Teeth alignment plays such a major part in how you chew, speak, and even in how you breathe. If you are not sure if your own alignment is correct, there are ways you can tell. In fact, if you are concerned enough, but you are not ready to ask a dentist just yet, here are the ways in which you can tell that your alignment is off. 

Front Teeth Are Not on Top of Each Other

Everyone has a slight overbite, but technically, your top front teeth should be right on top of your front bottom teeth, matching biting edge for biting edge. When they do not match up, the rest of your bite can be quite off as well. In fact, if you take a closer look or feel around your clenched teeth with a finger, you may just find that most of your teeth are not sitting on top of each other, which can cause a lot of chewing problems. 

Bite to the Side

Teeth that feel as though they are too far inward on one side and too far outward on the other means that your alignment is misaligned to one side. Your upper or lower jaw developed a side slide, and then it just stayed that way when it went uncorrected without orthodontia. You can still correct this as an adult, and your dentist would be happy to help you with this process if you would like. 

Canines Should Fit Together

You are neither dog nor cat, so your canine teeth should not be more forward or more behind each other. As a human, your canine teeth should fit together in a sort of zig-zaggy way. When they are correctly aligned, the canines can do some serious meat-tearing damage.

When they do not fit together like pointy jigsaw pieces, you are forced to rely on your molars to do most of the work for tearing and grinding meat. Your molars then suffer because they were only supposed to do the grinding work, not the tearing and grinding. 

You Should Have a Larger Opening Near the Back of Your Throat for Breathing

Turns out, your wisdom teeth do have a job to do. They are responsible for keeping your airway open enough for you to breath properly. When the wisdom teeth do not align, and a dentist removes them, the amount of open airway you had closes as the gums where your wisdom teeth were located cause your whole mouth to close off tighter. This results in sleep apnea at night, so it is important to align and keep all of your teeth. For more information about teeth alignment, contact your dentist.