A symmetrical smile enhances your appearance. Dental alignment not only improves your looks but also ensures overall health. If one has gaps between teeth, it can lead to plaque buildup and might cause a foul odor. It is essential to treat these gaps to improve your dental alignment. These gaps can cause food to get stuck and impact tooth positioning.
With this blog, you can explore various treatment options available to treat these gaps between your teeth. You can also learn about the causes of these gaps and how to prevent them. You can contact experts at Benbrook Dental Office TX to get your teeth checked and treated with effective teeth gap solutions.
Causes of Gap Between Teeth
There is no absolute cause of gaps between your teeth. You can learn more about these causes and try to prevent dental gaps. Some prominent causes of gaps between teeth are:
- Genetics
Gapped teeth can be due to family history. It is known as diastema and is usually between two upper frontal teeth. It is common for kids between the ages of five and nine, and this gap usually closes on its own.
- Additional Jaw Space
If you have extra jaw space, your dental alignment can result in gaps between your teeth. Kids with big jaw and baby teeth often have small gaps between their teeth.
- Childhood Habits
Kids who use pacifiers, thumb suckers, or similar tools can have gaps between their upper front teeth. The sucking habit creates gaps between the teeth due to this habit.
- Frenum Issues
The maxillary labial frenum is a tissue that connects the upper lip to the gum. It is located between the two front teeth. If the strips are thick, it can create gaps between teeth and result in gaps between front teeth.
- Gum Disease
Due to periodontal conditions, there is tooth loss that can cause gaps between teeth. Also, due to receding gums, there can be gaps between the teeth.
Available Treatment Options
People with gaps between teeth or improper dental alignment often seek treatment to get the perfect set of teeth. The most common treatment to close gaps between teeth is using orthodontic braces. However, the proper treatment depends on the cause of the gaps. Here are some popular treatment options that can help you close the gaps between teeth.
- Dental Implants
A dental implant is a popular treatment choice for a missing tooth. If you have a gap big enough, your dentist might suggest dental implants to fill the gap between teeth. It is an expensive treatment, so you should try out other options first.
- Braces
Orthodontal braces are the most common treatment for covering dental gaps. It can help treat gaps and teeth alignment issues, including crossbite and overbite. Braces are affordable and effective treatment options when teeth shape, color, and size are the same.
- Invisalign
The modern solution for gaps between teeth is Invisalign. It is a 3D imagery that treats patients’ teeth instead of using traditional metal braces. It is excellent for aligning teeth with minor gaps and improving bite alignment. They work to push teeth together, eliminating gaps between them effortlessly.
- Dental Bonding
Dental bonding is a perfect solution to treat teeth alignment and gaps. It is a complex procedure but can be used to treat patients with crooked, crowded, or misaligned bites. This treatment uses resin-based bonding material to find gaps between teeth and skillfully cover them.
- Dental Crowns
Sometimes, the gap between teeth is small, and dental bonding is unnecessary. You can use dental crowns to fill these small gaps easily. A porcelain crown will cover the neighboring teeth and minimize the gaps to negligible.
- Porcelain Veneers: Porcelain veneers are tooth-shaped shells that are used to hide stains and gaps between teeth. These shells are like veneers that protect teeth while covering the small gaps around them.
Why Do These Gaps need to be Corrected?
These dental gaps are not pleasant to the eyes. However, apart from appearance, these small gaps need medical attention. The gaps attract all germs and food to get stuck in them and are hard to remove. These gaps should be minimized to restore the functionality of teeth and improve their health. Some complications that can result due to gaps between teeth:
- Food in between teeth
- Tooth Decay
- Gum problems
- Poor aesthetics
- Tooth Misalignment
- Lack of confidence
Final Thought
Your appearance is an essential part of your overall personality. Most of us might not be concerned about it, but it profoundly affects our mental and physical self. Your aesthetic affects your looks and your personality. You should focus more on your dental health and oral hygiene, but if a minor cosmetic dentistry procedure boosts your confidence, it is great to do it. If you feel gaps between teeth are affecting your confidence level, you must visit Benbrook Dental Offices, TX, to correct these as soon as possible.