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What Causes Crooked Teeth Smile and How to Address It

Published on

April 25

2025

About the Author

Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. What are crooked teeth?

3. Causes of Crooked Smile

4. Symptoms of Teeth with Uneven Smile

5. Treatment Options for crooked teeth smile

6. Conclusion

Introduction

Are you longing for a beautiful smile to light up the room, but worried about having a crooked smile? Having crooked teeth is a common concern for people of all ages. It is important to understand the crooked teeth smile and the various treatment options for it. In this blog, we emphasize the importance of getting to know more about this problem and how to rectify it, with comfortable and easy treatment options.

What are crooked teeth?

Crooked teeth are a condition where your teeth become rotated, overlapped, spaced unevenly, leading to a condition known as Malocclusion. It may include a tooth or an entire set. depending on the severity of the issue. While some may get lucky when crookedness makes them look charming, some people may have pronounced crookedness that may impact their aesthetics and overall health. While the latter becomes the case, it is best to consult a dentist for further corrective procedure to bring back the symmetry in your teeth structure.

Causes of Crooked Smile

Some common reasons for the causes of crooked smile are listed below-

Childhood habits

Habitual thumb sucking, using pacifiers, or thrusting the tongue forward can affect the regular development of your teeth and jaw, leading to uneven teeth.

Crowding

If you ask, ‘What are crooked teeth?’ and how is it related to crowding, here is a simple explanation. Crooked teeth are, when there is no proper space to accommodate the entire set of teeth, it leads to growth in the limited space and become crowded and misaligned.

Jaw size change

If the upper and lower jaw are not of the same size, it can lead to misalignment, that causes bite and digestion issues along with growth of crooked teeth smile.

Genetics

It may be surprising to know that genetics is one of the factors for irregular teeth growth. This condition may be inherited from your parents or close relatives in your immediate family.

Impacted teeth

Sometimes, some teeth like wisdom teeth may not be able to erupt fully due to the pressure exerted by the nearby molar or because of a blocked jawbone. This makes the wisdom teeth impacted and pushes the nearby ones giving you an irregular crooked teeth smile.

But the most common reason is because the jaw haven’t grown to it’s full potential. A size discrepancy will provide limited space for all the permanent teeth to erupt into. And hence the crooked teeth.

It has to be kept in mind that conventional orthodontics involve extraction of certain teeth in order to accommodate the crowding. You will achieve a beautiful smile but this would be at the expense of proper function leading to TMD and Sleep & Posture disorders.

The cause of the problem is the lack of growth of the jaws and so the treatment should first involve getting the jaws to the perfect muscle balanced position and then expand the jaws to accommodate the teeth into a beautiful smile.

Symptoms of Teeth with Uneven Smile

Type	Symptoms	Brief Description
Visual Signs	Misaligned teeth	Your teeth may rotate, overlap, or have gaps between them while growing.
	Smile with crooked teeth	Your smile may look disoriented or “off-center” due to the misalignment of your teeth.
	Crowding	Teeth may appear clubbed together, with some teeth overlapping others due to lack of space, resulting in improper functioning.
	Protruding teeth	Some teeth may stick out further than others, affecting the overall aesthetics of your smile.
	Bite problems	Your upper and lower teeth may not meet properly when you bite, leading to an overbite, underbite, or crossbite.
Functional Issues	Difficulty to chew food	Misaligned teeth can make it hard to chew food properly, leading to underlying digestive issues.
	Speech and pronunciation problems	Crooked teeth can sometimes affect your ability to pronounce certain words clearly.
	Jaw problems due to uneven smile	Pain and misalignment can put additional stress on your jaw joints, leading to inflammation, clicking, or popping sounds.
	Often biting of cheeks or tongue	If your teeth are misaligned, you might bite your cheeks or tongue by mistake, more often.
	Risk of oral health	A crooked smile can make it harder to clean your teeth, increasing your risk of cavities, gum problems, and decay.
Non oral Symptoms	Head pain	In some cases, misaligned teeth can contribute to headaches or facial pain.
	Self-consciousness	Many people feel self-conscious about their crooked teeth, which can affect their confidence and social interactions.

Treatment Options for crooked teeth smile

Thankfully, there are many effective treatment options available to correct a smile with crooked teeth and achieve straighter and confident smile-

Braces

Conventional metal braces made of wires and brackets and are a tried-and-tested option for correcting a crooked smile and boosting your confidence. There are clear or ceramic braces also to help with the streamlining of your teeth structure.

Invisalign

These are modern and advanced clear aligners that are removable and an effective alternative to braces for mild to moderate cases of crooked teeth. This is a more discreet form of procedure used mainly for someone giving importance to aesthetic looks.

Retainers

Post braces or Invisalign treatment, retainers are crucial for maintaining the new alignment of your teeth without relapsing. They check the teeth from shifting back to their original positions.

Dental Veneers

Veneers are custom-designed thin shells that cover the front surface of teeth. They can be used to correct small degrees of crooked teeth smile, gaps, giving a more uniform smile.

Dental Bonding

This method is just like veneers, that help in bonding by applying a tooth-colored resin to the deformed teeth and is a cheaper alternative to veneers.

Surgery

In rare cases, dentists suggest orthognathic surgery or jaw surgery to correct severe jaw problems that contribute to crooked teeth.

Conclusion

Now that you have understood how crooked teeth smile occurs and the relevant treatment options for it, it is best to visit your nearest dentist and get your misaligned teeth checked. No more staying unhappy about your crooked smile as we recommend you visit the best dentists at TMJ India. They assess and suggest the best non-invasive treatment options for you to get the deserved healthy and beautiful smile.

To treat the most complex of TMJ problems, contact us at TMJ India and get your appointment with our TMJ experts today!

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