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The true scientific reasons for crowded or crooked teeth and what you can do to achieve a naturally straight smile both in baby and adult teeth.
Scientists have suggested several different theories over the decades as to what causes crooked teeth in humans.
When my Dad started medical school in the late 1940s, he was taught that racial mixing (Italians marrying Irish for example) was the cause of crooked teeth.
Malocclusions had just started to reach epidemic proportions in children at that time.
Of course, this theory of racial mixing causing crooked teeth which were incidentally presented as fact to the wide-eyed medical students of the time is completely ridiculous and has long since been disproven.
Other theories include thumb sucking and consuming soft foods which are suppositions subscribed to by many orthodontists.
The soft food theory suggests that because humans don’t exercise their jaw muscles enough that our jaws have become weak and narrowed over time.
One orthodontist once told me (while I struggled to keep a straight face) that wisdom teeth were being genetically “selected out” of the gene pool because they are no longer needed because of the different foods that humans now eat compared with ancestral societies.
Now comes a variation of the “soft food causes crooked teeth” theory which was recently described in a study published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
This new theory states that the movement of humans from hunter-gatherers to farmers around 10,000 years ago put us on the inevitable road to the orthodontist’s chair.
To test this hypothesis, Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel, an anthropologist at the University of Kent in the UK, examined the skull and jaw shapes of ancient skeletons housed in museums that originated from Africa, Australia, Europe, and North/South America.
Six of the populations lived by farming and five were hunter-gatherers.
A significant correlation existed between how a population obtained its food and the shape of the jaw. Hunter-gatherers had narrower and more jutting lower jaws whereas those of the agriculturalists were shorter and wider.
The shape of the upper jaw and palate also varied somewhat between the farmers and hunter-gatherers.
Von Cramon-Taubadel concludes by suggesting that the transition to farming and an increase in food processing both of which led to the consumption of softer foods resulted in a shorter and weaker human jaw.
“Jaw shortening” leads to greater crowding of the teeth.
To lend support to her theory, von Cramon-Taubadel refers to preliminary studies of animals that show that those that are raised on softer more processed foods develop smaller jaws than those raised on fresh, unprocessed diets.
Katerina Harvati, an anthropologist at the University of Tubingen in Germany says that this recent paper by von Cramon-Taubadel is a “well thought out piece of research and an important contribution” to understanding how the way humans live affects their body shape.
She goes on to say, “These findings confirm long-held ideas that the dietary shift to softer foods was an important influence affecting facial and dental morphology.” (1)
The “Soft Food” Theory
Strong contradictory evidence to the soft food theory as a reason for crooked teeth is presented in Dr. Weston A. Price’s book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
How this convincing evidence was completely ignored as part of this supposedly “well thought out piece of research” is rather surprising and I would think, downright embarrassing for the author.
While hunter-gatherers certainly had strong jaws which allowed them to consume hard foods, the strength did not come from greater exercising of the jaw muscles! As suggested by Sally Fallon Morell, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation, such a theory makes the critical mistake of confusing muscle with bone.
A narrowed jaw and palate, for example, can be identified in babies at birth long before they have chewed anything!
Dr. Price also correctly pointed out that when the jaw and palate are narrowed, other parts of the skeleton are correspondingly narrowed as well such as the pelvic opening which causes greater difficulty in childbirth and the chest cavity which crowds the vital organs.
The Swiss farmers studied by Dr. Price subsisted on very soft foods and yet had beautifully broad palates with perfectly straight teeth.
Moreover, the South Sea Islanders photographed by Dr. Price with perfectly straight teeth consumed primarily seafood and poi, both soft foods with poi, in particular, a very soft and sticky staple carbohydrate in their diet.
The Truth About Crooked Teeth
Von Cramon-Taubadel did get one aspect of her paper correct. The rise of food processing did indeed contribute to the modern epidemic of crooked teeth, but not because such foods are softer than unprocessed foods.
Rather, processed and industrialized foods are devoid of the critical nutrients necessary to produce a broad and sturdy jaw with correspondingly straight teeth.
How to Get Naturally Straight Teeth
Dr. Price’s research compellingly argues that a lack of jaw development and crooked teeth is entirely nutritional in origin such as attempting to build a wide bridge with substandard materials. (2)
Without essential nutrients in the form of minerals and the fat-soluble activators A, D, and K2 which were abundant in primitive diets, the jaw and palate cannot form with enough strength to support a broad facial structure.
No surprise that the pregnancy diet of ancestral women was rich in all three of these palate-widening nutrients, but these nutrients in their natural, synergistic form are woefully low in prenatal diets of today. Prenatal supplements do not adequately fill the gap either as these pills are largely synthetic and not easily absorbed.
Traditional cultures ensured that a fat soluble-rich diet continued throughout a child’s early years as well. This guaranteed straight baby teeth as well as uncrowded adult teeth.
The easiest way to ensure a child gets enough is with a daily dose of high vitamin cod liver oil and a K2 supplement such as butter oil, natto extract, or emu oil. Vetted brands listed here.
Hence, the narrowing of the face and crooked teeth in the majority of modern children is the result of a nutritionally deficient diet. This is the case no matter what the hardness of weaning foods, thumb-sucking or pacifier use, or whether the baby was breastfed and for how long.
