All things considered, a gap between two front teeth can seem like a rare smile flaw. It certainly isn’t discussed as often as tooth stains, chips, cracks, and similar issues are. Even so, please don’t panic; it’s quite possible to fix the unwanted gap in your grin. Your Arlington Heights dentist can even share a few treatment options that’d help, ensuring your smile gets the care it needs. Just keep reading to learn about diastemas and their cosmetic dental solutions.
How Do Front Tooth Gaps Happen?
Technically, a front tooth gap is a diastema – a space wider than .5 millimeters between any teeth. It’s something visually unpleasant but ultimately harmless to your smile’s health.
Diastemas don’t have causes that vary by age. Whether you’re a child or an adult, such spaces are usually the result of:
- Infected Gums –When gums become infected, they often erode and destabilize your natural teeth. These effects can cause pearly whites to loosen and spread apart.
- Bad Oral Habits –As it happens, habits like thumb sucking, lip sucking, and tongue thrusting put pressure on front teeth. This pressure can create a large tooth gap.
- A Very Large Jaw – If your jaw is large relative to your teeth, tooth gaps will likely form.
- Undersized Teeth –Diastemas sometimes form when one tooth is smaller than an adjacent one. In fact, they’re almost inevitable when the tinier tooth is an upper lateral incisor.
What Can Dentists Do to Treat Them?
While gaps between front teeth aren’t the most common smile flaw, dentists have effective treatments for them. These are:
Cosmetic Dental Bonding
Cosmetic dental bonding is well-known for fixing stains and cracks, but it can also hide diastemas. The treatment would just apply tooth-colored resin to “fill” the space between your teeth. Once that material hardens, you won’t see an unsightly gap in your grin anymore.
Porcelain Veneers
Thanks to their versatility, veneers have the power to treat diastemas. A dentist would simply place the shells such that they cover up the gap between your teeth. After this placement is done, your diastema would be invisible; people would just see a well-aligned smile.
Invisalign Clear Aligners
Besides fixing misaligned teeth and jaws, Invisalign can treat diastemas as well. You’d just need to wear the treatment’s clear trays over the area with the gap. Over time, your aligners would close the space by moving the gapped teeth closer together.
A gap between front teeth may seem rare, but dentists can fix it. Just see your local dental provider to learn about solid treatment options.
About the Practice
Costello & DeHart Dental Excellence is based in Arlington Heights, IL. Led by Drs. Costello, DeHart, and Carr, our practice has been helping grins thrive for nearly sixty years. We’ve continually offered preventive, cosmetic, and restorative treatments in that time, always tailoring results to your smile’s needs. That means you can trust us with your whole family’s long-term dental care! For more details or to book a visit, please contact us on our website or by phone at (847)-259-1111.