There are medical conditions that are easy to hide. Anything that can be covered up with your clothes is a given. Those involving your limbs are impossible to keep hidden, but people mostly do not see them as severe injuries. But when it comes to your head, things start to get more serious. Your face is what other people associate with when identifying you, and having any signs of operation or treatment being done may not always be the prettiest sight.
Some conditions or injuries involve the teeth and the jaw, to which some may need the expertise of someone to correct it, like an oral surgeon. Kokomo, Indiana has such experts who can do that for you. So if you are someone suffering from TMJ, jaw clenching, or teeth grinding, you can heed their advice.
Some habits and activities affect your oral health, and you should be made aware so that you can stop doing them.
Thumbsucking
Babies can only feed themselves by sucking the milk out of their mother’s chest or a bottle because their teeth have not developed yet. The first year is a very formative one for infants. Their teeth, in particular, start to grow at the six-month mark. Taking them off the feeding bottle is recommended after their first birthday. That may be tough for some because they tend to turn to suck other things, like their thumb. This habit should be eliminated as soon as possible.
So if you are someone who can look over your child at all times, watch them closely. This can affect how their teeth grow. The thumb may act as an obstruction or a clamp for their front teeth, which can cause them to grow at an angle and make them look crooked later on. If you or your child has this condition, you will be advised to get braces. You will be required to wear them for a year or two, and this will force your teeth to align themselves back into place.
Leaning on Your Chin
When you get bored, one of the things you do to keep your head up is to rest one side of your face on the palm of your hand. If this is a habit that you are doing for extended hours every day, it may affect the alignment of your jaw. And since the teeth are attached to it, this could have an effect on them, too.
Leaning on your chin using any surface basically have you applying the downforce from the weight of your head. The said surface like the palm of your hand would then counteract it with an upward force. This could have an unfavorable effect on both the upper and lower rows of teeth on either side of the cheek. Just hope that you don’t need to get oral surgery if ever your jaw gets involved.
Contact Sports
Sports that involve martial arts are obvious candidates for this, but there are many sports that do not directly involve fighting and yet still pose a danger to your teeth and jaw. Team sports such as basketball and soccer feature ten to about two dozen players on the field, all trained up to run fast, jump high, and just plain be athletic. When you have that number of people with the same level of skills, do not expect the whole game to end without anyone getting hurt. Elbows and knees are thrown around here with much gusto. So if you are someone who participates in similar sports, do not forget to wear your mouthguard.
Oral injuries are no joke. Losing teeth or breaking a jaw can cause serious consequences such as not being able to eat properly. But some of them are clearly avoidable. You only need to change a habit or two if you want to maintain good oral health.
