Struggling With Your Bite?
It’s time to see your dentist here in St John’s Wood!
Your bite or ‘occlusion’ refers to how your teeth align as they close together. It should really be a simple mechanism that helps you talk and chew food, however lots of people struggle with their bite.
These problems can cause issues with the look of the smile, with talking, eating and health issues like headaches can also occur. A badly aligned bite is certainly nothing to ignore and needs assessing by your dentist so that diagnosis and treatment can start the journey to relief.
A Healthy bite
If your bite is healthy, the jaw bones are similar in size, the teeth are the right size for the jaw they sit on, the teeth sit well together when the top and bottom arches close and the jaw joint relaxes when the teeth are together. The grooves on the teeth fit almost perfectly together when a bite is healthy. If you have a healthy bite the likelihood is you have never thought too deeply about it because everything works as it should.
A Bad Bite
A bad bite is called a malocclusion and it occurs when the bite does not align as it should. A bad bite can be caused by many different things including:
● Skeletal issues
● Jaw overgrowth
● Teeth forming issues
● Excess thumb sucking as a child
● Incorrect tooth size for your jaw
● An anterior bite where there is a gap between the top and bottom social teeth
● Badly fitted fillings
● Overcrowded teeth
● Missing teeth
● Jaw misalignment
There are many reasons bad bites can occur, but one of the most common reasons is genetics. If your mum or dad had a bite issue, there is a good chance that you will have one as well.
What Happens When A Bite Is Bad?
When a bite is bad, things will start to go wrong with the teeth and jaw. It may be mild symptoms, like some enamel damage where incorrect alignment causes undue pressure in a certain area. It may be that you have a lisp, you have pain eating or talking, that you have severe pain in your jaw joint and maybe you even get headaches. There can be many different symptoms which get worse over time.
What To Do When You Think You Have A Bad Bite
If you are concerned you have an issue with your bite you should visit Abbey Road Dental. At our NW8 dental clinic in St John’s Wood, we can assess your bite problem as a class 1, 2 or 3 malocclusion. You may need referral to an orthodontist if the problem is severe. The important thing to recognise is that there are lots of treatments for bite problems, but the first step is getting the problem diagnosed.
You don’t have to suffer the problems associated with a bite problem and even if you haven’t noticed any side effects yet, they may come in the future or you might not know what to look for. If you think you have a bite problem, please call us on 02076241603 and we will book an appointment for you.