I sucked my thumb as a child and my teeth stick out

Q. Throughout my childhood, i very stupidly sucked my thumb, which has now left my top row of teeth sticking a lot further out than my bottom row, and because of this, I don’t smile and lose my confidence when speaking to people and tend to put my hand over my mouth when talking, what do you think that I would actually need to do to correct this and help me smile? Please help me. Thank you

 

A. Unfortunately your thumb sucking has altered your jaw shape. Surgery is possible but not often undertaken. There are other ways to improve your smile whilst accepting the upper and lower jaw positions.

The probable options for you are to have orthodontics (braces) or to have veneers placed to disguise the position of your teeth or a combination of both. Within my surgery we often move teeth to a better position with a brace and then, if required, veneer the teeth to enhance the smile. By doing it this way there is limited tooth removal for the veneer placement and sometimes veneers are not required at all. Following the orthodontics a permanent retainer is usual required to hold the teeth in their new position- this is a very thin wire bonded to the back of your teeth.

Dr Julian Caplan BDS
Director on the board of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry

Aviva Cosmetic Dentistry
www.avivacosmeticdentistry.co.uk
101 St. Peters Street,
St. Albans, Hertfordshire.
AL1 3EN

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Tags: braces, orthodontics, Q. Dental Veneers

This post was published on Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 at 5:12 pmand is filed under Dr Caplan's Answers, Experts Answers, Q. Orthodontics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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