Straightening teeth is often considered a cosmetic treatment, but it can also improve your health! Here are 5 reasons why straightening your teeth could have a dramatic effect on your oral health:
1: Receding gums
Receding gums may be due to teeth positioned outside the natural contour of the jaw. By properly aligning the teeth, the health of the gums spontaneously improves. In this before and after picture, you can see how the receding gums improved after the Invisalign treatment aligned the teeth properly.
2: Wear and fracture
The upper and lower teeth work as a box and a lid, with the upper teeth being the lid. If the opposite happens the box does not close properly and shortening of the teeth by wear, and or chipping occurs. Aligning the teeth properly reduces the excessive friction and protects the teeth from further damage.
3: Open bite and wear of the back teeth
Nature designed the front teeth to bite into food and the back teeth to chew on the food. This distribution of the roles also allows the front teeth to protect the back teeth from excessive wear as the back teeth are subject to much more force due to their proximity to our jaw joint. When the front teeth don’t come together properly, not only is the biting capacity reduced, but their protective function against the wear of the back teeth is eliminated.
4: Daily flossing and brushing
Crowded teeth prevent proper home care and increase the chance of plaque (bacteria) and calculus (stone formations) accumulations around the teeth leading to loss of gums and bone due to the crowding. This is very well documented in the scientific literature that crowding increases the bone loss around teeth.
5: Spaces
Spaces between teeth can lead to food accumulation causing gum disease. By closing the gaps between teeth, the health of the gums is improved. However due to the loss of the bones and gums that occurred in the past, some missing gums remain, as the picture illustrates. Early treatment prevents this outcome.
