What Causes Crooked Teeth?

While it’s hard not to notice all the perfectly straight, white smiles plastered all over television, movies, and advertisements, the reality is that not everyone possesses such picture perfect smiles. In fact, it’s extremely common to have crooked, less-than-perfect looking teeth. But, why do some people seem to naturally have near-perfect smiles while others aren’t so lucky? Your San Antonio braces provider at South Texas Orthodontics is here to help shed some light on the topic to help you understand. So, let’s find out just what causes crooked teeth.

Bad Oral Habits

Typically, the reasons behind crooked teeth can be traced back to early childhood for many patients. It can all begin with a few bad habits learned early on. While thumb, finger, or pacifier sucking is extremely common in young children, it can become harmful to oral development if the habit is allowed to continue too late into childhood, causing teeth to shift out of alignment over time.

Other seemingly unconscious habits, such as mouth-breathing and reverse-swallowing (also called tongue thrusting), can lead to similar results of thumb sucking, and these habits can be even more difficult to break the longer they are allowed to continue.

Trauma or Illness

Severe facial trauma that affects any part of the mouth or jaw can also be to blame for crooked teeth. Severe shifting of the jaw or tooth loss due to illness — such as cancer — or injury, can majorly impact movement of teeth remaining in the mouth post-injury as they shift to take up the extra space that has been created.

Luckily, there are orthodontic procedures that can help minimize the impact of such illness or injuries. To learn more, speak to your orthodontist in San Antonio.

Timing of Tooth Loss

Sometimes baby teeth are lost prematurely due to poor dental hygiene habits, and this, unfortunately, can impact the alignment of permanent teeth. Baby teeth tend to act as a sort of anchor for the permanent teeth, guiding them into place as they surface. When baby teeth are lost too early, the permanent teeth lose that guidance and may come in misaligned.

On the flip side, waiting too long to pull stubborn baby teeth can cause overcrowding in the mouth, as permanent teeth try to move in before there is room. Overcrowding causes teeth to shift out of place as they try to use any and all available space.

It’s Genetic

Surprisingly, one of the most common reasons behind crooked teeth is completely unavoidable — genetics. Often, the traits that contribute to things like mouth size, teeth crowding, and misaligned jaws are inherited traits from parents. This means, in some ways, you have as much control over your teeth alignment as you do your skin, hair, or eye color.

Schedule a Visit with Your San Antonio Braces Provider Today

If you’ve been in searching for the right orthodontist, San Antonio based South Texas Orthodontics would love to help you. We create personalized orthodontic treatment plans individualized to a patient’s unique needs and have a treatment option for just about everyone! Besides offering traditional braces treatments, we are also a proud Invisalign San Antonio provider. If you’d like to find out if you’re a good candidate for orthodontic treatment, contact us today to schedule your appointment and get started. We hope to see you in our office soon!