You may have heard your dentist talk about your dental midline and how shifting it can improve your smile. But do you know what a dental midline is? If not, you’re not alone. But your dental midline is important to your oral health. If your dental midline has shifted, straightening it may improve your bite, put less pressure on your jaw and bring you a beautiful smile.
Smith Orthodontics knows all about dental midlines and how to fix them efficiently and beautifully. We know that your dental midline determines if your bite works properly. Without a proper bite, you can experience jaw pain, excessive tooth wear, even digestive problems. Let’s start with a little information about a dental midline.
What’s a Dental Midline?
Let’s start with the basics: What is a dental midline? It’s actually far less complicated than you might think. The dental midline is the line between your top middle teeth (upper incisors) and your bottom middle teeth (lower incisors). Ordinarily, your dental midline will line up with the center of your face. When it doesn’t, it’s called a dental midline shift or a deviated midline.
A deviated midline can cause bite problems, which is why we pay attention to your dental midline. Bite problems can lead to other issues, which can get worse if they’re not addressed. That’s why Smith Orthodontics recommends treatment with braces or clear aligners if your midline is shifted.
How a Dental Midline Shift Can Affect You
With a dental shift, your front teeth don’t line up properly. Often, this means the back teeth don’t line up properly, either. You may think this is no big deal, that it just affects the look of your teeth, but it actually affects a lot more.
You can’t bite and chew properly with misaligned teeth. You may not be able to chew your food as well as you should. This is important because digestion starts in your mouth, and without properly chewed food, your stomach has to work harder. That can affect your digestion, which can affect your overall health.
A bad bite can lead to jaw problems. You can develop jaw pain, particularly in your temporomandibular joint, called TMJ disorder. A misaligned bite puts extra pressure on your teeth that you shouldn’t have. This can lead to excessive tooth wear, which could mean corrective dental care such as crows to protect your tooth from further wear.
The easiest way to avoid these problems is to correct your dental midline shift as soon as possible. That’s where Smith Orthodontics comes in!
Repairing Your Dental Midline Shift
How do you fix your dental midline shift? If you’re in the Wichita, KS, area, we can take care of that for you! We offer treatment through braces or clear aligners. These treatments will realign your dental midline and any other dental issues you may have, including a crossbite, overbite, or gap teeth.
Smith Orthodontics has traditional metal braces and clear braces to realign your teeth and eliminate further problems, such as jaw pain or excessive tooth wear. Your treatment time will depend on how far your midline has shifted and whether you have other issues that need to be corrected as a result, such as a crossbite or crowded teeth.
Braces aren’t the top choice for everyone, which is why we also offer clear aligners to our patients. Your dental midline shift may be repairable with Invisalign or 3M Clarity clear aligners. Braces tend to be a better method to correct dental midline shifts, especially in the more severe cases.
Which treatment is best for your situation? We can answer that question after an intial free, no-obligation consultation. We will examine your mouth and see what needs to be fixed, including your deviated midline. We’ll be able to tell you whether you’re a good candidate for Invisalign or 3M Clarity aligners, or whether you would do better with traditional or clear braces. From there, we will be able to tell you how long your treatment will take.
Improving Your Oral Health
We know how important a properly aligned dental midline is to your oral health. In addition to the physical aspects, a good dental midline looks better cosmetically and can improve your self-esteem and self-confidence. You deserve a smile you can be proud to show off, and you deserve to have the best oral health possible.
Smith Orthodontics can correct your dental midline shift. If you’re in the Wichita, KS area, schedule a free consultation and let us show you how much a new mile can improve your life!
