It's a phenomenon that dentists and orthodontists have come to depend on and something that usually comes as a surprise to patients. I'm going to explain what's called mesial drift and vertical drift.
Now you probably already understand the drift part, so let's talk about mesial and vertical. Mesial means the middle or towards the middle. Vertical means up and down.
When teeth are pulled, the mouth immediately knows something is missing and it wants to fill the gap. In mesial drift, the teeth behind the space push or drift towards the middle of the mouth. In vertical drift, the tooth that normally chews with the newly extracted tooth (opposing tooth) will look for its partner so to speak, and push or drift into the space. When a tooth comes through the gums it's called erupted. When it moves farther than it's limit it's called supererupted. Vertical drift is not the same as eruption.
Mesial drift looks like this: (notice how the tooth is slanted towards the new space)
Vertical drift looks like this: (notice how the tooth below the space is higher than the tooth next to it)
So this raises a few questions:
When it comes to mesial drift, when does it stop? When it hits another tooth, when it's stopped by braces or sometimes, it doesn't occur to the point that its noticeable.
Why does vertical drift or supererution occur? I like to think that the teeth were made to chew and as long as one tooth doesn't feel it's partner, it's going to try to find it. Teeth stop drifting vertical when they can chew against something.
If you're worried you have mesial drift or vertical drift OR if you're worried that you may experience either of these after an extraction, talk to your dentist about your concerns.
images courtesy of: www.banffcanmoredentalcare.com/
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