Can you tell the difference between a healthy and an unhealthy smile on another person? What if the person’s teeth are straight and their gums are in good condition? If you’re like most people, the answer is probably no. When the average person looks at pictures of other people, the superficial qualities of their smiles usually consume our attention. Identifying asymmetry and other dental problems can be tricky, making paying attention to things like warning signs all the more important.
What to Look for
Oftentimes, identifying dental needs isn’t so obvious. Occasionally, dental problems are clear observable things like inflamed gums, stained teeth, or missing teeth but not always. Painless symptoms of a dysfunctional smile are often referred to as quiet issues and are often overlooked.
To start thinking like a dentist and increase your dental IQ, you have to pay attention to things like:
Asymmetry
Chipped or worn teeth
How teeth fit together (bite relation)
Gum recession
Bone loss
Narrow arches and crowding
Retruded jaw
Narrow airway
Being able to notice warning signs like these can help you get your children, loved ones, friends, and family to a specialist early and prevent the problem from getting worse.
Behavioral Causes of Asymmetry
One of the most common causes for asymmetry that people can control is teeth grinding. Chronically grinding your teeth can have serious repercussions for the well-being of your teeth. Also known as bruxism, teeth grinding can cause teeth to wear down, crack, chip, or break. Untreated teeth grinding can also cause temporomandibular joint disorder, migraines, myofascial pain, and tinnitus. Behavioral causes of asymmetry include:
Teeth grinding
Poor muscle posturing
Mouth breathing
Thumb sucking as a child
Finding the Right Treatment in Fairfax County, VA
Identifying the underlying cause of smile asymmetry and finding the right treatment for you depends on a proactive doctor. Dr. Marzban’s dental practice focuses on state-of-the-art techniques and technologies to provide the best possible care for our patients. For example, our office is one of the only dental offices in the country to be certified in Digital Smile Designs, which allows patients to see how their new smile will look on them before any procedures occur.
Call our office at 703-323-8200 or visit our contact page to schedule your appointment.
Do you wonder why nearly every child needs orthodontics? Why are people mouth breathing and developing mouth breather faces? Why is Temporo-mandibular Dysfunction (TMD) and Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) becoming a worldwide epidemic? In this book, Dr. Pamela Marzban explains why modern day faces develop incorrectly, how to identify it, and what you can do for optimum facial development for you and your child.
