What is Malocclusion?

A number of people experience oral health problems and some of these are not their fault like misaligned teeth. This is also known as malocclusions and can cause bad effects on the oral health problem of the individual.

Malocclusions are simply misaligned teeth. The word has occlusions as its root word which means meeting of the teeth thus giving malocclusions the meaning of misalignment of teeth. However, despite sounding normal and not harmful, these can cause serious health problems such as gum disease, severe headaches, sleeping disorders and many more.

Causes of Malocclusions

Like many other problems in the body, malocclusions have their origins. Misalignment of teeth is usually not a problem caused by the individual and sometimes happens by itself.  However, there are causes which cause the misalignment and it includes the following:


Most of the time, malocclusions are caused by genetics. If your parents or relatives have had problems with malocclusions before, there’s a chance that you will have it as well. It’s usually because the difference between the sizes of upper and lower jaws as well as tooth sizes is hereditary.

Crooked or Misalignment of teeth

Childhood Habits

Some childhood habits can greatly affect the development of the teeth. These include thumb sucking, use of pacifiers and feeding bottles beyond the age of 3. Children’s teeth are still in development and may end up changing their alignments if these are continued.

Extra/Missing Teeth

There are a number of cases in which a person would end up having an extra tooth. This extra tooth can cause the other teeth to move in order for it to have a space to belong to. The same principle applies to a missing tooth. The other teeth would end up trying to fill the gap due to eating and biting.

Misalignment of Jaw

Injuries can cause the jaw to misalign. Because of this, it’s possible for the teeth to misalign as well. Such injuries include jaw fractures and other jaw injuries that may affect the alignment of the teeth that are dependent on the location of the jaw.

Tumor Growth

The growth of tumors on different parts of the body is not a rare thing. It is also possible for tumors to grow inside the mouth and, on some cases, on one of the jaws. Tumors are known to keep growing until they are treated and removed. These can cause deformations on the different parts of the jaws and may end up causing the misalignment of the jaws both possibly due to the tumor growth and the surgical operation done to remove the tumors.

Most malocclusions can be treated with the help of braces and teeth aligners. Orthodontists are known to be well-experienced when it comes to these situations and can help in improving the alignment of the teeth. Find out more information about malocclusions and how to treat them on our site. We can also provide help on different oral health problems from toothaches to diseases in the mouth.