An open bite is a type of teeth malocclusion in which some teeth, but not all, cannot be brought into physical contact with the opposite teeth on the upper or lower jaw. The problem is most likely to occur with the incisors or front teeth. The problem with the open bite is usually a jaw problem, in which the structure of the jaw is abnormal. With an open bite, one can actually see inside the individual’s mouth when the person is biting down.
Causes of open bite:
The cause of an open bite is often genetic. You get the shape and size of your jaw because of your genes. You can also get an open bite because of excessive thumb-sucking or thrusting of the tongue, which is a nervous habit. If this is done at a young age, it can change the shape of the jaw permanently. Certain speech disorders, such as lisping, can cause the problem to worsen. Interestingly, having an open bite can contribute to the speech impairment, so it is hard to know which disorder came first.
Open Bite Symptoms:
The symptoms of an open bite include poor chewing and painful chewing. It can be embarrassing because it is difficult to hold the food in the mouth since there is a permanent space between the upper and lower jaw.
Common Complications:
If an open bite isn’t corrected, the functioning of the mouth would remain abnormal. Speech is affected and people who try to bite off things with their incisors can do so, sometimes for the first time. An open bite can affect the temporomandibular joint or TMJ, which is the jaw joint. It can wear down and become painful, yielding pain in the TMJ or headache pain. It can affect the cartilage of the joint, causing it to wear down to the bone. In some cases, a person with a prolonged open bite can require surgery to repair the TMJ and replace it with an artificial one.
Open Bite Prevention:
Some open bites can’t be prevented because they are hereditary. Ways to reduce the degree of open bite is to avoid thumb sucking and finger sucking and to avoid tongue thrusting behaviors. Speech therapy may correct some of the lisping and other speech disorders that contribute to an open bite.
Treatment Options:
In order to treat an open bite, you need to actually change the structure of the jaw. This means sometimes doing surgery in order to change the shape of the maxilla. The procedure most often used for an open bite is called a maxillary impaction procedure. This procedure realigns the maxilla so that bite is as normally approximated as possible. The braces are placed on the affected teeth for at least several months before the surgery and for up to two years after surgery. A functional appliance may need to be considered if there is tongue thrusting behavior.