While straight and healthy teeth can boost your self-image, more often than not perfect smiles don’t naturally happen overnight. So if you find yourself hiding your smile or fussing over crooked teeth, Urban Smile is here to encourage teens and adults to start their smile journey by sharing more about common orthodontic problems like overjet.
Quick Summary
- Overjet (also known as “buck teeth”) is a common orthodontic condition that involves the upper front teeth to protrude outward in an angular manner over lower teeth.
- Overjet is caused by several factors such as genetics, thumb-sucking, tongue-thrusting, and persistent swelling. While it is a common condition, it’s important to learn your treatment options by consulting with an orthodontist.
- Clear aligners improve smiles and offer a conveniently discreet way to straighten overjet teeth and extend several benefits for your appearance, oral health, and overall well-being.
What is Overjet?
Overjet is a common orthodontic condition1 that happens to anyone at any age. Nicknamed the term “buck teeth”4, it occurs when your upper front teeth protrude outward in an angular manner6 over lower teeth. The misalignment may affect appearances as well as lead to difficulties in mouth function.
Overjet is also often confused with an overbite. While they both involve protruding teeth, an overbite involves a distinct vertical distance between the front upper and lower teeth whereas an overjet displays a horizontal difference between the two sets.
At Urban Smile, we understand how an overjet can be uncomfortable in everyday situations. Learning about the causes of overjet can create self-awareness to oversee habits that may lead to or worsen your oral health. Our qualified, experienced, and dedicated team of dental experts provide excellent orthodontic solutions and treatment for overjet issues.
What Causes Overjet?
Hereditary Jawbone Structures or Teeth Arrangements
Overjet can be hereditary3. Like every other part of our body, genes are a factor to consider as they can pass on specific jawbone structures or certain teeth arrangements that may cause the form of overcrowded or misaligned teeth that eventually develop through the years.
Thumb-Sucking, Pacifiers, and Prolonged Bottle Feeding
While thumb-sucking or pacifiers are considered self-soothing for children, overjet is developed by the continuous pressure that causes damage even after the baby teeth are off; more especially when the habit goes on beyond the age of 5.
Tongue-Thrusting
Similar to thumb-sucking, the pressure that comes from tongue-thrusting2 can cause teeth to be continuously pushed outwards causing malformed teeth, gaps, open bites or overjet. Oftentimes, overjet occurs when tongue-thrusting is present during early oral habits of swallowing or unconsciously in sleep or times of stress.
Swelling, Lumps, or Tumours
When jaws change shape, they cause teeth to realign themselves to follow how the mouth or jaw are positioned. Any form of persistent swelling or growth such as lumps or tumours, whether soft tissue or bony, can be a factor to overjet causing parts of the mouth or jaw to shift teeth outward.
Skeletal Discrepancy
Skeletal discrepancy can cause overjet when there is an incompatibility5 of the jaw bone that may cause teeth to shift or protrude outwards.
5 Reasons to Treat Overjet
1. Overthinking Appearances
While looks aren’t everything, having overjet teeth can make us feel conscious of the way we see and express ourselves. This can be challenging for any individual, but most especially teenagers who are in a stage of building their confidence and self-esteem.
2. Difficulties in Eating and Drinking
Having overjet mild or severe can cause inconveniences when eating or drinking. Because overjet causes poor teeth alignment, it prevents your lips from closing completely, making everyday jaw functions like biting, chewing, and drinking an uncomfortable experience.
3. Speech Issues
Our jaws and teeth function together in mouthing the sounds and words we express. Poor teeth alignment from overjet can cause speech issues such as lisps, slurring, and mispronunciations in our effort to communicate.
4. Recurring Dental Issues
Though overjet may vary between mild to severe cases, the condition can bring jaw pain as well as dental issues towards both teeth and gum health.
5. Excess Costs
More than everything mentioned above, overjet can be costly when soothing pain, treating dental issues or adding expenses to severe treatments if not addressed earlier on. It’s important to seek advice from your orthodontist and assess what treatment works best for you.
Overjet Treatment Options
There are many treatment options to fix overjet teeth. While it may vary from case to case, treatments such as orthodontic treatment, veneers, crowns, and dental bonding can help improve your condition.
Clear dental aligners are a convenient, and discreet orthodontic treatment to help fix overjet teeth. It sets teeth straight without the look of braces, making it a popular choice for teenagers and adults alike. Aside from this, clear aligners do more than just fix overjet teeth, they also offer your teeth a more pleasing position to gently move over its transparent and flexible material. With clear aligners, it can set the overjet straight, and give you more benefits to smile about in the long run.
Related: How to Fix Teeth Gap?
3 Benefits of Using Clear Aligners for Overjet
1. Overall Convenience
Clear aligners are a popular choice for adults and teenagers that need orthodontic treatment because they straighten teeth without the looks and inconvenience of braces and other treatments. Clear aligners are discreet, transparent, and are flexible enough to remove in the case of everyday routines such as eating, brushing and other occasions.
2. Boost Self-Esteem
Clear aligners fix overjet by straightening teeth and help improve your look and overall jaw function. Instead of fussing over biting, chewing, or speech issues, teens and adults can feel more confident to explore experiences, express themselves, and enjoy more social situations
3. Healthier Days That’ll Make Everyone Smile
Clear aligners are an effective way to fix overjet and are also an investment to better your jaw functions and everyday routines. It improves your oral health, reduces the risks of dental problems, and benefits the rest of your body physically, mentally, and emotionally. With clear aligners, you can set the overjet straight and confidently wear a perfect and healthy smile.
FAQs
Clear aligners are a popular way to fix overjet teeth. In most cases, they can address mild to moderate overjet issues. To better measure the severity of your overjet, it’s important to consult with your orthodontist to decide on the most convenient treatment that’s best for you.
Clear aligners could take as little as six months to more than a year of treatment to fix overjet teeth. While treatments like this take commitment and effort from both patient and orthodontist, it’s a convenient way to a perfect smile.
While overjet and overbite teeth share similarities, they both are considered different conditions. However, clear aligners can help fix both depending on the severity and advice of your orthodontist.
Braces may not always be a comfortable experience, but clear aligners are most often than not a more convenient choice of treatment to fix overjet. They are discreet, effective, and can be easily removed for eating, brushing, and special occasions.
Summary
Though having an overjet may be difficult at times, it does not mean it should hinder you from achieving a healthier, more confident smile. Whether you were born with an overjet or find yourself learning more about it now, the first step to fix it is to seek consultation with your orthodontist and see if clear aligners are a fit for your smile journey.
Treating overjet early not only raises your self-esteem, but it can relieve you of jaw pain, prevent tooth and gum damage, as well as reduce risks of future oral health problems.
At Urban Smile Orthodontics, our team of world-class orthodontists and dental professionals are experienced to consult your questions and easily detect spacing, crowding, bite, and alignment issues to better understand your oral health. From start to finish, Urban Smile is here to help you fix overjet issues and set your teeth straight to a perfect and healthy smile.
References:
- https://www.healthline.com/health/overjet
- https://www.healthline.com/health/tongue-thrust
- https://www.healthline.com/health/overjet#:~:text=An%20overjet%20is%20when%20the,while%20others%20are%20more%20severe.
- https://www.drbostani.com/malocclusion-education-what-is-an-overjet/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6104372/https://www.newmouth.com/orthod