What to do if your teeth move as an adult
Adult tooth movement is
usually a natural process. Your body has this tooth movement mechanism in
place in order to keep your teeth in proper alignment. It's the way your
body keeps your teeth so that they all meet at the same time when you bite,
and so that the teeth in one arch all touch each other side by side.
Your molars all have a natural forward drift
throughout your life. Premolars tend to have a backward drifting force, but
this force seems to be weaker than the molar force. The force from the
molars can push all the teeth forward. This natural, helpful force can cause
problems if your teeth start to get out of alignment.
To understand how this natural force of
movement in adult teeth can go awry, picture a line of drinking glasses, all
touching each other, and you are holding one glass on each end of the line
and pushing gently inward. If these glasses are all perfectly lined up, a
gentle force will keep them in line. However, if one glass gets slightly out
of line, your pushing on them will cause the line to jumble. It's the same
with your teeth. If they're all perfectly lined up, this natural tooth
movement force will keep them in line. But once they start to get out of
line, the helpful force of movement can become not helpful and will cause
them to start to bunch together. You may end up needing
braces to straighten them.
Here are a
couple of situations in which your teeth can move:
