Saturday, April 2, 2011

Babies Teething

Dear Madame L,
It seems to me that when teething, any baby that I can recall grows straight teeth. When those kids lose their teeth and get their "grown up" teeth, it varries as to whether or not those ones are straight or crooked. Why is that? Why aren't the "baby" teeth crooked for the people that end up having crooked "grown-up" teeth?
Sincerely,
Mom-To-Be

Dear Mom,

Those are great questions! Madame L has wondered about that, too, and her Web research has not provided her with a completely satisfactory answer yet. She will ask a friend who is a pediatric dentist for an opinion and provide that later.
In her web research, however, Madame L did learn that not all babies' teeth do come in straight, which surprised her because she, like you, seems to remember every baby she has ever seen having perfect, widely spaced, little bumps of perfectly white teeth. (However, Madame L confesses to having an imperfect and hazy memory about such things, in part because she hasn't looked that closely into babies' mouths for awhile.)

Madame L also learned that crooked adult teeth (and yellowish adult teeth) are thought to be the result of a mouth and jaw not being malformed or being not large enough for the adult teeth and, in general, other hereditary issues.
At any rate, Madame L will find out more as soon as she can, and perhaps persuade her dentist friend to write the explanation.

Best,

Madame L

4 comments:

Pricklypear said...

Dear Madame L,
I have another question about teeth, well, about toothpaste really. I have a tube of toothpaste here that says on it in small print, "for better results, squeeze tube from bottom." Could consistently squeezing the toothpaste tube from the bottom really give you a better toothbrushing experience and cleaner teeth?
Sincerely,
Concerned About Dentition

Ellen said...

Dear Madame L,

I have a question about establishing habits. I have often heard it said that if I repeat an action every day for 21 days, that action will become a habit in my life. I'm wondering how we know that to be true? Is there a scientific study about it?

I'll tell you what I heard once. I heard that people who have had a limb amputated forget that they no longer have the use of that limb, and they try to use it before remembering that they can't, and that it takes about 21 days for a person in that situation to remember to not try to use that limb.

Well, even if that story were true, can it really be used as evidence that someone like me, who isn't forced by circumstances to change her ways, can will herself to do things differently through repeated behavior over a period of 21 days?

Wondering about Those Habits

Josie and Wayne said...

I have to say that pricklypears comment just made my day. Thank you Coralee. You make me laugh.
As far as crooked teeth in babies go, my three year old has slightly crooked teeth. Probably not very noticable unless you are her mom and brushing her teeth every night, but they are a bit crowded and crooked and I'm sure will only get worse with her adult teeth if she takes after her mother any.

AskTheGeologist said...

I have been WONDERING who "Pricklypear" was. Does this imply a less-than-endearing personality trait? Or just a don't-tread-on-me attitude about life?
--an interested geomathemagician