Open Bite
An open bite is a gap between the upper and lower teeth when you bite together. It makes biting into food awkward, can affect speech, and puts all the chewing load onto the back teeth.
Ready to book your appointment?
Send us your details and we'll be in touch — usually within one working day.
Habits and growth, not carelessness.
Anterior open bites are often driven by tongue posture, thumb sucking or mouth breathing during growth. Correcting the tooth position without addressing the habit invites relapse.
Because of that, treatment usually pairs aligners or braces with tongue-posture retraining, and sometimes an airway assessment. Severe skeletal open bites may need surgical correction for a stable result.
How an open bite shows itself.
The signs vary, but most people notice one or more of these:
- 01A visible gap when your back teeth touch
- 02Difficulty biting into a sandwich or apple
- 03Lisping or unclear 's' sounds
- 04Heavy wear on the back teeth
- 05Jaw muscle fatigue when chewing
- 06Tongue resting between the front teeth
Where it comes from.
The most common culprits:
Don't wait it out.
Speak to your our practice dentist if you're experiencing any of the following — book an appointment as soon as you can:
- —You can't bite through food with your front teeth.
- —Speech sounds have changed.
- —Your back teeth are wearing quickly.
- —Your child still sucks their thumb past age five.
In discomfort right now?
Open bite is usually painless but concentrates load on the back teeth, sometimes causing cracks or muscle ache. Cracked-tooth pain needs prompt assessment.
A plan, not a quick fix.
We assess tongue posture, airway and the skeletal pattern, then plan aligners or braces alongside habit retraining. Where the pattern is strongly skeletal, we co-plan with an orthodontic and surgical team.
