Some people are blessed with “perfect teeth.” Most people, though, are not… Indeed, most people experience crooked teeth in their lifetime, whether it’s their baby teeth and/or permanent teeth coming in crooked.

Baby Teeth

Baby teeth typically come in crooked because they’re just too small to fill the amount of gum space available. Baby teeth can also come in crooked due to prolonged sucking on a pacifier, bottle or thumb, which causes teeth to become “pushed out” or crooked. Tongue thrusting and mouth breathing can also contribute to crooked teeth. Can heredity and genetics play a role, too? Definitely.

As baby teeth fall out and permanent teeth replace them, there’s a chance a young person experiences tooth decay and/or trauma to the mouth. When baby teeth fall out sooner than they would naturally, then permanent teeth are likely to grow out of the gums at a slanted angle rather than a straight one.

Rother Reasons

What are some other reasons teeth can be crooked? Today’s diets require less chewing than the diets of people who lived centuries before us. This has actually altered our collective jaw size over time! Shorter, smaller jaws make for more crowded and crooked teeth. Furthermore, many young people have a malocclusion– a misaligned jaw– resulting in an overbite or underbite where teeth don’t “match up” when taking bites– and you might get crooked teeth.

Poor dental care (not brushing or flossing, never visiting a dentist) and/or poor nutrition can also lead to crooked teeth. And if a kid gets hit in the mouth with a ball or punched by a sibling, that too could cause crooked teeth.

Many people with crooked teeth invest in braces to straighten them so they “look nicer” and “work better.” If you’d like to know more about dealing with crooked teeth, call Brockport Dental of Brockport, NY, at 585-636-0555.