Many people are afraid to open their mouths and smile because of irregular teeth, causing interpersonal communication barriers and inward retreat of personality, which is quite unfortunate. What’s more, orthodontics is not only about aligning teeth, but also about the shape of the face, such as bruxism and hyaline, which can be treated by orthodontics to make the appearance of the face more proportional and make the smile look more healthy and attractive.
What is Orthodontics
Orthodontics is the straightening and aligning of teeth.
Not only children can have orthodontic treatment, but also adults, and data from 1999 shows that the number of adults requesting orthodontic treatment has increased from 17% to 24% compared to 1979.
The timing of orthodontic treatment
Overall, the best time for general orthodontic treatment is around 12-15 years old for boys and 11-14 years old for girls, as this is the age when the jaws are growing and developing to get better results. As we get older, the treatment period may be longer and the results may be slightly less effective.
Common types of dental irregularities
1, crowded teeth, canine protrusion (tiger teeth): the dental arch and the size of the teeth can not match, not enough space resulting in overlapping teeth crowded state, the lower jaw is the second small molar eruption of the latest and crowded to the lingual side.
2, interdental gap: the dental arch and the size of the teeth can not match, when the teeth are too small dental arch is too large, it will cause the alignment of rare gaps in the teeth.
3.Bulge: can be divided into dental and skeletal bulge, most of them can be treated with traditional orthodontic treatment, serious bulge patients will have to cooperate with oral surgery to the ideal appearance and bite function.
4, open bite: the maxillary front teeth and mandibular front teeth should be closed, vertical coverage is normally 2mm, if the upper and lower front teeth can not bite on the open bite, will lead to the upper and lower incisors can not cut bite food, talk leaky spray, mouth can not be closed.
5, anti-clinically: also known as anti-clinically, that is, the front teeth of the lower jaw bite to the outside of the front teeth of the upper jaw, that is, commonly known as the ground, in addition to aesthetic problems, will cause chewing, pronunciation and other dysfunctions, the appearance of the moon face, if it is a bony jaw abnormalities caused by the anti-clinically, often need to be combined with orthognathic surgery to treat.
6, teeth tilt: long-term tooth loss resulting in adjacent teeth tilt or the other side of the bite long, resulting in difficulties in the production of dentures, it is necessary to correct the tilt teeth, so that the root has a good parallelism to facilitate the reconstruction of dentures.
7, facial jaw abnormalities: jaw development is not right again caused by facial skew, often need to be combined with orthodontic and orthognathic surgery, the jaw bone relationship to the normal position, before the teeth are aligned on the correct jaw, to restore beauty and function.
Causes of malocclusion (malocclusion)
It can be divided into congenital (genetic) and acquired (environmental):
1, genetic factors: is an important factor in the cause of malocclusion, but so far we still do not fully understand, generally speaking, the maxillary protrusion or mandibular protrusion more inclined to genetic factors, such as the mother is the maxillary protrusion (similar to the burst teeth) of the child is likely to be, and
2, environmental factors: environmental causes can also be divided into congenital and acquired two.
(1) congenital factors:
For example, the mother’s malnutrition during pregnancy, infectious diseases, syphilis, trauma, or fetal metabolism and nutritional metabolism disorders, can cause jaw deformity, (1) congenital factors.
(2) Acquired factors:
Systemic causes including endocrine disorders, allergic reactions, nutritional disorders, infectious diseases, and interstitial diseases of nerve fibers can lead to malocclusion.
Local causes
Trauma: If a tooth is lost in an accident, the other teeth may be tilted towards the missing space.
Malnutrition Poor nutrition can affect the development of jaws and teeth
Bad oral habits
A thumb-sucking and finger-sucking habits can lead to maxillary protrusion, open bite or mandibular protrusion.
B Tongue piercing syndrome, will cause open bite and maxillary incisor protrusion, and
C lip biting, which can cause maxillary teeth to protrude labially
D nail biting will cause maxillary protrusion and protrusion of maxillary teeth.
In addition, abnormal sequence of eruption, nasopharyngeal diseases, respiratory dysfunction, ear diseases, poor denture making, tooth decay, periodontal disease, some abnormal oral habits, abnormal position and distribution of teeth, as well as improper muscle activity, abnormal development of the labial and buccal ties, tumors, etc., can cause malocclusion.
The effect of abnormal bite on the body
In addition to the psychological factors such as learning to pronounce words and lack of confidence in appearance, abnormal bite can also cause many physiological effects.
Impact on teeth, periodontium and the whole body
1, easy to cause tooth decay and periodontal disease: abnormal occlusion will cause physical and psychological impact in all aspects, first of all, easy to brush some dead ends are not thoroughly clean, and then the formation of tooth decay and gingivitis, in addition, saliva itself has a self-cleaning effect, the teeth are not neat people will be easy to reduce the amount of saliva caused by tooth decay and gingivitis, gingivitis.
Gingivitis is like the redness and swelling of the throat caused by the flu, but it occurs in the gum area, and if the situation continues to deteriorate, periodontal disease may be formed, and because of the irregularity of the teeth, it is easy to cause an imbalance in the sharing of chewing power among the teeth, which results in damage to the teeth.
2, easy to chew low efficiency affect the whole body: efficient chewing is the basis of all health, inefficient chewing is easy to cause the burden of the stomach; contained in the saliva digestive enzymes, but also due to the reduction in saliva secretion, and thus reduce the digestive capacity, in addition, the pleasure of eating is also greatly reduced due to inefficient chewing, sports players can improve their concentration and instant explosive power when the back teeth clenched, adult male back teeth The chewing power of adult male back teeth is about the same as his weight, about 50-70 kg.
