The thing about teeth is that not very many of us are born with a beautiful set of pearly whites that line up side by side to produce a lovely broad grin. Quite a few of us have teeth that are crowded, or protruding, or overlapping.
And the thing with teeth like that is they make wonderful hidey holes for the bacteria that form plaque. These bacteria live in our mouths and love nothing more than to hide away in the crevices and crannies created by wonky teeth, from where they are incredibly difficult to remove with brushing.
Left to their own devices, these bacteria multiply and the sticky plaque hardens into tartar, and gives off acid that erodes our tooth enamel to cause decay, and irritate our gums to cause gum disease. Both decay and gum disease can lead to losing our teeth.
Let’s get things straight
Long story short, wonky teeth don’t last as long as straight teeth. And in an age when it’s perfectly possible to hang on to your own teeth until you die, one way to ensure you go to your grave with your own set of pearly whites is to get them straightened with orthodontics. Orthodontics is the branch of dentistry concerned with aligning the teeth and jaws so that they fit together well and the pressure from chewing is even distributed.
When the pressure is uneven, the teeth that take the brunt of the chewing forces, which can be around 97kg or 200lbs in the average male, tend to wear out faster, and can crumble. An uneven bite can also cause jaw problems, headaches and neckaches.
Orthodontics deals with these issues as well as more moderate tooth realignment issues.
The heavy-duty realignment can often be done on the NHS for children, while the jaw is still growing and therefore malleable.
But even though this becomes impossible after the age of 18, when the bones set, moving the teeth is possible no matter how old you are.
Mild realignments often take less time and can be done with smaller, more discreet, even almost invisible braces. Come in and see what we can do to help you keep your teeth for life.