Everyone loves a beautiful smile. Unfortunately, teeth often appear crooked, affecting one’s appearance and self-confidence. Teeth become crooked usually because they don’t have enough space in the mouth. This could be due to;
- A small jaw size.
- Too many teeth in the jaws. (excess teeth i.e., supplemental teeth)
- Retained baby teeth that refuse to give way for adult teeth.
- Early loss of baby teeth which causes the space for future teeth to close.
- Age related changes in the jaws (in adolescents and adults).
Many of these conditions can arise due to genetic reasons; i.e., passed on from parents to the child, or due to certain habits that we engage in as children, such as thumb sucking, using a pacifier, etc. Additionally, most people will experience crowding and malalignment in the lower front teeth as they grow older.
How can we align them?
Teeth can be aligned depending on many factors such as:
- Age
- Type of malocclusion
- Degree of malocclusion
- General health of the person
(Malocclusion basically means a type of malalignment)
These factors will usually determine what procedure can be done and which one cannot. Some of the treatment options available for correction of wrongly aligned teeth include;
- Metallic braces
- Ceramic braces
- Invisalign
- Removable appliances
Dr Biren Yajnik
Sterling Dental
The writer is the Vice President of the Uganda Dental Association.
