How to Fix Diastema?
When you close your eyes and picture an ideal smile, are you thinking of a set of white, straight teeth? For some people, their naturally straight teeth never required orthodontic braces. But for most children and adults, professional dental intervention is necessary to achieve those ideal smiles. One of the most common problems that stand between people and a straight smile is a diastema. Diastema is a gap or a space between two teeth and is very easily treated.
If you have a smile like David Letterman, with a gap between your two front teeth, and you want to change that noticeable space to a remarkable smile, you can start with a conversation with the dentist. In order to treat your diastema, the dentist will need to address the cause of your gap. The dentist will be able to offer different treatment options depending on where the diastema is located in your mouth.
The dentist will review your mouth and determine if the cause of your diastema is one of the following:
- Discrepancies between the size of the teeth and the size of the jaw bone, like in the mouths of young adults whose mouths are still growing
- Missing teeth from genetics, tooth decay, or gum disease
- Oversized labial frenum or the tissue that attaches the lip to the gum can be too large pulling the teeth apart
- A result of thumb sucking as a child after the baby teeth fall out and the permanent teeth grow in
- Tongue thrusting or poor swallowing techniques that apply pressure to the teeth pushing them apart from each other
Then the dentist can offer one of the following treatments to eliminate or minimize the gaps between your teeth:
- Orthodontic braces
- Invisalign
- Dental implants
- Dental bonding
- Dental veneers
- Dental crowns
- Changing swallowing habits to ensure your improvements remain
Diastema may not occur as your only dental problem, so the dentist may be able to use one treatment to address more than one issue. And some diastemata are more severe than others so some treatment plans will be more involved than others. In the case of orthodontic braces or their removable alternative, Invisalign, the treatment may take six months to two years with the placement of permanent retainers to ensure the teeth remain in their new place. Alternatively, dental bonding can be addressed in one or two dental appointments with immediate results.
If you have struggled with tooth loss as a result of gum disease, dental implants may be the best long-term solution to fill in the gap from the missing tooth and to keep the surrounding teeth in place. When you lose a tooth to decay, the resulting gap can cause problems for the surrounding teeth, the jaw bone and the gum tissue around the area of the missing tooth. A dental implant can change the aesthetics of the diastema as well as helping you keep your mouth healthier down the road.
No matter if you are enlarging your already healthy teeth to cover the gap or if you are adding a crown to a damaged tooth, a full smile will help you have the confidence to share your smile.