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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
I do believe bottle-feeding is a contributing factor. Certainly not the only one! I have some of the world’s worst teeth. I have fissures in the back teeth, causing me to get cavities no matter how much I brush. I had braces to fix my underbite, gap teeth, and buck teeth. To say nothing of the headgear, rubber bands, etc!
Meanwhile my older brother has never had a cavity in his life, and his teeth came in perfectly.
My mom insists the difference is that the water was fluorinated where she lived when my brother was born, and I always had unfluorinated water. I think it must be that first-child thing. She is a strong believer in low-fat diets and has lived low-fat all her life. However, she did eat a lot of cheese and butter when she was pregnant with my brother, because she was on WIC. Ironically, she ate better on government aid than she ever did when she had money to spend on food!
However, the orthodontist, after observing my bite, told me that I have a tongue thrust. I push my tongue forward whenever I swallow, which pushes my front teeth forward. This behavior is learned from bottlefeeding — the baby pushes his tongue forward to keep from choking on the fast-flowing milk while he swallows. I was breastfed, but given bottles of water as well, which was a habit I kept for a long time.
Really, for optimal tooth placement, formula-fed babies should be fed by other means than a bottle, such as a cup, finger tube, or lact-aid. These are all a hassle, but will probably be better for oral development. Or at least wean from a bottle to a cup as soon as possible — which pediatricians are now recommending anyway. I don’t know how pacifiers rank in mouth development, but I think they are better than bottles.
Meanwhile, diet is certainly contributing, too. My mom still eats low-fat, and her sixth child, who is three, has “vampire teeth” that astounded the dentist when he first saw them. Finally he concluded that “something went wrong” when his teeth were developing in the womb and failed to form completely. My mom theorizes it’s because she had the flu. I think it’s because you can’t eat terribly for six pregnancies and have any nutrient stores left.
Now off to eat something healthy so my baby — whose teeth are forming right now in utero, I think — doesn’t have to go through all the agony I did!
I also have to get braces and the orthodontist told me I was tongue thruster also. Did you ever get your tongue thrusting habit fixed? Did you have to go get therapy? I am not looking forward to spending money to fix my habit as an adult. 🙁
Tiff, Do get the myofunctional therapy as it may correct the other problems enough to satisfy you. You will be surprised what a correct swallow can do! Eat well as you do this like Sarah says!
Does anyone know what causes wisdom teeth to not even come in? I only have one thats come in and its only come in half way. I know so many people that have their wisdom teeth out that I thought it was something that everyone had done once they reached a certain age, lol. Now I know the real reason why!
Fabulous post! Thanks so much, you have given me much more info to read up on!
This makes so much sense. Too bad for me and my children I am reading this after they were born. What I do find interesting is my own teeth and palate. I am a second child, born 20 months after my older sister. She has a very narrow jaw and needed braces and teeth pulled for overcrowding at a very young age. I have a wide jaw, straight teeth and only 2 cavities to speak of over my 38 years. My mother did not make any significant changes to her diet or lifestyle while she was pregnant with me, or for my other 3 younger siblings. My younger siblings also needed braces and / or retainers to straighten their crooked teeth. Perhaps she did consume more nutritionally dense food while pregnant with me without realizing it??
This is similar situation in my family. My brother and I (the middle girl and boy of 7 children total) did not need braces or glasses while all the others needed either braces, glasses or both (most needed both). The two of us were crazy about shrimp as kids and ate a ton of it at this all you can eat buffet nearby on Wed nights (all you can eat shrimp night). Since we lived in FL, the shrimp was fresh and really GOOD. I think this may have been a strong contributing factor. I also craved eggs and ate them a lot as a child .. much more often than my siblings it seemed.
One more thing, I ate liverwurst at my Grandparent’s home down the street … loved it! None of my other siblings ate it. While my face is not particularly wide indicating a deficit of A/D/K2 in the womb, I do think my childhood diet which included frequent meals that included plentiful sacred foods .. widened my palate just enough so everything fit.
Seafood, eggs, and liver are not so coincidentally all sacred foods that are high in A, D, and K2.
I can relate to that. I too grew up in FL (Ft. Lauderdale) and ate lots of fish while my brothers and sisters did not eat as much, in fact my oldest sister lived off of chef boyrdee canned products, I could not stomach the stuff!! I still am eating things my family would not dream of, the latest, raw chicken liver (aka “liver pills”) 🙂
I have seen research that implicates refined carbs,especially sugar,as causative for myopia..
