Diastema (dentistry)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Diastema is a gap or space between two teeth. The term is most commonly applied to be an open space between the upper incisors (front teeth). It happens when there is an unequal relationship between the size of the teeth and the jaw. Many species of mammals have diastema as a normal feature, for example the gap between molars and incisors in rodents.

Diastema is sometimes caused or exacerbated by tongue thrusting or the pulling action of a labial frenulum (the tissue around the lip), which can push the teeth apart.

In the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote of the "gap-toothed wife of Bath." As early as this time period, the gap between the front teeth, especially in women, had been associated with "lustful" characteristics. Thus, the implication in describing "the gap-toothed wife of Bath" is that she is a "middle-aged" woman with insatiable lust. This has no scientific basis, but it has been a popular assumption in folklore since the Middle Ages.

In Nigerian society, diastemata are occassionally regarded as been attractive mostly among the western regions , and some people have even had them created through cosmetic dentistry.^[1]

Les Blank's Gap-Toothed Women is a documentary film about diastematic women.

Jorja Fox (Sara Sidle in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) has diastema.