The jaws drawn together tightly and the crushing of teeth. These are stress related symptoms in this stressful times. Men and women may release tension through potentially harmful mouth movements because of the stressful situations they constantly find themselves in. While asleep, adults may clench their jaws and grind their teeth to release tension, a condition which is known as bruxism. The clicking of jaw joints is becoming a problem in the neuromuscular side, and it produces ear pain, headaches, and vertigo as side effects.
One of the revelations of bruxism studies is that the condition is seen in more women than men who are above the 40 age bracket. For men, stomach problems are the signs of tension, while for women, it’s usually problems in the mouth. Orthodontics will not solve the problem since the dealing with the frustrations that cause tension is naturally the best solution for it, although teeth damage can be avoided for the time being if a person uses a plastic retainer or a jaw strap while asleep.
Bruxism is just one of other problems in the dental world that orthodontists are just realizing. The field of orthodontics over the past few years has broadened beyond teeth straightening for the purpose of cosmetics. New techniques and theories focus on the total facial structure including bone, muscle, jaw, lips and tongue, in addition to teeth.
Although orthodontics is often thought of as an area of dentistry that deals primarily with adolescent problems, it also relates well with many adults. One dentist points out that orthodontists have to be particularly careful when treating adults. Their tissues don’t bounce back as readily as children’s.
He points out that advances have been made in combining orthodontics and plastic surgery to reconstruct severe deformities resulting from such things as protruding jaws, cleft lips and palate. More than one half of orthodontic cases have to do with jaw growth, he said. The jaw controls the placement of the teeth. In many cases, the place where the jaw is will also be where the teeth will go. The underdeveloped jaw can be restructured through surgery or with corrective appliances to guide proper jaw growth.
While it is an optional cosmetic procedure, orthodontics is also a preventive procedure. A child may develop problems in speech and swallowing if he develops improper tongue thrust, which may develop especially if he sucks his thumb. A very powerful muscle on its own, the tongue is capable of making teeth change their position.
The upward and downward forces exerted by chinstraps are useful in correcting abnormal bite. Loss of teeth, bone damage, and jaw joint problems may result from a bad bite. The bonding of transparent with metal directly for braces and the replacing of heavy metal with lightweight chromium and cobalt for bands have improved dental devices. Though plastic is not always as effective as metal, in some cases it can be worn and is more aesthetically pleasing than a mouthful of metal.
A relatively new radiography apparatus, the laminagraph, is becoming more widely utilized in orthodontics. In one shot, it can take an X ray of the entire dentofacial region, and uses only a small amount of radiation compared to the conventional full mouth Xrays. Laminagraphy will not replace the use of individual X rays in locating tooth decay, but it will create better diagnoses.
Further education on the subject of dentistry can be found at invisalign sydney. Read more articles on dentistry at migraines.