Orthodontics
They say the eyes are the window to the soul.
If this is so, then the smile is the doorway, and every time you smile, the doorway is wide open. An orthodontist might look at smiles, see crooked teeth, and say that yes, there is crowding, and braces are needed, there is not enough room for all of the teeth.
An oral surgeon might say that crowding means the wisdom teeth will not fit in , and there will be a need for surgery. A sleep physician might say that since the mouth is small, there may be a chance of sleep apnea. An ear nose and throat surgeon may look in the mouth and see large tonsils, which they may or may not want to remove.
Who is right?
Actually all of them are right, from their own limited point of view. The smile has an enormous amount of information about a person. It tells us whether or not that person has managed to grow to their full potential. These days we do a lot to make sure that we, and our children are able to reach our full potential. We diet, we exercise, we try to eat healthy food, we send our kids to the best schools, and have them tutored at home, and run them to sport and music/ dancing/ judo lessons in every moment of our spare time..Sometimes we are missing the most important ingredient.
We all want a nice smile.
But how often do I have to listen to people say to me that yes, I know that they or their child has terrible teeth. Apparently it’s all because we have our fathers or mothers or grandparents’ teeth. You know that can’t be right, because most of the time, the parents and grandparents are still using them! We have been brainwashed into believing that we inherit big teeth and little mouths, and that’s the end of the story. I have measured thousands of front teeth. They are all within millimeters of the same size. Yes the mouths are different sizes, but there area reasons for that. And those reasons need to be addressed if orthodontics are going to be successful at any age. The teeth are the meat in the sandwich. They erupt into the neutral zone between the lips and tongue. Muscle always wins, and the teeth and mouth adapt. So if the tongue, lips and teeth are all in harmony when we are young, we will have a beautiful smile. And if they are not, the teeth will be crowded, and our smiles may be less than pleasing.
More important than that, out smiles will not be healthy.
The significance of having well developed dental arches and straight teeth with a wide smile goes far deeper than looking nice. We unconsciously associate a nice smile with health, and we are right! A big smile means that we breathe through our nose. There is enough room in our mouths for our tongues to fit without cramping, and so we can swallow things properly. A big smile means that we are less likely to snore, (expansion has been used by experts to treat sleep apnea). This means that we sleep better. That is important for us to do our work properly, and to stay in a happy mood throughout the day. For a child, it is even more critical.
A tired child does not concentrate, does not behave well, does not sleep well, may wet the bed, or have night terrors, or grind their teeth, and have ear infections, and cannot learn properly. Sometimes this is bad enough to call ADHD.
We will use this blog site to discuss the effect that orthodontics can have on a smile and on health, if the orthodontics is done in a way that makes yours or a child’s mouth the shape and size that it was meant to be, rather than just making the teeth fit to a size that reflects a lack of health. We will discuss orthodontics and health issues, such as sleep apnea, learning, temporomandibular disorders, and of course, beautiful smiles. We will discuss the need or otherwise for orthognathic surgery, and extractions.
And of course we will discuss making beautiful smiles.
If there are issues that you would like to discuss, please contact us.
