What is orthodontics?
Orthodontics is the dentistry branch that addresses the diagnosis and treatment of facial and dental irregularities. Additionally, the word ‘orthodontics’ have Latin roots and rooted to “ortos” which means ‘straight’ in Latin and “dontos” which means tooth in Latin.
What does an orthodontist do?
A specialist known as an orthodontist is the right person to consult for your orthodontic treatment addressing the diagnosis and treatment of dental and facial irregularities. These specialists attend two or more additional years of specialization education or a Master’s Degree programme after four years of dental school or a Faculty of Dentistry. During this education, an orthodontist studies and gets information necessary to check teeth motion (general name of these interventions is orthodontics) and lead facial development and improvement. Only those dentists who completed the abovementioned specialization education or Master’s Degree can use the title of orthodontist.
What are the common causes of orthodontic disorders?
1-It may not have been taken advantage of opportunities provided by preventive medicine for patients; for example, decayed deciduous teeth may not have been treated by thinking “it will change sooner or later”, some teeth may have been extracted untimely, mostly before required, Fluor Protector and Fissure Protective Applications may have been ignored.
2-Genetic factors: For example, existence of a similar abnormality of family history is so important for the individuals with skeletal disorder. Congenitally or hereditary missing teeth, narrow upper jaw, malocclusion also may have been inherited by a child. In this case, emergence of orthodontic problems is inevitable. What you need to do is to take your child and visit a dentist regularly at certain time intervals by beginning from eruption and development of deciduous teeth.
3-Ear-nose-throat (ENT) (otorhinolaryngologic) problems (Such as tonsillitis, existence of adenoids in the nose and nasal cavity; constant mouth breathing) may pose an obstacle to shaping of jaw bones and may cause tooth eruption disorders.
4-Bad habits: Bad habits such as thumb sucking, long-term use of pacifiers or baby bottles, tongue sucking, lip sucking, pencil biting also may cause orthodontic disorders in the teeth and jaw structures.
5-Some muscle disorders also may cause orthodontic disorders.
What is the age of orthodontic treatment?
Orthodontic treatment may be performed at all ages. If, there is no skeletal problem and only if there is dental irregularities, these disorders can be corrected with orthodontic treatment at all ages. Only the age of the patient has a direct impact on the motion and period of treatment. However, if there is a skeletal problem, the treatment of these disorders may be done with orthopedic treatment approaches up to end of the puberty period. Skeletal problems in the adulthood may only be corrected with orthodontic treatment performed accompanied with orthognathic surgical procedures / surgeries. Orthodontics aesthetic invisible wires (transparent brackets), wires attached to the back of the teeth (Lingual technical) and invisalign transparent brackets are used today to correct the teeth.
Is orthodontic treatment really necessary?
Orthodontic treatment is used for the treatment of dental irregularity and dental malocclusion not only for aesthetic purposes but also helps to prevent possible periodontal and gingival diseases and temporomandibular joint disorders as well as correcting the chewing function and correction of speaking. Orthodontic treatment which is usually known as correction of dental irregularities, involves various treatment methods and techniques. Based on the orthodontic problem in the mouth, removable appliances, functional appliances and fixed appliances may be used for treatments. Uncomplicated orthodontic problems can be solved with plastic removable appliances that can be placed and removed by the patient himself. Some appliances called functional appliances are used to help the jaws to develop towards a certain way in case of insufficient and extreme development of the lower or upper jaw and these appliances should be used during growth & development period of a child. Fixed appliances used more than others in the orthodontic treatment today, is based on a philosophy of creation of a motion with which wires placed into spaces over the appliances attached to teeth and named brackets to give motion to teeth. There are also many reinforcing appliances other than these basic commonly known appliances. Following completion of orthodontic treatments, it is very important for the patients to be rechecked and followed up with the treatments they have had and have reinforcing treatments for them not to disrupt. Several and various passive appliances are used for this period of treatment.
Mainly, the main objectives of orthodontic treatment are correction of chewing function, correction of speaking / speech function, helping better mouth hygiene, ensuring mouth aesthetics and providing psychological support by increasing patient's self-confidence in the society. Orthodontics, also can contribute to nasal breathing of the patient by collaborating with otorhinolaryngologists (ENT specialists). Orthodontists collaborate with plastic surgeons or maxillofacial surgeons for treatments of skeletal problems of adult patients and babies and children with cleft lips – cleft palates. Orthodontics always work in coordination with other branches of dentistry.
It is a proven fact that deciduous tooth decays and untimely deciduous teeth extraction (in other words premature extraction of primary teeth) cause orthodontic disorders and permanent teeth to stay impacted in the jaw bone.
What is the importance of deciduous teeth from an orthodontic point of view?
Deciduous teeth starts to come in (erupt) in a particular sequence about 6 months after birth and all deciduous teeth are completed to erupt for a child at age of about 2.5 years old. A total of 20 deciduous teeth in the lower and upper jaw stay in the mouth of a child up to 6 years old. These deciduous teeth are replaced with permanent teeth up to when the child reaches 12 years old. During this period of change, large decays in the deciduous teeth and early losses of deciduous teeth cause permanent teeth to stay impacted and dental irregularities due to motion of the other teeth towards these spaces. For this reason, it is very important deciduous teeth to stay healthy in the mouth.
The conditions and situations in eruption period of deciduous teeth are not in charge alone for the formation of orthodontic disorders. Orthodontic problems may be inherited by children from their fathers and mothers or elder family members genetically. Other than that, insufficient breastfeeding for infants in the period of infancy or mistakes of wrong use of baby bottles and pacifiers, bad habits such as thumb sucking, lip sucking, immature reverse swallowing and mouth breathing may also cause orthodontic problems. If there exist problems preventing nasal breathing in case of mouth breathing, orthodontists should work in cooperation with otorhinolaryngologists (ENT specialists) to improve and in remission of these situations.