Until wisdom teeth come in later on and cause crowding or visual issues

Yes, the 12 billion dollar company must be doing something that no one needs.

Have you heard of the Big 4 consultancies?

If you look at places in the world where there are no dentists... their teeth are excellent.

Anecdotally, our three boys all were told they MUST have braces (each for different reasons). We did this for exactly none of them. And their teeth came out perfect by adulthood.

My childhood teeth were perfect until I became a young adult and my wisdom teeth came in. My Ortho assured me that I had space and I didn't need them removed. I never had my wisdom teeth taken out, but they did shift all my naturally straight teeth and some became crooked. I'm looking into Invisalign to correct this because it does cause self confidence issues and I want to have my toothy smile back.

I suggest asking your (ortho)dentist if you'll need braces anyway to correct your bite.

> If you look at places in the world where there are no dentists... their teeth are excellent.

What the fuck are you on.

> Anecdotally, our three boys all were told they MUST have braces (each for different reasons). We did this for exactly none of them. And their teeth came out perfect by adulthood.

Give me your address so I can take my bum parents, put you together, and slap your bitch ass with my crooked teeth.

I think your definition of excellent and perfect teeth is in reality just "perfectly adequate" for their job of eating. If you don't care about the optics of your smile then sure, your body is going to find a way to place your teeth and jaw so you can still eat...

Well there wouldn’t be much demand for dentists in places people have perfect teeth would there

There are folks working on solutions for when teeth do not align themselves.

Depends on diet.

If you keep them on soft food young, the jaw muscles don't get stimulated enough to grow so that the teeth that are coming out sit properly. Misalignment and opportunity for decay ensues.

If you give them decently hard food early on in life you solve most problems.

After that it can still happen but there's less chance.

Also, breastfeeding and not weaning them off on to "baby foods" too soon is better in the same ways you describe.

How early on in life?

When they grow molars to chew with. Give them whole carrots to snack on.

To expand and agree: turnips, beets, hard whole grains, if their baby teeth aren't visibly worn by the time they fall out, it wasn't hard enough.

Jaw and face bone grows by stimulation. It's not just a dental thing - it's sleep apnea, sinus infections, facial structure, voice timbre, and attractiveness.

If it's enough, they won't even need their wisdom teeth pulled - having your wisdom teeth pulled is substantially a standard american diet issue, not a human genetic issue.

Thanks, and 100% agree. We have never had to pull a wisdom tooth either and carrots were always the go-to roadtrip snack growing up.

It's funny because I mildly disagree with your core premise (orthodontics are unnecessary), they should just be necessary as a disability accommodation, essentially. If we had 10-30% of the population in wheelchairs because we didn't let kids walk I would find the wheelchair industry odious as well.

Right, most of the orthodontics websites say 70% of people need them. I understand wanting to justify a total market size but if people actually believe that, it's getting out of hand.

I've had carrots (and fruit and hard snscks) since I don't remember when.

My teeth have been crooked since forever. So?

Ok, sure, it's usually cosmetic. So what?

"almost never" for 8 billion people is "hundreds of millions of people need this".

E.g. I do