Dental Midline: What It Is and How Straightening It Can Help Your Bite

If you need orthodontic treatment, chances are you’ve heard your dentist or orthodontist talk about your dental midline. But do you know what that is or why it’s important? At Northwest Orthodontics, we know how important your midline is to your oral health and even your overall health. We also know phrases like “dental midline” or “midline shift” might as well be in Greek for most of our patients. 

If your dental midline isn’t where it should be, it can make it harder for you to bite and chew properly. So let’s take a look at what a dental midline is, why it’s so important to your oral health, and what we can do to fix it if it’s out of line.

What Is a Dental Midline?

So what is the dental midline? It’s really simple. This is the line between your top middle teeth and your bottom middle teeth. Your dental midline should line up with the center of your face. If it doesn’t, that’s called a dental midline shift or a deviated midline, and that can cause problems. That’s why we pay attention to that dental midline. When it’s out of whack, so is your bite.

The Effects of a Dental Midline Shift

So your dental midline isn’t so much a straight line and more of a diagonal. No big deal, right? Well, not so much. Midline deviation teeth don’t line up properly in the front, but they also cause the back teeth not to line up properly. 

When your teeth don’t line up properly, this affects your ability to bite and chew properly. You may not be able to chew your food well enough, leading to digestion problems. That affects your overall health. 

Problems with your bite don’t just affect your digestion. When you bite or chew incorrectly, it puts abnormal pressure on your jaw. Over time, this can lead to excessive wear on your teeth, jaw pain, and temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ or TMD). That’s why it’s so important to fix your dental midline shift with orthodontics.

How We Can Fix a Dental Midline Shift

So how do we fix a dental midline shift? With braces or clear aligners, of course! Braces and Invisalign can move your teeth into the correct positions and realign your jaw so that your dental midline is once again lined up with the middle of your face. 

Northwest Orthodontics offers traditional metal braces and clear braces that can eliminate your dental midline shift. The length of your treatment will depend on how far the midline deviated teeth have shifted and whether you have other issues to correct, such as crowded teeth or an overbite. 

If braces aren’t your thing, we can consider treatment with Invisalign. Though braces are better at correcting a deviated midline, Invisalign can fix the problem to a certain degree. Best of all, Invisalign is nearly invisible so that you can show off your smile throughout your treatment! 

So if you have a deviated midline in the Northwest Arkansas or River Valley areas, give Northwest Orthodontics a call or start a virtual consult. We can schedule you for a free, no-obligation consultation and determine what treatment is right for you!