THE initial thing that someone meeting you for the first time notices is your face.
The lips or more accurately the mouth is the most significant and appealing feature of the face.
Although the mouth is situated in the lower third of the face, it has an impact on the entire facial structure.
A healthy jawline and teeth set are crucial for the placement of your lips; if you don’t have a healthy set of teeth, your smile and lips will be compromised.
Facial symmetry determines a face’s perceived attractiveness.
Clinically, the face is separated into three segments: the middle, lower and upper facial heights.
These portions should all be proportionate to one another.
One of the problems that make it difficult to achieve this proportionality is malocclusion, or tooth misalignment.
- Dental health negation in formative years later shows up as skewed teeth, low self-esteem
- The origin of malocclusion (misalignment of teeth)
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Malocclusion encompasses deep bites, open bites and — above all — crowding.
The most common kind of malocclusion is crowding, particularly as permanent teeth start to erupt.
It is often assumed that crowding is genetic, but is that entirely true?
If not, what, therefore, is the origin of crowding and why does it persist till now?
Prehistoric humans had teeth that were straighter than ours according to fossil research.
Why was this so?
Due to the hard effort required to obtain their produce, our ancestors lived a traditional and sustainable existence.
In order to break down the food they ate, their jaws and teeth had to work hard.
They actually had larger jaws and teeth overall, and as a result of their heavy use, several of their teeth had noticeable wear and flattening on their surfaces.
Typically, they tore hard objects with their teeth.
As time passed, people soon began employing fire and tools to prepare and cook food, as well as growing and domesticating nearby plants and animals.
Over the course of several thousand years, people started to process and refine their food more frequently.
Using milling methods, the tougher parts of grains — like the bran and germ from rice and wheat — were eliminated.
Throughout the industrial revolution technological breakthroughs greatly accelerated these processes.
As a result, many people’s teeth were no longer forced to grind, crush and chew hard food.
It was surprising to learn that dental crookedness became increasingly common during that period.
The primary conclusion drawn by scientists from fossil records is that the development of contemporary technologies has threatened the growth of our jaws and teeth, leading to dental crowding.
Should the development of milling technologies make us sad?
Of course not, milling technologies and modern culinary skills have helped us in a lot of ways, in terms of conserving time and providing us with easy meal solutions that fit into our busy schedules.
However, we should be conscious of their impact on jaw and teeth size, aggravating the chances of developing tooth crowding and malocclusion.
One may ask how does grinding hard food and having a sustainable lifestyle help in jaw size development?
One argument is that eating tough, chewy meals like raw meat and vegetables necessitates using more bite force since studies on animals have shown that chewing more forcefully promotes the development of the jawbone.
Strong bone structure and broader jaws appear to be associated with greater chewing needs.
Although there may be heritable factors at play in some cases, the problem often appears to be environmental or lifestyle-related rather than genetic.
The development of the skeleton and teeth is influenced by both environmental and hereditary factors.
Though it will be very beneficial, consuming more food that requires chewing will not change the innate genetic tendencies of those with malocclusion of a hereditary predisposition.
Both hereditary and environmental variables are implicated in the etiology (causes) of open bite and overbite, as is the case with other forms of malocclusion.
Skeletal pattern, soft tissues, habits and localised lack of development are some of these causes.
The etiology is often multifaceted and while the presenting malocclusion is identical, it can be challenging to ascertain the proportional contribution of these effects in practice.
There are two types of open bites: anterior (in front) and posterior (in back).
Depending on how long and how intense a habit is, it can result in anterior open bite.
The growth of the incisors may be restricted by persistent sucking of the thumb, fingers or pacifiers by children at milk-teeth stage as well as during permanent teeth eruption, leading to the development of an anterior open bite.
The anterior open bite is asymmetrical (unless the patient sucks two fingers).
It may take several months for the open bite to disappear once the sucking habit is broken.
When swallowing during this time, the tongue may move forward in order to create an anterior seal.
A tiny percentage may continue to have an open bite if the habit has persisted until the teeth development is finished.
Mouthbreathing
It has been proposed that those who frequently breathe through the mouth, either because of habit or nasal blockage, adopt an open mouth posture that causes the buccal (on the cheeks) segment teeth to overdevelop.
This causes the lower third of the face to grow longer, which increases the likelihood of anterior open bite.
It has been demonstrated that patients who were referred for tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy had noticeably higher lower facial heights than those who did not and that this difference decreased after surgery.
A digit-sucking habit that has caused an anterior open bite in a person with mixed dentition should be gently discouraged.
It is unlikely to work to have the youngster wear an appliance to discourage the habit, though some positive results can be achieved should they find support in it.
A drawn-out appearance beneath the eyes and a longer, narrower face are the results of mouth breathing.
Because the lower face is too far back, it can also alter the angle of the forehead and give the nose a larger, hooked appearance.
Succinctly, mouth breathing can, indeed, be a major issue. Poor growth patterns and bad posture are associated with this phenomenon.
In a nutshell, malocclusion is easily corrected, particularly if environmental factors are at play, a child’s undesirable habits may usually be broken and conservative techniques recommended by an orthodontist may assist.
However, if genetics are involved, surgery is typically the only option, particularly in extreme situations.
Since prevention is always preferable to treatment, parents should visit a dentist right away if they observe any changes in their children’s behaviour, tooth look or posture.
Patience Matambo is a final year BSc Dental Surgery student at the People’s Friendship University of Russia. She can be reached at patiencedental2024@gmail.com
