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A MALOCCLUSION OCCURS when the upper and lower teeth don’t fit together properly, which can lead to a variety of problems. These bad bites can impact our speech, our digestion (by making it difficult to chew our food), contribute to TMJ syndrome, and even put our teeth in danger of breaking.

Causes Of Malocclusions

Malocclusions are often genetic. You might inherit different sized jaws that don’t fit together easily, or you might inherit teeth that are the wrong size for your jaws. Malocclusions can also be caused by injuries or bad oral habits during developmental years. These include thumb-sucking, tongue-thrusting, lip-sucking, mouth-breathing, nail-biting, and teeth-clenching.

Parents can help their children have healthier bites as they grow up by discouraging these habits. If the malocclusion is the result of one of the above mentioned bad habits, breaking that habit will be a crucial part of ensuring the malocclusion doesn’t return (but don’t worry; we can help with that).

Common Malocclusion Types

In a correct bite, the upper front teeth come slightly over the lower front teeth, and the points of each molar fit in the grooves of their counterparts in the upper or lower jaw. There are quite a few ways a person’s teeth can veer away from this healthy ideal, but we’ll just cover five of them here.

• Excessive overbite: the upper teeth overlap or overjet the lower teeth far more than in a healthy bite
• Underbite: the lower teeth overlap or partially cover the upper teeth
• Crossbite: some of the upper teeth bite down on the inside of the lower teeth
• Deep bite: an overbite so severe that the upper front teeth completely overlap the lower front teeth, sometimes driving the lower teeth into the gums behind the upper teeth when biting down
• Open bite: the front upper and lower teeth do not make any contact with each other when biting down

Orthodontics And Bite Correction

These and other types of malocclusions can be corrected with orthodontics. That sentence might conjure up mental images of bulky headgear or extensive oral surgery, but don’t worry. While surgery and headgear may still be necessary in severe cases, bite correction is typically much more low profile and hassle-free today than it was in decades past. And, of course, the result of orthodontic treatment is a healthy and beautiful aligned smile!

Let’s Take A Look At Those Teeth!

Schedule a consultation with us today so that we can make sure everything looks good with your bite and make a plan to correct any alignment problems. We look forward to giving you the healthy bite you deserve!

Thank you for being part of our practice family!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

IF BABY TEETH almost always grow in straight, then why are adult teeth so often crooked? What is it, if not just bad luck? There are competing theories, but adult teeth can come in crooked for a variety of reasons, from genetics to diet to daily habits.

Shifts In Society’s Diet...And Its Teeth?

One popular theory that comes from archeological studies is the Soft Foods Theory. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate much tougher foods than we do now, and this promoted more bone growth in the jaws and better-aligned teeth as a result. The theory suggests two possible reasons why modern people more often have crooked teeth:

1. Modern food is processed and soft, so it doesn’t stimulate as much jaw bone growth.
2. Modern food lacks many of the vitamins and minerals a hunter/gatherer diet would have been rich in, so the teeth and jaws can’t develop as much.

Braces Run In The Family

Even if you managed to eat tough foods for long enough to grow the jaw bones of a hunter/gatherer, you still wouldn’t be able to control what genes you inherited from your parents. If your parents didn’t need braces but you got Mom’s small jaw and Dad’s large teeth, you’ll end up with a crowding problem. Many children whose parents needed braces will also need braces.

Daily Habits Can Shift Your Teeth

While we have no say in our genes and would probably have a difficult time successfully sticking to a hunter/gatherer diet, the one cause of crooked teeth we might be able to control is our everyday habits. Something as simple as resting your chin on your hands can cause your teeth to shift over time, but these are the main offenders:

Thumb-sucking, when it continues past toddlerhood, can cause the upper teeth to flare out and shift the lower teeth inward, creating a badly misaligned bite, changing the shape of the jaw, and even affecting speech. If you’re looking for ways to discourage your child’s thumb-sucking habit, check out this resource.

Mouth-breathing, particularly during developmental years, can lead to dental crowding over time. Normally, when the mouth is closed, the tongue exerts pressure against the sides of the jaw, helping it develop in a healthy, wide shape. If the mouth is always open for breathing, this pressure isn’t there, and the jaw narrows, crowding the teeth.

Tongue-thrusting is the name of an incorrect or immature way of swallowing in which the tongue presses against the front teeth instead of the roof of the mouth. Babies naturally start out with this reflex, but it doesn’t always go away when it should, leading to dental alignment problems. This can be a difficult reflex to unlearn as a teen or adult, but there are special orthodontic appliances designed to encourage better swallowing habits.

Whatever The Cause, We’re The Solution!

Whether teeth teeth are crooked due to genetics, a modern diet, or these kinds of unhealthy habits during childhood, the solution is the same: orthodontic treatment. If you haven’t already, schedule a consultation with us so that we can make a plan for getting you the perfectly aligned smile you deserve!

