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Show off your teeth
DR. N.R. KRISHNAWAMY
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A problem with teeth could affect general health too.
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Photo: S.Siva Saravanan
A confident smile: Teeth that work better tend to look better.
Nothing enhances one’s appearance and self-esteem like a beautiful smile. A bright confident smile is important to one’s success and to long-term health. One way of achieving it is through orthodontic correction. As the old saying goes, &
#8220;A million dollar smile is not worth its price unless it is fixed by an orthodontist.”
But fixing the smile is only one of the fringe benefits of orthodontic treatment. Straight teeth help one bite, chew and speak effectively. Straight teeth contribute to healthy teeth and gums. Properly aligned teeth and jaws may alleviate or prevent physical problems. Teeth that work better also tend to look better.
Protruding teeth in children are vulnerable to injury and invariably result in either fracture or loss of the tooth. Studies also show that such children suffer from a marked inferiority complex. In addition, treatment relieves the extra strain on the bone and gums when the teeth do not meet properly. If not attended to, strain may progress to gum disease and early loss of teeth. It also precludes digestive disturbances.
The cause of misplaced teeth (malocclusion) and malposed jaws could be due to the influence of either one’s genes or environmental factors. A child can inherit a small jaw from one parent and large teeth from another leading to crowding of the teeth due to inadequate space. Habits such as sucking fingers, breathing through the mouth and sleeping pattern can affect the development of the jaw, the cheeks and the chewing muscles and require early attention.
The American Association of Orthodontists recommends that children receive their first orthodontic examination as early as seven years especially for children who have an imbalanced facial profile, difficulty in chewing , pain or noise in the jaw joint and a speech problem or a digit-sucking habit that persists after four years.
An examination and detection of prospective problems at a young age allows treatment to begin early to take advantage of the primary growth; technically this is called “interceptive orthodontics”. Interceptive therapy allows orthodontics to correct tooth alignment problems before the child’s jaw is fully developed and hence produces stable results. Problems like tooth crowding, space between teeth and bite correction are best addressed after the eruption of permanent teeth.
Wearing braces has been a painful rite of passage for generations but today’s treatment modalities are considerably more comfortable: both physically and aesthetically. New technology has had a dramatic effect on orthodontic treatment. Latest advances range from “space age” wires used to realign teeth more efficiently to 3-D computer imaging that helps provide more precision in diagnosis to “clear” braces and removable retainers that address the patient’s vanity. Yet another option is lingual braces that are attached to the back of the teeth so that they are invisible.
Orthodontics in the new millennium is also capable of providing patients with a peek into the future, courtesy imaging software that shows patients how they will look after their teeth are straightened.
Whether one is 16 or 60, appearance and health of one’s teeth is an important aspect of one’s life and orthodontics helps provide long lasting dentition.
The writer is a Chennai-based orthodontist and the President of
the Indian Orthodonist Society.
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