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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
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Busting the Beta Carotene Vitamin A Myth
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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
This is so daunting. My first born is now 11 and has a very narrow palate and some crowding that is getting uncomfortable for her. There is no one in our area (or anywhere relatively close) other than mainstream orthodontists. I am confused and unsure what I can do to help my daughter.
Meghon,
I would check into an orofacial myofunctional therapist in your area. Where is her tongue at rest? Is she mouth breathing? This would be the first step if she is.
Meghon,
Try searching for a practitioner at http://www.aago.com or http://www.alforthodontics.com or aacfp.org or or http://orthotropics.com
or google “functional orthodontics” and your state. This is how I found the Orthodontist who is treating my 11 year old son with the ALF device. More appliances are called: Biobloc, Crozat, Homeoblock, Myobrace.
Best wishes!
Thank you Sarah. Great info. It corresponds to my own experience, I lost a tooth when pregnant with my first daughter, and was told it is common for women to ‘give’ one tooth per pregnancy. Then a few years later I met and married my husband and we moved to house on a property with an Axis deer problem. The short version is, my husband kept me well stocked in fresh Maui venison and I made stocks and bullion with the bones and we were able to conceive and birth an amazing little girl. My teeth stopped being sensitive and I didn’t lose one for this pregnancy. I have always craved butter and my dream of having fresh milk and butter is coming closer. Finding a nice jersey cow would be great!
Thank you again. I love all the info you provide, it goes with what my instincts have always pushed towards.
Look up one of John Flutter’s videos. He asks a group who had ortho and who has bite problems, who has never had ortho and who has bit problems. Every single person who had ortho had some kind of oral problem. The ones who didn’t have ortho were fine. I would do the orofacial myofunctional therapy and or Buteyko Breathing if needed never would I do the traditional ortho or recommend it. Pushing teeth back into the head? Does that sound like it’s good for a growing child? Face -focused is where my now grown son is going to restore what the ortho did.
It’s never too late. Bone growth even in the teens and early adult. See an orofacial myolfuntional therapist. For the mouth breathing see the Buteyko Breathing practitioner. The mouth breathing is a huge cause of facial growth problems. As George Catlin says in his book written in 1870, the mouth was not made for breathing any more than the nose was made for eating bread.
if a child is in her teens (or even age 6 or 7) when major diet changes start in the family, is it too late???
Women are so depleted now that even firstborns have narrowed faces typically.
Women can have good stores of A and D which permit the firstborn or perhaps even a second child to have a decent facial structure. Later children typically have more and more narrowed faces as these stores get depleted and don’t get replenished with traditional diet.
Fascinated by the mouth breathing issue. My son is a moth breather due to enlarged adenoids & tonsils. The ENT wants to remove both but I am reluctant to take out parts of his immune system. We think the cause of this enlargement is a dairy allergy (raw milk is illegal in my state) so we have removed that and have had some success with essential oils. His snoring and sleep apnea are almost totally gone but he still mouth breathes. He is only 2.5 years old, any suggestions? I’ve thought about the Buteyko breathing but there are no practitioners anywhere near us so I’m not sure when would be the right age to pursue that (and of course hoping as we stay dairy free that this may resolve itself). Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Mouth breathing is a big factor in malformed jaw, bridge and facial deformity.
Francesca Tropea, I’m wondering the same thing. I’m sure I ate like crap with both Aislinn & Kenneth’s pregnancies, but Aislinn got her dad’s wide facial structure, so her teeth are coming in beautifully. Poor diet when she was small plus lack of consistent brushing (my fault, I know) caused issues with her baby teeth, but her adult teeth are beautiful & dentist already said no braces necessary. Kenneth, unfortunately, got my smaller mouth & facial structure, so his teeth are all crowded and we know he will need braces. I never needed braces, but do have a bit of crowding. I am very curious as well.