Thank you for trusting us with your teeth! We love helping you look your best!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

SOMETIMES, HAVING BRACES can make things feel a bit crowded in your mouth, but every piece of orthodontic hardware serves an important purpose in getting you the straight, healthy smile you deserve! Let’s take a look at some of the most common ones.

The Main Attraction: Braces

Before adding any additional appliances, braces themselves have a few different components. There are the brackets cemented to your teeth, the archwire that goes across all the brackets to move your teeth into alignment, and the ligatures or elastics that hold the wires in place (those are the ones you get to color-customize). Some brackets will have hooks that rubber bands can attach to. Metal bands around the molars and bucchal tubes attached to the molar brackets act as anchors for the archwires.

After braces come retainers, which can be either metal or plastic, and may even be permanently attached to the teeth. Retainers keep your teeth in place so that your periodontal ligaments don’t pull them back to their original positions.

Common Orthodontic Accessories

Sometimes, we need one or two other appliances in addition to the braces themselves in order to have the correct bite and palate shape as well as straight teeth, and sometimes we need these appliances to get our teeth ready for braces in the first place.

In order to put braces on, you might need spacers between your back teeth for a while. Spacers are small elastic rings that move your molars apart just enough to fit bands onto them to anchor your braces. This process can take from 3-10 days.

Palatal Expanders correct narrow palates by bracing against the teeth and the roof of the mouth and exerting gradual pressure outwards to encourage the palate to widen to the proper shape. These are important appliances for correcting crossbites and crowding. Palatal expanders often go in before braces to make room for the teeth to go where they’re supposed to go.

A holding arch may be used when a child loses baby teeth too early. It holds the permanent front teeth and molars in place so they don’t shift and crowd the teeth that haven’t had a chance to grow in yet. A holding arch for the upper jaw is sometimes called the “Nance button,” and lower jaw holding arches are called “lower lingual holding arches.”

Bite plates are acrylic, retainer-like appliances that correct “deep” bites. A deep bite occurs when the upper teeth overlap the lower teeth so much that the lower incisors touch the gum tissue behind the upper incisors, leading to many complications. A bite plate creates a barrier between the lower incisors and the upper gum tissue and helps shift the teeth to decrease the overlap.

Let’s Get Those Teeth Moving!

Knowing the function of each part of your orthodontic appliance is an important component of effective treatment. The more you understand how everything works, the smoother things will go and the better your final result will be. So if you have any questions about how your braces work and what the different parts are for, don’t hesitate to ask!

You’re on your way to the smile of your dreams!

Top image by Flickr user Gordon used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

IS A KISS RISKY WITH BRACES? You’ll have to answer that question on your own! Once in a while we’ll hear a story about braces getting stuck when two people with braces were smooching. But there’s a more-often-talked-about concern about kissing that our practice would like to briefly address below.

Bacteria Can Lead To Increased Plaque Which Can Lead To Tooth Decay

We know it’s not pleasant to think about, but it’s true — your mouth is full of bacteria. Some of it is good and some of it isn’t. For the most part, your body (and your mouth, specifically) does a pretty good job of keeping bacteria, germs, and viruses that make their way into your mouth in check. But increased bacteria can also lead to increased plaque. Maintaining great oral hygiene habits is the very best way you can help your mouth do its job.

Kissing (with or without braces) Introduces Your Mouth To Someone Else’s Bacteria And Viruses

Now there’s no need to make this a huge cause for worry. Our team just wants to be sure that you know about the most common viruses and diseases that you could be sharing with a smooch:

• Cold Sores. Cold sores are a manifestation of a herpes virus. Even when there are no signs, it can be contagious.
• Colds And Flus. Lots of viruses are included under the blanket “common cold” term. Colds happen, but you can decrease the spread by avoiding kissing while you’re sick.
• Mononucleosis. Also known as mono, glandular fever, or the kissing disease, this is caused by a viral infection that is easily spread by saliva and can knock you out for weeks.

Yes, There Are Lots Of Kissing Positives Too

We’re not condemning kissing! Think about the benefits! Kissing increases saliva flow, which is great for your teeth and overall oral health. And of course, an affectionate peck can make you happier and strengthen relationships, which leads to better overall health and wellbeing. So don’t put the brakes on a great relationship just because you’re worried about germs! Just be smart, make sure that you maintain great oral hygiene, and that you always know who’s on the other end of that kiss.

Any Questions About All This?

We love answering your questions about ANY orthodontic or oral-health related matter. It gives us a chance to know you better.  Give us a call, leave a comment below, or send us a direct message on our Facebook page. We’re always happy to discuss things with you!

Give us a call at Gorczyca Orthodontics in Antioch, California (925) 757-9000.

Thanks again for the trust you place in us! We value your friendship!