Crooked teeth and healthy teeth

Did you know that straight teeth are healthy teeth?

This is Elaine, a 59 year old grandmother. She really didn’t like the way her lower front teeth looked, and felt that they were getting worse.

Not only do teeth like this cause embarrassment to some people, but the fact that they are crooked can also mean they may be difficult to clean - if teeth are difficult to clean this can lead to plaque build up which then can lead on to disease.

So straightening out Elaine's teeth helped her feel better about her appearance, as well as be dentally healthy.

I made her an Inman aligner which she wore for 4 months. The Inman Aligner is a removable device that uses modern technology to move your teeth with a unique sprig system. You can see what a dramatic transformation occurred. She loves her new smile, and was so pleased to have it done so quickly and without any drilling. Typical treatment time is around 12-16 weeks with an Inman Aligner, which is very fast compared to conventional orthodontics.

A great result don't you think?

If you too have crooked teeth and would like to have a chat about your options, then please give me a call on 01923 231861 to request an initial assessment.

When to start Orthodontics?

Orthodontics is the branch of dentistry concerned with straightening crooked teeth with braces.

Most people want their children to grow up with healthy, straight teeth. Some youngsters are just naturally blessed with straight teeth, but many need the help of a skilled orthodontist in order to fulfil their full dental potential. However, orthodontics is not just confined to children and many adults are now getting their smiles straightened out.

Children’s adult teeth normally come through between the ages of 6 and 13 as the baby teeth are shed. Some children have all their adult teeth earlier than this and some are a bit later. Girls tend to be a bit ahead of boys.

Orthodontics are usually provided after the baby teeth have all been lost. So commonly the early teenage years are when children get their braces.

There are some circumstances when children need braces at an earlier age than this. Also, some children need two courses of orthodontics; one at a young age to correct some specific development problems, and then again at the usual time.

Some children who need orthodontics never go on to get braces because their oral hygiene (how well they clean their teeth) is never good enough, their decay rate ( how many new cavities they develop) is too high or they have a bad habit such as thumb-sucking.

In these cases, braces may either not work or do more harm than good so, unless they can improve their bad habits, orthodontics will always be a no-no.

Ugly Ducklings and anxiety about your children's teeth

Many parents get anxious about their children’s teeth.

One of the most common concerns I see is nothing to do with any toothache issue, but is to do with front teeth starting to come through.

What ideally happens at about the age of 6 is that the front baby teeth, one by one, become loose, fall out and are replaced with new adult teeth.

However, in real life this process isn’t always quite so smooth.

Sometimes the adult teeth come through before the baby teeth have been shed. When this happens, they usually come through on the inside of the baby teeth and so little Johnnie seems to have too many teeth and they look wrong.

Sometimes the adult teeth take ages to come through and so little Sophie has missing teeth at the front for quite some time.

And sometimes, the baby teeth are very late in being lost and so the child is the only one in the class who still has baby teeth.

When they do finally arrive, they usually come through as crooked teeth. The reason for this is that they are full sized teeth, trying to fit into a child-sized mouth. The good news is that this usually corrects itself as the child’s mouth grows and things get better without any kind of intervention.

So don’t panic when your child who always had beautiful little baby teeth suddenly looks like Dracula. In dental terms, we call this the “Ugly Duckling” stage, and they usually end up as beautiful swans.