“So often we parents miss what’s right in front of us, and our children don’t bother to tell us because it’s just the way it’s always been,” says Dr. Kelly Giannetti (www.drsgiannettiandbooms.com), a Sacramento-based orthodontist and co-author with Dr. Thais Booms of Beyond Braces: A Consumer’s Guide To Orthodontics.
“When most people think about reasons for orthodontic treatment, they’re thinking about the problems you can easily see – protruding teeth or teeth that overlap each other, for instance. But every bit as important is the bite, and while problems with your bite aren’t always as noticeable, they do have consequences.”
Left uncorrected, an uneven bite can lead to numerous problems, including headaches, broken teeth or gum recession.
Giannetti and Booms say while genetics is a common culprit for a poor bite, environmental causes can also play a role. A few of those include:
- Thumb-sucking.
Prolonged thumb-sucking or the use of pacifiers beyond the age of 4
increases the risk of altering the bite. “In a proper bite pattern,” Booms
says, “the upper teeth slightly overlap the lower teeth. But dependence on
thumb-sucking or a pacifier for extended periods can prevent that from
happening. The back molars may touch when the jaws are closed but the
front teeth don’t. And the frequent presence of a thumb, finger or
pacifier while the two front adult teeth erupt can cause them to come in
improperly.”
- Mouth-breathing.
The inability to breathe through the nose can be a major cause of
growth-related bite problems. “This happens to a lot of children who have
precursors to sleep-disordered breathing, such as enlarged tonsils or
adenoids, or allergies,” Giannetti says.
- Damaged or prematurely lost baby teeth. Booms and Giannetti note that many parents undervalue
the importance of baby teeth in regard to how they can affect the bite.
For one, accidents can affect the development of a child’s teeth and bite.
“When a child knocks a baby tooth out, the buds of the permanent teeth
grow underneath the roots of the baby teeth,” Booms says. “So sometimes
trauma to a baby tooth can dislodge or move the developing bud of the
permanent tooth, which eventually comes in crooked.”
- Cavities in baby teeth. “When children get cavities that cause their baby
teeth to crack or be lost, if the baby tooth isn’t fixed, or a space
maintainer is not put in, the teeth just drift around,” Giannetti says.
“Teeth grow until they touch another tooth, and this process can be the
root of most problems when it comes to environmental causes.”
About Dr. Kelly Giannetti and Dr. Thais Booms
Dr. Kelly
Giannetti (https://drsgiannettiandbooms.com) operates a private
orthodontic practice with Dr. Thais Booms in Sacramento and they are co-authors
of the book Beyond Braces: A
Consumer’s Guide To Orthodontics. Dr. Giannetti graduated from
Harvard University with a doctorate in dental medicine and a master’s degree in
public health, and furthered her orthodontic specialty education with a
master’s in oral biology at the University of California at San Francisco. She
is the director of the Orthodontic Assisting Program at the FADE Institute. Dr. Thais Booms (https://drsgiannettiandbooms.com) operates a private orthodontic practice with Dr. Kelly Giannetti in Sacramento and they are co-authors of the book Beyond Braces: A Consumer’s Guide To Orthodontics. Dr. Booms graduated from the University of Michigan with a master’s in orthodontics. She served as an assistant professor of orthodontics at the University of Michigan and has practiced orthodontics with Dr. Giannetti for over 10 years.
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