Why You Should Care About Crooked Teeth

The classic perfect smile is white (or nearly white) and completely straight teeth. They look good when you smile, but is that all there is to it? Is a good smile really the only reason to go through months or years of braces, surgery, and retainer use?

The short answer is no. Crooked teeth, overbites, and underbites can be a real problem that affects not just the way people look at you or your own self-esteem but also your ability to chew and speak properly. When you clamp your teeth shut, you should be able to feel every molar from the front to the back touching each other, and your front incisors should form a straight line between the top and the bottom.

When your teeth don’t match up like this, it can start to wear down some of your teeth by putting extra pressure on them. It can make it harder to chew on one side. It can cause you to lisp or otherwise have trouble speaking.

Then there’s the fact that your teeth can and will slowly but steadily move as the years go by. All the chewing and all the jaw movements add up over time, but when all your teeth take the same amount of wear and tear they generally stay where they belong. On the other hand, extra pressure on one or two teeth can make them move out of alignment or cause them to start pushing against each other, a situation known as impacted teeth.

When this happens, the only solution sometimes is to pull the tooth out before it can grind through the enamel and cause an infection. The main reason why dentists remove wisdom teeth is because a person’s jaw isn’t big enough and when they come in they’ll push the other teeth out of alignment.

Crooked teeth are more than just a cosmetic problem, they’re a health problem, and you should treat them as seriously as any other health problem. Whether that means braces, tooth extraction, or something else, it’s worth listening to your dentist.