The Good, The Bad & The Crossbite

If your teeth or jaw don’t line up well with each other, you may have crossbite. The Las Vegas dentists of Wagner Dental explain more about this condition, its effects and what you can do to treat it below.

A Good Bite

In a perfect world, your teeth would all be straight, and your upper jaw would rest nicely on top of and just a little in front of your bottom jaw. Of course, this frequently isn’t the case. Sometimes teeth are crooked or twisted and sometimes your top jaw rests awkwardly on your bottom jaw. How your teeth and jaw line up together is called your “bite.” When we talk about this alignment, the medical term is “occlusion.” If you have a problem with your bite or alignment, it’s called “malocclusion.” Crossbite is a condition of malocclusion.

A Bad Bite

It’s estimated that one in five people have some kind of malocclusion. Under the category of malocclusion, you can have:

  • Underbite – when your lower jaw protrudes far out in front of your upper jaw
  • Overbite – when your upper jaw protrudes far out in front of your lower jaw
  • Crossbite – when your teeth or arches are laterally misaligned (side to side rather than forward and back)

Each of these bite problems can interfere with your oral and overall health. Malocclusion can be caused by:

  • A mismatch in size of jaw and teeth
  • Sucking a thumb or pacifier too long
  • Baby teeth taking too long to fall out
  • Early loss of adult teeth

Effects of Crossbite

When your teeth don’t rest down properly on each other, it causes a ripple of many side effects. Effects of a bad bite include:

  • Tooth decay
  • Gum disease
  • Grinding down tooth enamel
  • Jaw pain or TMJ/TMD
  • Asymmetrical smile and facial features
  • Chronic headaches and migraines

All of these side effects can get worse over time and seriously threaten your health and daily quality of life. This is why it’s important to treat malocclusion as soon as possible.

Treating a Crossbite

The best time to correct your bite is in youth before the mouth is done growing, but you can and should seek treatment for a crossbite at any age. Treating a crossbite can take a long time because your mouth is a complicated system with many parts. Depending on your specific case and the severity of the crossbite, your Las Vegas dentists may recommend:

Only a professional dentist can diagnose and treat your crossbite. If your bite is bothering you for any reason at all, it’s always a good idea to check with your dentist.

You don’t need to live with pain or a smile you don’t love. To learn more, make an appointment at Wagner Dental today!

The content of this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Sources

http://www.colgate.com/en/us/oc/oral-health/cosmetic-dentistry/early-orthodontics/article/crossbite-effects-and-treatments-0516

 

 

 

The post The Good, The Bad & The Crossbite appeared first on Wagner Dental.



from Wagner Dental - https://wagnerdentist.com/the-good-the-bad-the-crossbite/
Wagner Dental
2045 Village Center Circle
Las Vegas, NV 89134
(702) 878-5599

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Help! My Child is Terrified of the Dentist

Image
If you’re the parent of a young child, you know their brains are similar to sponges that soak up everything around them—especially in their first five years, which neuroscientists say is when they’ll do the most learning and developing in their entire life. At this formative time, your child may amaze you with what they notice: your facial expressions, the different tones of your voice, and your habits. If your habits include regular dental visits and an excellent oral hygiene routine, they’ll notice and want to emulate you. If you happen to feel anxious about your dental visits, or you groan when you’ve got to floss and brush, they may synchronize and feel your dread. This could lead to dental fears that stick with them for years—potentially a lifetime! Kids Can Be Courageous If you’re feeling guilty right now, go ahead and put that away as it won’t serve you or your little one. Everyone has some room for improvement, and Coastal Pediatric Dentistry® is here to help show you an...
Read more

Going for the Gold?

Image
On the left is the older allow, on the right the new one that my lab has chosen to use The cost of a penny weight of pure gold is currently $79.53. The cost of a penny weight of pure palladium is $130.6. It used to be that palladium was added instead of gold to the precious metals often used for pfms, but now laboratories are finding that palladium is no longer affordable. The lab that I am using has just changed the formulation of the metal it's using to one that has more gold than palladium. I really do not mind, but metals with more gold are softer and often easier for a dentist to accidentally polish off delicate margins. It is important when polishing "higher gold" formulations to exert less hand pressure when performing the final polishing of the crown's margins. Other wise there should be no problem with this change. Traditionally labs have chosen alloys with higher gold percentages for optimal esthetics, since alloys with higher concentrations of ...
Read more

Lemon Juice – The Good, the Bad, & the Sour

Image
In a great tale of opposites, lemon juice can be both acidic and basic, or alkaline. Read on to find out why people are talking about this, and what it means for your oral and overall health . What is pH and why does it matter? Drinking lemon juice (usually diluted in a glass of water or added to a cup of tea) is a beloved health tonic among fans of natural medicine. Potential benefits include lower cholesterol, lower inflammation in the body, and increased metabolism and energy. Lemon also contains high levels of antioxidants and vitamin C that boost your immune system. On a scale from 0-14, a pH of 7 is neutral (pure water) while numbers below 7 are acidic (unhealthy), and above 7 are basic or alkaline (healthy). Believers in holistic health blame many ailments on the body’s pH being too low or too acidic. Increasing your body’s pH is called “alkalizing.” Lemon juice in its natural state is acidic with a pH of about 2, but once metabolized it actually becomes alkaline with a pH ...
Read more