Malocclusion: How can a Las Vegas Orthodontist Help?
Las Vegas orthodontists are your right choice if you’re looking to have beautiful teeth. Straight teeth doesn’t just work for aesthetics, it helps prevent different oral diseases too – like malocclusion. Malocclusion: How can a Las Vegas Orthodontist Help?
The condition of malocclusion is marked by mismatched teeth and jaw which makes the patient have a ‘bad bite’. It can even lead to protruding, crooked, or crowded teeth. This may later lead to gum problems (such as periodontal disease) severe headaches, and sleep disorders.
Causes: malocclusion may be present at birth and can manifest into various symptoms and side-effects as the patient grows older. These manifestations include spaces between teeth, irregular jaw or mouth size, and cleft palates. In a lot of cases, malocclusion can be acquired through habits such as thumb sucking or tongue thrusting. Other causes include medical conditions like enlarged tonsils and adenoids that lead to mouth breathing. Sometimes, the condition is also cause by premature loss of teeth (due to diseases or accidents).
Effects: One of the main symptoms of malocclusion is pain from increased stress on the teeth or jaw. Other common symptoms include such defects as overbite, underbite, crossbite, overjet, and other kinds of ‘crooked teeth’.
Treatments: Patients suffering from various forms of malocclusion are usually referred to orthodontists who specialize in correcting these defects.
The most common practice of correction these days include the use of clear aligners (a type of removable orthodontic appliance) which will apply pressure on a patient’s teeth and push them into the right positions. Braces are also often used.
If teeth crowding is one of the issues, then some of them will need to be surgically removed. If a tooth (or teeth) was prematurely lost, then space maintainers would be used to maintain the gap and keep all other teeth in their place (allowing healthy growth of new teeth).
