what is an overbite teeth?

A deep overbite can trigger dental or oral problems such as gum diseases, teeth attrition, poor bone health, and even speech issues if not treated at the right time.

It’s not medically recommended or possible to correct a deep overbite naturally. However, your orthodontist may advise aligners, which are hassle-free and painless compared to conventional methods.

There is no age limit to correct an increased overbite. Adults and children above the age of 12 can get their overbite corrected with aligners suggested by an orthodontist.

The cost of overbite correction in India can go up to INR 2 lakhs or more depending on your choice of treatment and the severity of your misalignment.

Overbite correction may be slightly uncomfortable initially or in severe cases. However, the discomfort will subside if you follow the prescribed treatment by the orthodontist.

When your jawbone develops improperly, it pushes your teeth and jaw to grow incorrectly, causing skeletal overbite. You can easily identify a skeletal overbite based on your jaw size. In a skeletal overbite, the lower jaw is smaller than the upper jaw.

It can easily be treated with invisible aligners. Dental overbite Are your teeth crowded or did you lose some of your molars? (Teeth at the back of your mouth) If yes, these could be the reasons why you are suffering from dental overbite. It can occur because of bad oral habits too. Dental overbite is when your teeth are misaligned, but your upper and lower jaw are aligned.

Following are some side effects of dental overbite:

• Tooth decay

• Gum disease

• Difficulty in chewing

• Speech problems

• Jaw pain

Severity of overbites

Once you diagnose your overbite, you need to find out whether you need overbite treatment. Because not all overbites need correction. Yeah, that’s right! If your overbite is above 3mm, then you will need to correct it with clear aligners or overbite braces.

But if the size of your overbite is more than 9mm, then it’s a severe case. You may need surgery, but don’t worry, our expert orthodontists will create a customized teeth overbite plan that will give your pearly whites the love and attention it deserves.

In a mild overbite, you will probably not experience any side effects. But in severe overbites, one can face painful or disabling symptoms. These include overbite problems like chewing, touching the jaw, and clicking. For people who received treatment for their overbite, these problems have reduced in their severity.

Apart from this, a severe overbite can cause gum damage. Yeah, that’s right! The upper front teeth may constantly bite into the gums in front of your lower teeth or your lower teeth bite into the gums behind your front teeth. Severe overbites can stop your permanent teeth from erupting since they are pushed to the roof of the mouth. As per the research, an untreated overbite can affect bone modeling too.

An overbite is easier to identify once your children have permanent teeth. In case you want to diagnose it for them or yourself, you just need a ruler to measure the degree of an overbite. You can also contact an orthodontist to assess your overbite diagnosis and overbite issues.

Genetics can influence bone structure, so if you or others in your family have an overbite, your children are likely to have it too. But otherwise, you can prevent an overbite as soon as a child’s first teeth appear. Stop them from using a pacifier or sucking their thumb because it encourages tongue thrusting, pushing their teeth forward. Instead, encourage your children to self-soothe with other methods.

Below are the causes of overbite:

Small lower jaw

According to research by the American Association of orthodontists, it is said when the lower jaw is shorter than the upper jaw, it causes misalignment. The lower teeth can grow upwards until it hits the back of the front teeth, causing overcrowding of teeth. This eventually leads to overbite teeth.

Tooth loss

Losing your baby teeth too early or losing your adult teeth can misalign your teeth. According to research by the American Association of orthodontists, a missing tooth can cause a condition that is similar to a small lower jaw.

Poor oral health habits

Bad oral hygiene in childhood can cause an overbite to develop. Some of the day-today practices that lead to overbite issues are as follows:

• Thumb sucking

• Using pacifiers

• Tongue thrusting

• Lip sucking

• Nail biting

The effect of these behaviors varies based on their frequency, intensity, and duration. For instance, thumb sucking is a common problem among children. But it is a cause of worry when the problems continue beyond the age of five - That’s when adult teeth begin to come in.

Below are some effective options to treat the overbite problem:

Clear aligners

Clear aligners are a convenient option to treat your overbite. Expert orthodontists will take impressions of your teeth, which will then be used to make a customized design plan to deal with your overbite issues and straighten your teeth. Aligners are invisible, comfortable, and removable. And unlike the metal braces, they take a shorter time to align your teeth.

Surgery

While clear aligners and metal braces can easily solve mild cases of overbite. Some of the cases are complicated and need surgical attention. Yeah, surgeries can solve severe problems with the positions of teeth and jaws that are difficult to correct with aligners.

Braces

Just like clear aligners, overbite braces or metal braces can be used to correct your teeth misalignment. All kinds of braces use brackets that adhere to your teeth with metal wires to push misaligned teeth to their right positions.

Tooth extraction

Even though this is a painful procedure, tooth extraction is required to create beneficial changes to bone modeling. This treatment can involve removing perfectly healthy teeth like premolars. Loss of premolars can be adjusted by the remaining teeth (molars). Tooth extraction will reduce the crowding of your teeth which may cause problems in chewing.

Splint surgery

Splint therapy can easily solve underbite and overbite problems. Splint therapy works in reducing the pressure on your jaw and helps in repositioning your overbite at its correct angle. It can even improve the face structure, making it look better on the outside. These are some of the treatment options available to correct an overbite. Ranging from at-home aligners to splint surgery, each of them can help give you the desired results in no time.

If severe overbites are left untreated, it could cause the following problems:

Gum damage:

In a severe overbite, your lower front teeth can touch the gum line in the back of your upper front teeth while your upper front teeth may touch the gum line of your lower front teeth. This will cause damage to your gums and result in tooth loss.

Problems in chewing and speaking:

Overbites can cause difficulty in day-to-day interaction. It can lead to speech impediments or you can face issues in articulating certain words. In some cases, overbites can cause problems in chewing food. Tooth damage:

Our teeth often rest and hit each other in odd places when the jaw is not aligned properly. This could cause enamel wear, tooth fracture, or even tooth loss. It’s recommended that you fix your overbite if it’s severe.

Sleep apnea:

People who suffer from overbites and have a small mouth face a greater chance of developing sleep apnea. Especially if the overbite is a result of the lower jaw.

Jaw pain:

Lastly, a misaligned jaw can cause severe pain in the jaw and headaches. This may contribute to the development of Temporomandibular Joint disorder (TMD).

Unfortunately, no! It’s not possible for you to naturally treat your overbite at home. You need at least makeO toothsi clear aligners or surgery to get your teeth aligned.

However, you can easily prevent an overbite as soon as a child’s teeth start to appear. Yeah, a pacifier or thumb-sucking increases the chances of getting an overbite in the growing-up years.

Remember prevention of an overbite starts at the beginning of toddler age. So try and minimize the use of pacifiers and sippy cups. Don’t forget to discourage tongue thrusting too. And if you want to correct an overbite, clear aligners are your best option.