It ALL goes back to nutrition, doesn’t it? I question everything, and I’ve often wondere (in fact, I wondered it just today) if crooked teeth is a recent, modern problem. Of course it is. As with everything else in our “modern” society, we’ve about modernized ourselves to death.
Thanks for the great article!
Sarah,
I know this is totally off topic for this blog post but I was hopeful maybe you’d see it and have a response possibly?
Here’s my post from your cast iron blog post a while back:
Hi, I know this is way late from when the post was actually written but I hope you will still see my comment and be able to respond. Thank you so much first of all for all your advice & opinion. I am so grateful for it and always seem to trust the advice you give because Iknow whatever you post you have put time and research into & deem it safe for your family, whereas I feel like I don’t have the time to do as much research because i have 3 children under the age of 3 so things tend to be a bit crazy (in a good way) I was curious what you think about Dr. Mercola’s Ceramic cookware (that supposedly??? isn’t supposed to leach anything?) I currently own Calphalon one anodized pans (Not sure how bad those are for you?) http://store.calphalon.com/calphalon-one-infused-anodized-8-piece-set/322565 a Large SS pot for making stock & a cast iron pan for frying eggs. I definitely would like to replace them with what would be best for my family, but tend to get overwhelmed in figuring out what!!!! I know you posted enamel (no lead), glass and titanium are best. Do you have any brands, links, or any pans / brands specific? And is that Dr Mercola set safe & a good option or is there another set you would recommend over it?
Thank you so much for your help! I greatly appreciate it! Blessings, Melissa
I don’t really keep up on various cookware options and what is best. I myself have a high quality stainless steel set that I received as a wedding gift 20 years ago that is fantastic and what I use for most things. I also use glass for baking and other cooking with tomato sauce for example which is acidic and shouldn’t be used in stainless steel if possible. Ceramic is a good option and I’m sure Dr. Mercola’s is probably fine although I haven’t researched it personally.
Thanks so much!!
I got RevereWare – excellent stuff. My mom has had her set for 20+ years. I was able to get very thick copper-bottom stainless pots that are excellent, for very inexpensive. They do hold a magnet – which I understand to be a test of leaching – but I not 100% on that. http://www.shopworldkitchen.com/ usually sells them. Between that and my cast iron and stones, I have all the pots I need.
Processed food diet. Read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston A. Price. Groundbreaking, seminal work covering his ethnographic work on this very subject.
How interesting that you would write on this now! I’m just researching Dr Terry Wahls, who is curing her MS through diet and one of the things she talks about is how what you eat affects the TEETH and JAW of you unborn children!!
You can see her talk here and she also has a website that you can google:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc
I told my husband about how nutrition affects the development of the jaw and palate, and he said “oh, like me, you mean?” Yeah…sorry about that. He has a very narrow jaw, and terrible sinus problems. Pretty sure he was formula fed, since his mom was a drug user who pretty much deserted him.
Another example is my brother, who was the 5th child in 3 years (my mom had a twin pregnancy that she carried 26 weeks before my sister and I were born). She nursed my sister and I for a year, but my brother only 7 months. My brother has a much narrower face- needed braces and had to have 6 teeth pulled just to have enough room for straightening them! My sister and I never needed braces at all, and in general are healthier than my brother, even in adulthood. I understood why after reading NaPD.
Sarah- I have been wondering this, and maybe you can give me some insight…. My youngest’s very first tooth came in crooked (bottom front). She is 18 months old now and seems to have okay top teeth but bottom teeth are somewhat misaligned but not overlapped. For the most part, they are straight. Before and during my pregnancy with her, I was following a traditional diet. What gives? Did I do something wrong? I too have the same crookedness about my lower teeth. Is this a coincidence? My oldest has perfect teeth and had the not so luxurious diet of fast food cheeseburgers and chocolate chip cookies during her pregnancy and my poor baby child ends up with a crooked smile 🙁
Do you have any gut dysbiosis symptoms perhaps? Any gut issues can work against us to prevent optimal nutrition that is being eaten from being most effectively absorbed.
Hmmm…I don’t think so. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of “gut dysbiosis” before. I’m a fairly healthy young woman…No allergies, no chornic disease, etc. Plenty of energy. I feel great and felt great throughout her pregnancy. It was actually my easiest pregnancy so far. How would I know if I had a “gut issue”?