Signs of dental trouble can arise in children at the ages of around 6 to 7 when the adult teeth are just starting to come through. Once the baby teeth have left the mouth and the adult teeth are coming through, any issues with the teeth will become visible. Sometimes, even before any external factors have influenced the teeth, they can be crooked or misaligned. This is often due to hereditary factors and simply cannot be prevented before the adult teeth are in place. What is comforting, however, is that once the adult teeth are fully through, there is a range of treatments available to correct them.
Other signs of dental trouble can stem from habits adopted at a young age. For example, if you sucked your thumb regularly when young, this could cause a malocclusion, where the teeth point in an unnatural direction. Similar to buck teeth, if constant pressure is applied to teeth, this can cause them to grow unnaturally and lead to an overbite. Issues such as ulcers, sores and sensitive gums could also indicate problems with your dental hygiene and, if not resolved early, may cause much more serious issues in the future.
A common sign of dental issues is a toothache, which is a clear indication that something is wrong with your teeth. There can be a number of reasons why your teeth may be aching. Issues with the root of the tooth can cause severe pain, often due to poor hygiene. Other reasons could be that the teeth are too crowded and the pressure of them pushing up against one another causes the nerves in the gum to become trapped. Teeth that are still growing and yet to break through the gum, such as wisdom teeth, can also grow in an unnatural direction and, because this happens beneath the gum, it can be difficult to identify early on. It is not uncommon for wisdom teeth to grow at an angle, towards the other teeth, causing added pressure and toothache as a result.