Little did we know that the lisp, a certain speech disorder mostly oriented with either the wrong placement of the tongue when talking or what the professionals call the “reversed swallow” (the act of swallowing through pushing the tongue forward when in fact it should be the other way around), is a dental issue too. Yes, you’re reading it right. Most of the people with lisps have an over bite since they tend to push their tongues forward, thus, the air escaping the sides of the tongue. This “gap” is the reason why people who have lisps tend to pronounce the letter “S” more like “TH”. Lisps can be corrected (dentally speaking), through braces with orthodontic rubber bands or with the use of headgears (extreme cases).

Photo taken from http://www.kiferdentalspecialist.com

There are certain people with braces who have “rubber bands” either forming an X across the maxilla and the mandible, or just a single rubber band pulling both the maxilla and mandible together. Those rubber bands have a purpose, and that is to help people who have “over bites” or “under bites” correct their jaw alignment. Although some have other reasons why they attach rubber bands to their braces (i.e. to pull a hidden tooth inside the gum), over bites and under bites are the most common concerns addressed by these elastics. What these orthodontic rubber bands do is they pull both the maxilla and mandible towards the other direction.

Photo taken from http://library.thinkquest.org