Treatments for Teeth That Overlap: Straightening Your Smile
The team at South Ogden Smiles uses the latest dental care procedures to help patients achieve total health and wellness. This means advanced cosmetic dentistry options as well as other approaches to enhancing dental health.
When it comes to correcting crooked teeth, dentists have plenty of options to choose from. Overlapping teeth can pose some unique challenges. Let's cover the problems associated with teeth that overlap and then look at a few options for treatment.
Why Overlapping Teeth Are a Problem
Overlapping teeth can lead to cosmetic problems as well as issues with overall dental health.
In terms of the look of your smile, overlapping teeth can leave you feeling self-conscious about its appearance. This can lead to a hesitancy about smiling, speaking, and laughing, even around people you have known for many years. It can also impact your job performance if you are in a profession that involves a lot of public interaction.
In terms of your dental health, overlapping teeth can lead to serious pain and discomfort while biting and chewing. The misalignment of the teeth can also lead you to grind you teeth when you sleep, a condition known as bruxism. This condition has been known to cause tooth fractures, gum recession, and even TMJ disorders that can affect the movement of the jaw.
Cosmetic and Restorative Dentistry Options
When the overlapping of the teeth is only minor, the problem may be treatable using only cosmetic or restorative procedures. A porcelain veneer or a few porcelain veneers may be able to mask the overlapping of the teeth from view, making a person's smile seem perfectly aligned. For more serious overlapping, the tooth can be reshaped and then capped with a dental crown. This will restore the appearance of the tooth.
These treatments are only ideal when the overlapping is purely aesthetic in nature. Other treatments will need to be considered for more serious cases of overlap.
Orthodontics for Teeth That Overlap
For most patients who have overlapping teeth, the ideal option for treatment is orthodontic care. By using braces, palatal expanders, headgear, and other kinds of appliances, dental care experts can use steady tension and pressure to improve the alignment of a person's teeth.
Generally, it's best for orthodontic care to be performed at an early age, especially for issues that involve overlapping teeth. Orthodontic treatments tend to go quicker and involve fewer issues when performed on young patients. While adult orthodontics can be effective in a number of instances, there may be limited effectiveness when the issue involves overlapping teeth.
Advanced Oral Surgery Solutions
When orthodontic care is not enough to revise a patient's dental alignment, the ideal option for care is dental surgery and other advanced procedures. Oral surgery will allow revisions to be made to the jawbone, gum tissue, and other structures of the mouth. Tooth extraction may be performed if the overlap cannot be revised. Following oral surgery, orthodontic care and restorative procedures are common to make final adjustments to the patient's smile.
The exact nature of this advanced dental surgery treatment can vary from patient to patient. We can go over what your surgery may involve during the consultation process.
Learn More About Treating Teeth That Overlap
To learn more about treating crooked and overlapping teeth, be sure to contact the dental care team at South Ogden Smiles. We will assess your situation and help you get the exact treatment you need to enhance the health of your smile.
