Maintaining your oral health is incredibly important. Not only can it ensure that your teeth and gums are healthy and strong for years to come, but it can also protect the health of your entire body. For example, tooth infections can actually lead to headaches or earaches, while misaligned jaws can impact your ability to eat or speak clearly.
Sometimes, however, it’s difficult to be proactive in regards to your teeth and mouth. Some aspects can be out of your control, such as adult teeth coming in crooked or knocking a tooth out during a hockey game. During such times, turning to your dentist may not be enough. Instead, this is when you should seek help from an orthodontist or an oral surgeon. With numerous establishments staffed with such professionals at your disposal, such as impactortho.com, you’re guaranteed to find the care you need.
But how do you know when you need an orthodontist versus an oral surgeon? By understanding their differences, we can get a better grasp of which professional you need to see.
Similarities:
Before we dive into the differences between an orthodontist and an oral surgeon, let’s briefly look at the similarities. The foundation between the two professions is the same. Both begin at dentistry school, where they are required to successfully complete the four years of their program. It is then after their graduation that the two diverge, as they explore their respective streams of study. During this time, they complete their residencies, which entails at least another four years of schooling.
Differences:
Orthodontist
An orthodontist is a dental specialist that focuses on the supervision, guidance, and correction of growing or mature teeth. They also work to diagnose, prevent, and treat any abnormalities associated with these dentofacial structures. By working to properly align your teeth, they ensure that their patients can speak, bite, and chew comfortably and effectively.
Common issues that orthodontists may treat include:
- Crowded teeth
- Gapped teeth
- Open bite
- Overbite
- Underbite
- Impacted teeth
The odds of you meeting with an orthodontist, particularly as a teenager, are fairly high. Orthodontists are perhaps best known for supplying their patients with braces, headgear, and retainers. These devices help to improve the alignment of your teeth as they are shifted into place by the wire or plastic moulding.
Oral Surgeon
An oral surgeon, meanwhile, specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of disorders, diseases, injuries, and defects that affect both the functional and aesthetic aspects of the hard and soft tissue in the mouth and surrounding area. Your oral health can impact more than just your mouth, which is why they’re trained to manage other aspects of your body, including your jaw, neck, and nose.
Common issues that oral surgeons may treat include:
- Impacted wisdom teeth
- Tooth loss
- TMJ disorder
- Overbite
- Underbite
- Fractured jawbone
- Broken facial bones
- Cleft lip
- Sleep apnea
While orthodontists can typically complete their role with you fully awake, oral surgeons generally require you to be sedated while they work in order for the reconstruction, implant, or extraction to be successful. While orthodontists may be a more familiar profession, you likely would have visited an oral surgeon if you needed your wisdom teeth removed.
Working Together:
Despite their differing specialties, both orthodontists and oral surgeons have one goal in mind: to improve your oral health. That’s why they often work collaboratively to ensure you are receiving the best possible care and obtaining the ideal results. For example, those with a severe overbite may require their jaw to be reset before their teeth are realigned. This would require a visit to an oral surgeon first, before then turning to an orthodontist.