(1) Blame Your Crowded Teeth on Early Farmers, Wired
(2) The Right Price, The Weston A. Price Foundation
More Information
How I Healed My Child’s Cavity
Busting the Beta Carotene Vitamin A Myth
Toddler’s Severe Tooth Decay Halted in 5 Days
Whiten Your Teeth Without Dangerous Chemicals
Resolving Periodontal Problems with Bone Broth
Coconut Oil Stops Strep Bacteria from Damaging Tooth Enamel
Your Dentist is Holistic?
Avoiding Root Canals
Could the Cause of Your Illness Be Right Under Your Nose?
Wisdom Tooth Extractions
What Really Causes Crooked Teeth? http://t.co/LtUvFqnC
The dentist has told us my son needs his wisdom teeth out, and I have always thought it was inevitable. He’s had braces already and he’s 16, now. Is there something we can do to prevent having his wisdom teeth out at this late stage? Should I just buy the Weston A. Price book?
He is pretty much fully grown, so widening of his jaw to accommodate at this stage via nutrition is unlikely. A wide palate and jaw are mostly formed in the womb.
However, make sure that if he must have those wisdom teeth out that the removal is done correctly without leaving any cavitations behind which can cause long term health problems much like root canals can.
what is the correct way to remove teeth,so as to avoid cavitations?
I would be careful having the wisdom teeth out. If there is no problems with them such as an infection, I would leave them in. Fortunately my son did not have his out and it will help his jaws and bone density. Dr. Hang was very happy about this. It is just not the truth that they make the teeth crooked again after braces. There are other reasons for this one being the natural mesial shift of the teeth throughout life. Then there is the memory and the teeth that want to drift back to where they were and then one more thing is the tongue and muscle function and how that will effect the teeth. There are so many more things that effect the movement of teeth. The wisdom teeth are not one, usually. Seek wisdom, before you pull any teeth.
Nearly died laughing when I read about the soft food theory. Thanks for injecting some common sense (amazing how many so called scientists lack it).
@Rebecca make sure you go to a functional dentist… there’s no use spending money on straightening teeth just to make them look pretty. I sing the praises of the advanced Lightwire Device… if you start your child young they won’t need braces.
Of related interest, a recent post: http://nourishingourchildren.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/how-the-teeth-tell-the-tale/
LOVE that post Sandrine! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Thank you for the positive feedback, Sarah!
My amazing dentist used an ALF on me and relieved me from so pain and grinding of my teeth. http://mcleandentist.tripod.com/id42.htm
Thanks for this post! Are there any concerns with having baby teeth pulled that Price may have mentioned or that has come up in real food research? Our dentist is saying it’s necessary because of overcrowding and believes braces are in our future, but we are pushing real food and hoping for some positive adjustments based in nutrition. Any advice?
I ate a whole grain low-fat diet with minimal meat when pregnant with my daughter. She is now in her 20’s, has a severe overbite, which she will soon be using a functional orthodontics program to widen her upper palate to make room for the lower jaw. We have good hopes that this non-surgical procedure will stop her jaw-clicking and neck and shoulder pain, in addition to aligning her teeth. When pregnant with my next 2 kids, I was buying pasture- fed beef and meats which was a substantial part of my diet. My sons do not suffer from malocclusions despite the younger having been a thumb-sucker like his sister. I so wish I had ignored the whole grain, no cholesterol mantra of the 1980’s and 1990’s.
In the past nine months, I’ve learned so much about what is truly healthy eating, not what is touted as ‘healthy’ by ‘professionals’. While our diet has changed 180 degrees from a year ago, I have four children born before we discovered this way of eating and one born just several months after (I started out pregnancy on a SAD). How can I best help those which are not already lost causes to orthodontics already? I breastfeed the youngest. We already eat lots of healthy fats, pastured meats, soaked whole grains, lots of fruits and veggies. FCLO is out of reach for us financially (with 7 in the family that’s a lot to go through in a month). Is there a brand of Cod Liver Oil that would work as a substitute or something else we could do?
Yes, eat liver 2-3 times a week. Chicken liver is very affordable even the best quality.
YES there are other options besides conventional orthodontics! Currently myself and my 7 year old daughter are under the care of a neuromuscular dentist, one of the best in the nation. My daughter’s baby teeth looked beautiful but her permanet teeth were coming in crowded. In just a couple months through the use of an appliance, he has widened her upper jaw so there is ample room for all the teeth and we just started with another appliance to do the same for the lower. As for myself, I sought care after reading an article in Wise Traditions about malocclusions. Since being under care my constant fatigue, headaches and neck pain have improved about 90%. I feel like a new person. Part of my treatment is also appliances to widen the upper and lower arches. http://www.midwestheadaches.com for more information!
how can an orthodontic appliance widen the arch in an adult?
my orthodontist told me that the arch in an adult is set like bone and can only be widened by surgically cutting the arch in two and holding it apart until new bone forms..
Mali, You are correct except for the slow part. It is hard on the bone to move teeth through it for years. One could get some bone loss as an adult as a result of moving the teeth too slow or fast especially if they pull any teeth. There is a memory factor also. The tongue is a much better mover of teeth and much more natural to the mouth than a metal expander! haha Proper tongue position would be what I would check first.