Hi vowel lady,

Yes, if a persons teeth are very crooked, it is common for the dentist to recommend braces prior to crowning them. Crooked teeth present several problems when trying to crown them. One is the persons bite or occlusion is lined up according to the shape of their teeth, so crowning them would cause all sorts of bite problems. Secondly, the teeth are also crooked in the jaw bone which means that the crowns would be crooked as well. So esthetically, it would not look good. Other reasons are a bit technical but the end result of crowning crooked teeth can be disastrous!

If the teeth are only partially crooked but they are lined up ok in the jaw bone and the bite is in a good position, sometimes veneers or lumineers can be done to straighten out the smile without doing braces.

The procedure that you mention where the tooth is filed down and rebuilt is called bonding. This is not a good option in someone who has very crooked teeth because too much of the tooth structure would have to be removed to make the teeth appear straight. The more tooth removed the more likely the tooth will die and become infected.

Are braces out of the question for your relative? What about invisalign?

Bryanna