3, easy to cause tooth fracture and mucosal damage: irregular teeth or tiger teeth outbreak, easy to cause injury due to teeth touching the flesh and mucosa, especially in the case of incisor outbreak, often caused by children fall down and the upper incisors break or even fall off.
4, the impact on the future dental treatment: If the teeth are left untouched without any treatment, if there are missing teeth due to extraction in the future, it is often one of the reasons for headaches and shoulder pain.
The effect of malocclusion on sports and psychology
The oral cavity is the first line of the digestive organs, and a good bite is the basis for efficient chewing, otherwise it is difficult to swallow it whole and not have problems with the stomach and intestines.
Bite and sports performance [may] have a relationship
Each tooth in the mouth, in the chewing movement are playing an important role, such as the longest root in the mouth canine teeth, in addition to tear, bite off food, but also serve the function of canine protection, the so-called canine protection is that we use one side of the molars to grind food, so that the teeth on the opposite side will not interfere with each other fighting function, so the chewing movement is not only controlled by neuromuscular, but also by the impact of the relationship between the teeth bite Many athletes (such as sprinter Ben Johnson) have undergone orthodontic treatment to improve their performance on the sports field, and in high precision sports such as tennis and golf, almost every player in these sports has a good bite. Therefore, we can say that there may be a relationship between a good bite and athletic performance.
The relationship between modern malocclusion and facial shape in children
The occurrence of malocclusion is inextricably linked to the development of the child’s face. A simple misalignment of teeth or malocclusion will not have much effect on the face shape as long as the development of the upper and lower jaws is normal: however, if malocclusion is combined with abnormal development of the upper and lower jaws, the face shape will be uncoordinated and even have aesthetic defects.
Three types of dental malocclusion that affect the development of facial shape
The causes of malocclusion with abnormal development of the upper and lower jaws are the following three types of malocclusion.
1, the first type: the upper and lower jaws protrude or the alveolar bone protrusion caused by malocclusion. The upper and lower lips of such patients appear prominent, there will be difficulties in closing the lips, or when the lips are closed, the phenomenon of muscle tightness around the lips; open mouth smile, there will be too many teeth and gums exposed.
2, the second type: the upper jaw development is too long or the lower jaw development is too short misalignment bite. Clinically, this type of malocclusion has excessive bite distance or vertical deep bite symptoms before the teeth. In severe cases, there will be difficulty in closing the lips and excessive exposure of the upper row of front teeth.
3. The third category: malocclusion with underdeveloped upper jaw or overdeveloped lower jaw. This type of malocclusion has an inverted bite before the teeth, i.e. the upper row of front teeth bite behind the lower row of front teeth. The result is a receding upper jaw or a face with a protruding lower jaw (crescent face), commonly referred to as a geodesic.
Orthodontics and Facial Appearance
Can orthodontics change the appearance of the face without even having to undergo plastic surgery? The answer is yes.
Facial Aesthetics
According to numerous clinical cases in China and abroad, orthodontic treatment can indeed improve facial appearance. According to the study of facial aesthetics, the beauty of the face is made up of four major components: facial contour, eyebrows, eyes, nose and cheeks, mouth and chin.
The facial contour is the basis of the skeletal structure of the face, which can be further subdivided into long, medium, short, wide and narrow face shapes. According to the survey, the most popular face shape among the new generation is the medium-length and narrow face shape, which is in line with the view of health, slimming and anti-aging. Therefore, we often have beautiful thoughts about the opposite sex with a good side or oblique face, even if we haven’t seen the whole picture. As for the eyebrow-eye area and the lip area, they are the most complex and expressive parts of the face, with a wide variety of emotions, such as happiness, anger, sadness, and joy.
The beauty magic of orthodontics
The general orthodontic treatment can change the shape and position of the mouth and lips by extracting teeth and widening the arch, which in turn affects the relative relationship between the forehead, the tip of the nose, the upper and lower lips and the chin in the facial appearance, making the appearance beautiful. In addition, there is also a more delicate treatment method, which is a dual approach of orthodontics and orthognathic surgery, which can quickly and effectively change the shape and position of the nose and cheeks, mouth and lips, and chin, and adjust the length and relative relationship of the facial jaws, so that the length and proportion of the face is smooth.
On the whole, the general orthodontic treatment is arranged during the puberty period of 12-15 years old for boys and 11-14 years old for girls, and the results can be better. As age increases, the treatment period becomes longer and less effective. As for orthognathic surgery, it is necessary to wait until the age of 20 for males. For females, treatment is appropriate only at the age of 18, when growth and development have completely stopped.
Advantages of Orthodontic Treatment
Advantages of Orthodontic Treatment
The main purpose of orthodontic treatment is not only to improve the appearance, but also to correct uneven and decay-prone teeth, so that oral hygiene can be maintained and healthy. At the same time, properly aligned teeth with a correct bite also help to promote digestion!
It is important to know that bent, unaligned teeth are prone to food embedding and difficult to clean, and the “bite misalignment” caused by it will make the gum and bone area under excessive pressure, causing the so-called “alveolar abscess” gum disease, and even This can lead to loosening and loss of teeth.
If your child can have a straight, beautiful mouth again after orthodontic treatment. I believe it is a great joy for parents if their child can have straight, beautiful and healthy teeth again, and no longer feel shy and inferior because of the defective teeth.
How are teeth straightened?
Orthodontics is a process of applying force to certain areas, and over time, the teeth will gradually move to their normal position, the bands, wires and rubber bands placed on the teeth will help the teeth move in the normal direction, orthodontics is a slow process that takes a long time, and the teeth will be straightened.
How long is the period of orthodontic treatment?
Depending on the degree of malocclusion and age, it varies from one to two years, and may take longer for particularly difficult cases.