Why do people have crooked teeth?

Mal-aligned teeth or crooked teeth are problematic not only aesthetically but also from a health point of view. Irregularly placed teeth when present are difficult to clean and maintain hygiene, affect the speech, alters the facial profile and decreases the quality of smile and overall confidence of the person.

Let's see what are the causes of having crooked teeth.

1. Heredity and Evolution
During the course of evolution, the size of man's jaw has been decreasing gradually. Before thousands of years it is believed that human's used to have long jaws and even four molars. Present day human has smaller jaws and even third molars are impacted and need to be removed surgically these days.

Also, heredity also plays an important in proper alignment of teeth. If any of the parents have crooked tooth, the offsprings may also inherit the same.

2. Tooth size arch length discrepancy
When the jaws are smaller and they cannot accommodate all the teeth in the arch properly, the teeth get displaced out of arch due to crowding. Decrease arch length may be due to actual enlargement of tooth, also called Macrodontia, or may be due to retarded growth of maxilla or mandible. Moreover due to consumption of more soft and refined foods, the jaw growth is deficient and the teeth fail to accommodate.

Also the arch length is lost when the deciduous tooth are removed early due to caries or the mesiodistal width of teeth is reduced due to proximal caries. The permanent successor teeth  cannot get enough space to erupt in the arch and become crooked.

3. Habits
Abnormal habits like mouth breathing, tongue thrusting and thumb sucking also exert unnatural forces on the orofacial structures and cause malocclusion.

When diagnosed and treated early, orthodontic treatment can have best outcome and restore natural and healthy smile. Even after the growth phase is completed, crooked teeth can be aligned using fixed archwires and brackets by your Orthodontist. Please visit your nearest Orthodontist if you have got any crooked tooth.