Orthodontics offers comprehensive treatments for dental misalignment and jaw problems, addressing fundamental oral health issues as well.
Orthodontics is a specialized field of dentistry that diagnoses and treats misaligned, crooked, and maloccluded teeth, and takes necessary preventive measures against these issues.
Orthodontic treatment is primarily an application performed for oral, dental, and gum health reasons. However, it is also frequently performed for aesthetic reasons today.
Why Do Orthodontic Problems Occur? How Are They Treated?
Orthodontic problems generally occur due to skeletal issues. However, environmental factors are also quite effective in the emergence of orthodontic problems. Factors such as mouth breathing, thumb sucking, long-term bottle-pacifier use, etc. invite orthodontic problems.
In cases where the lower jaw is forward or backward relative to the upper jaw, the treatment method is determined according to the patient's age. For example, while these problems can be easily solved with only orthodontic treatment in an individual during adolescence, an adult individual may require a treatment approach that includes orthognathic surgery in conjunction with the surgical department in addition to orthodontic treatment.
Reasons such as the tongue being larger than normal sizes, spaced teeth caused by tooth gaps, teeth being larger or smaller than normal sizes can also cause problems such as crowding and spacing in the teeth.
In some cases, crowding occurs in the teeth because the jawbone is smaller than normal sizes.
Apart from all these, the most common reason is the early loss of primary teeth and failure to maintain their positions. Adjacent teeth may shift into the positions of primary teeth lost prematurely, or permanent teeth coming from below may shift to different positions. And this situation can cause serious crowding. Therefore, if primary teeth are lost prematurely, preserving the primary tooth gap with space maintainers is very important for the accuracy of permanent teeth positions.
Why Is Orthodontic Treatment Necessary?
Orthodontic treatment is preferred not only for aesthetic reasons but also for preventing gum diseases that may be encountered, preventing cavities, preventing-resolving jaw joint problems in some cases, correcting-preventing speech disorders in certain cases, and eliminating occlusion-chewing problems.
In other words, although orthodontic treatment is frequently sought for aesthetic concerns today, it is actually also used in preventing or treating many oral, dental, and gum problems.
The most important aesthetic success of orthodontic treatment is the correction of a person's positions without causing any harm to their own teeth. Thus, no material loss occurs from the teeth.
Advantages of Orthodontic Treatment
- Crowding and spacing can be eliminated without harming the teeth.
- With new materials developed today, the appearance of wires has been reduced.
- With transparent plate applications, wire-free orthodontic treatment is now possible.
- It can be performed at any age.
- It is quite low-cost compared to smile design.
Disadvantages of Orthodontic Treatment
- It may take a long time in some cases.
- Maintenance of wires is more difficult compared to when there are no wires.