6 Important Health Benefits of Straight Teeth

Straight teeth will give you a beautiful smile, and that’s fantastic. But did you know that having misaligned teeth can affect your health? Having your teeth straightened isn’t just about a gorgeous smile — it’s also about a HEALTHY smile.

Here at Love Orthodontics, we have many options to help create your beautiful, healthy smile. And Dr. Grewal (Dr. G) is a specialist, having treated over 7,000 patients since the beginning of his orthodontic career. And he’s undergone hundreds of hours of additional training to ensure we can offer every available option for braces as well as Invisalign.

But before we go into how we can help you achieve a straight, beautiful, healthy smile, let’s discuss why that’s so important to your health.

The Problem with Misaligned Teeth

The main reasons we straighten teeth are to correct a misaligned bite or handle spacing issues. Also called malocclusions, these misalignments can cause quite a few health problems. The most common malocclusions are:

Overbite: Your top teeth sit in front of your bottom teeth. The more severe the overbite, the more likely you’ll have issues, such as teeth and gum damage and painful jaw problems.

Underbite: This is the opposite of an overbite, where your bottom teeth overlap your top teeth. Untreated underbites can cause eating speech issues, tooth wear, and jaw and joint issues.

Excessive Spacing: You can have extra space between your teeth because of missing teeth, proportionally smaller teeth, or abnormal jawbone growth. Spaces between teeth pose a greater risk for gum disease.

Crossbite: This happens when your top and bottom teeth are misaligned, and one or more of the upper teeth bite down on the inside of the lower teeth. A crossbite can cause excessive wear, bone loss, and gum disease.

Crowding: Here, your teeth are too close together because you don’t have enough room on your jaw. The teeth can overlap and push each other out of alignment, causing particles to get stuck. This can lead to plaque, cavities, and gingivitis.

Open Bite: You have an open space at the front or sides of your teeth, with a visible gap when you close the teeth together. Open bites can cause difficulty chewing and speaking and can lead to TMJ issues.