Smiling Makes You Feel Better
Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 movie “Modern Times” featured a song titled “Smile,” for which Chaplin wrote the music. It encourages people to make their lives better just by smiling. In a way, that’s the same message from an orthodontist. Like smile quotes, orthodontic quotes say “Smile and you’ll feel better,” and when your smile shows off good-looking and healthy teeth, you’ll definitely feel better.
An orthodontist, however, is more than a smile doctor and more than a dentist. An orthodontist is an expert at treating people whose teeth are positioned improperly, causing an improper bite as well as speech defects and other troubles. Some of the most common problems are:
- teeth overcrowding, which may push teeth out of line
- underbite and overbite, which means that upper and lower teeth are not in line, causing difficulties in both speaking and chewing
- malocclusion, which indicates a bad bite and causes a misshapen jaw. In young children, this may be caused by thumb sucking.
If you have any of these or other problems that are painful, your orthodontist will first make a thorough examination of your jaws and teeth. Following x-rays and bite impressions, he or she will recommend treatment. This may include dental braces, which are attached to each individual tooth so that the teeth will be gently moved into proper alignment. An overbite or underbite may be corrected by headgear or a facemask that fits around the head. After proper treatment, retainers may be inserted so that the corrected teeth do not move back into improper alignment.
If you have any problems, such as wide gaps between the teeth, crooked teeth, or speech and eating problems caused by badly aligned teeth, see a Nashville orthodontist today. We can promise just what Charlie Chaplin did; it will all be worthwhile if you just smile.
