Introduction

Irregular teeth alignment or malocclusion is more common than we think. Malocclusion is routinely treated by orthodontists using braces. Dental conditions that qualify for malocclusion include crowding, spacing, open bite, deep bite, and rotated teeth.

Orthodontists use braces to move teeth into desired positions and correct their alignment.

But did you know shifting teeth improve not just your bite but also your facial aesthetics and smile? How? Let’s find out!

Can Braces Change our Facial Appearance?

Though orthodontics corrects your teeth’ alignment, your facial tissues adapt to your facial skeleton and intraoral structures like your teeth and jaws. People with a proper alignment of jaws and teeth usually have asymmetric faces and smiles. Any abnormality in the alignment of teeth and jaws can affect your facial appearance.

Here are a few examples of how your teeth and jaw alignment can affect your facial appearance:

• People with a forwardly-placed upper jaw and/or teeth tend to have a protruding face. In most of these cases, the lips are short and cannot close the mouth completely.
• People with protruding lower jaw tend to have a broad smile and a retrognathic or protruding lower third of the face.
• Crowded teeth result in excessive cheek fullness and give an impression of something being stuffed in the cheeks.

Treating routine teeth malalignment problems with braces can change your facial appearance in the following ways:

• In mild malocclusion cases such as minor crowding or spacing, the facial aesthetics are not severely impacted. Using braces in these cases will bring about significant changes in teeth alignment and smile but the facial changes are not significant.

• In moderate crowding, using braces to correct teeth alignment can help bring about significant or noticeable change to facial appearance, making you more confident about yourself, improving your jaw movements, and even biting efficiency.

• The most significant changes in facial aesthetics are seen when braces are used to treat severe cases of open bite, deep bite, crowding, or underbites.

For example, the chin is excessively protruded in underbite cases where the lower teeth overlap the upper teeth. Correcting this misalignment of teeth improves facial aesthetics as the chin prominence is reduced and is in sync with other facial features.

The chin is almost negligible in severe protrusions where the upper teeth and/or jaw are forwardly placed. Correcting this malocclusion using braces increases the chin prominence and gives your face a more pleasing appearance.

Severe malocclusions usually require teeth and jaw alignment at the same time to bring about an efficient bite and reduce any stresses or trauma to the jaw joint or TMJ.

Key Takeaway!

The slightest malocclusion can affect your oral health. Severe teeth and jaw alignment problems affect your facial appearance. Regardless of the type of malocclusion, braces restore the appropriate correlation between upper and lower jaws and align your teeth to bring about significant facial structure, appearance, and smile changes.

So, we must understand that the better your teeth and jaw alignment, the more pleasing and attractive your smile and facial features are.

If you have any doubts or queries about ‘Do braces change your face?’ or ‘How do braces change your face?’, visit your nearest Sabka Dentist Clinic for an orthodontic consultation with an expert orthodontist in your city!