5 Health Benefits of Straighter Teeth

Dental health is often about routine: Many conditions, like cavities (dental caries), gum disease (periodontitis), bad breath (halitosis), and tooth loss can be prevented by a regular brushing, flossing, and rinsing regimen. Yet, basic dental hygiene does not fix crooked teeth. To make matters worse, one in every two people across the globe has crooked teeth (also known as malocclusion) and they often don’t get help unless it’s bad enough to directly affect eating and speaking. 

However, regardless of the severity, straightening teeth provides many benefits. That’s why Dr. Alecia Hardy and our skilled medical team at Frisco Dental Implant Center in Frisco, Texas want you to understand the types of crooked teeth, what causes them, and the reasons for getting them straightened.

Types of crooked teeth

Several types of malocclusions cause misalignments in teeth, including:

• Overjet bite: when your upper teeth protrude over your lower teeth at an angle
• Deep bite: when the upper teeth cover too much of the lower teeth
• Overbite: the upper teeth protrude over the lower without the angle, often confused with an overjet bite
• Underbite: when the arch of the upper and lower teeth fit inside each other, creating an overlap from the lower teeth
• Open bite: there is supposed to be some overlap of the front teeth over the bottom, but with this bite that doesn’t happen, leading to an open space
• Crossbite: when one or more upper teeth are misaligned with the bottom teeth
• Crowded bite: lack of space on the upper or lower jaw, leading to teeth crowding each other and getting misaligned

There are three classes of crooked teeth. Class one is the most common with only a mild overlap of top teeth over the bottom. Class two is the more severe overbite, and class three is the underbite where the bottom jaw juts forward. While most deal with class one, it can still create problems for teeth.

Causes of crooked teeth

Numerous factors can lead to crooked teeth, such as prolonged bottle feeding or pacifier use when you’re very young, thumb sucking, injuries, tumors in the jaw, cleft lip and palate, impacted or atypically shaped teeth, and improperly fitted dental appliances. It is often an inherited condition, and can create teeth misalignment, changes in how your face looks, discomfort when chewing or eating, altered speech, mouth breathing, and frequently biting your inner cheek.

Reasons to get your teeth straightened

Here are some reasons to get your teeth straightened, regardless of the severity:

1. Improving your facial appearance

Bad enough malocclusions can lead to structural problems with your teeth and jaw, causing your face to be shaped differently as a result. Treating these issues can result in a better-shaped jaw and better-looking teeth.

2. Improving dental health

Having crooked teeth can make several dental problems easier to get and harder to get rid of because you can’t clean them properly. This is true whether the malocclusion is mild or severe. Straightening them will make caring for them easier.

3. Improving basic functions

If the problems affect how well you eat, breathe, or speak, you should get them straightened. These are all basic things affected by our teeth and so important to our social and physical health.

4. Reducing dental injury

If your teeth protrude or are otherwise crooked, it is going to be easier for them to be damaged if you hurt your face in a fall or some other kind of accident. Straightening them can keep teeth strong.

5. Becoming more confident

Having straighter teeth looks better, and makes you feel better about smiling and talking with people. You feel less self-conscious and more willing to enjoy the moment.

If you have crooked teeth, getting them straightened is as important as regular dental care. If you need options for straightening teeth, make an appointment with Dr. Hardy at Frisco Dental Implant Center today.