Because some teeth lay in front of other tooth surfaces, it can make reaching those surfaces nearly impossible to reach with a toothbrush. Depending on the level of malocclusion, teeth can also be harder to floss given the angle needed to bring floss between the affected teeth.
Due to the increased difficulty of keeping these teeth clean, over time they can become increasingly susceptible to decay as cavity-causing plaque builds up.
Mouth Breathing
Malocclusion can lead to, and is often caused by jaw misalignment. When a person’s jaw joints are out of alignment, it can cause their airway to become obstructed. The airway can be obstructed either by the structural changes caused by the repositioning of the jaw, or by the tongue not having ample resting space in the mouth due to malocclusion.
Oral Irritation
Jagged teeth don’t line up evenly. When they are some combination of tipped, twisted, or overlapping, their position can cause them to rub up against different parts of the mouth and cause abnormal irritation such as the tongue, cheeks, or gums.
Damage to Teeth
An unbalanced smile can also lead to damaged teeth. Because the teeth don’t naturally line up evenly, they can grind up against one another eroding their or their neighboring tooth’s enamel. Additionally, malocclusion is also often caused by temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) can cause bruxism (teeth grinding).
Next Steps
For more information on the potential side effects of an unbalanced smile, TMJ disorder, jaw underdevelopment, and [link id=’115′ text=’treatment options‘ esc_html=’false’], schedule an appointment with Dr. Pamela Marzban by calling our offices at 703-349-4277.
