What is the difference between mild, moderate, and severe teeth crowding?
It's really just how much the teeth overlap each other. If your teeth have very minor crowding, maybe overlapping each other by a half a millimeter or so, that's minor crowding. Moderate is where we might see a quarter of one tooth or another being covered by the other tooth. And then severe can be anything above that. We've seen teeth where one tooth is completely pushed back behind and two teeth come in and touch it. That's severe crowding, but it's really just how much overlap of each tooth we're seeing.
How does bottom teeth crowding differ than upper teeth crowding?
The main thing is that it happens quicker on your bottom teeth. All of your teeth, top and bottom, are slowly moving toward your midline. It's just that your bottom teeth are programmed to do that a little bit quicker. So we would see crowding of the lower teeth happen a little bit quicker than the upper teeth.
How do braces help correct crowded teeth?
Just as you can imagine, braces are used to straighten teeth out. If your teeth are starting to overlap and become crowded, we can use braces, clear aligners, or Invisalign to take those teeth and slowly pull them back out so they're not overlapping each other. It's pretty much the main thing we use to correct crowding.
What are the treatment options for fixing crowded teeth?
The main option that we provide for that is orthodontic treatment. So Invisalign, clear aligners, and braces are usually what you use to correct that crowding of your teeth.
Can Invisalign fix crowded teeth or is traditional orthodontic treatment better?
Nowadays, maybe 15 years ago, we would say traditional braces were kind of the go-to treatment, but now with advances in clear aligners, either works. Most often, you'll have great results fixing crowded teeth with clear aligners.
How does dental crowding impact a person's bite and overall dental health?
It has a few situations and a few issues that it can cause. Normally what happens as your teeth get a little bit crowded is that how they function or how they hit and grind and slide against your top teeth changes. Lots of times, instead of having nice broad grinding of your bottom teeth to your top teeth, as they rotate and get crowded, we'll get little corners of teeth hitting on other teeth. And that's usually where we start seeing chipping and breaking of your teeth.
Also, when we start getting crowded and teeth get a little bit more crowded, it makes it a lot harder to keep those gums nice and healthy. So with crowded teeth, we see a lot more plaque, tartar, and calculus buildup around them. Your dental hygiene is just way harder to maintain. And then normally we see that lead to recession and other gum issues. So it mainly just makes it more difficult to keep your teeth and gums extremely clean and healthy.
Normally depending on how bad your crowding and bite are, we would use orthodontia, clear aligners, or braces to correct this. It can fluctuate a lot. If it's just crowding on your lower front teeth or your upper front teeth, it might take three to four months. If we're getting crowding to your molars and your back teeth across your arches, sometimes it can take a year, a year and a half, or two years. So just like anything in dentistry, everything is personalized to each person, and it really depends on your specific situation.
What should patients expect before and after crowded tooth treatment?
Before treatment, you can expect to have some crowded teeth and maybe some inflamed gums. We'll go through the entire process and plan of how we would like to correct your crowding. And then after treatment, we would expect that crowding to be gone and your gums to be looking and feeling way more healthy.
Are there specific challenges with treating lower teeth crowding?
We get asked, are there specific challenges with treating lower teeth crowding? Not off the top of my head that I can think of. Your tongue is always something that kind of messes with what we do on your bottom teeth, but honestly, there's no real challenge or difference in correcting lower teeth crowding versus upper teeth crowding.
What happens if crowded teeth are left untreated?
Again, this really depends on you, your situation, and how well you can keep those crowded teeth clean. But more often than not, when we have some severe crowding or issues going on and it goes left untreated, the main things we'll see are recession, bone loss, and loose teeth.
If you’re looking for dental care you can trust, call us at (720) 797-5554 or email [email protected]. We’re here to help you have the smile you've always wanted!