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Here’s Why You Should Not Ignore Your Kid’s Overbite, Underbite, Or Other Bite Problems

When imparting the importance of dental care, it’s always wise to start at a young age. If you have a kid, it’s your responsibility as a parent to teach them how to brush properly and to take them to the dentist regularly. This role becomes especially punctuated if your child has a bite problem.

Bite Problems You Need To Be Aware Of

The ideal situation inside your kid’s mouth is this: The upper front teeth extend over their lower counterparts slightly enough for molars to fittingly meet. If your child’s teeth don’t meet this, it means he or she has a bad bite — medically referred to as malocclusion. This condition is typically caused by premature loss of baby teeth, bad habits (e.g. Tongue thrusting, thumb sucking), accidents, or simply because of hereditary reasons.

To fully follow the standards of dental care, it is important to address your young one’s bite issue to prevent it from worsening. In this section, we’ll help you familiarize yourself with the different types of bite problems.

Underbite. In this condition, your kid‘s lower jaw protrudes more than the top. Medically called prognathism, one culprit behind this issue is thumb sucking during your child’s infant and toddler stages. For most cases, the main reason is inherited genes of the said condition.

Overbite. Contrary to underbite, overbite or retrognathism, happens when the upper front teeth protrude over the lower front teeth in an exaggerated manner. When not treated accordingly, this condition can escalate to bigger dental concerns like the premature wearing of teeth and jaw pain.

Open bite. This occurs when the upper and lower teeth don’t meet and connect when the jaws are closed. Occurring to around 0.6% of people in America, the most common causes of this issue is thumb sucking and tongue thrusting. This is better treated in the early stages because it can lead to more serious conditions like temporomandibular joint disorder.

Cross bite. A common issue among children, crossbite refers to a condition when one’s teeth don’t fit properly over each other. Though this can be corrected naturally overtime, it can be fixed by wearing palatal expanders or standard braces.

Why You Should Address Bite Problems

Many parents ignore bite problems because they regard them as merely cosmetic issues. However, there’s more to this dental concern than being just an aesthetic flaw.

Though patients with mild cases of bite problems live normally, those with severe conditions often experience difficulty in biting and chewing food. Furthermore, they also suffer challenges in their speech — they tend to find it difficult to pronounce certain letters like “S.”

Overtime, underbite, and overbite can also damage their upper and lower front teeth. Though it happens gradually, these bite concerns may eventually cause teeth to chip and worse, disintegrate.

In other cases, unresolved bite problems also cause mouth and face pain because of the misaligned jaws.

Part of smart parenting is knowing and relaying the importance of dental care. Thanks to portals like HealthSoothe, educational materials about oral hygiene are now accessible straight from your devices.

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