[Pathogenesis of spontaneous late changes in the dental arches]

During childhood and adolescent years, the buccal musculature characteristics as well as the anatomical relation between the lips and the incisors, change. The consequence of these maturation phenomena is the retroclination of the incisors. In certain cases, this results in a decrease of the dental arches' length which is sufficient to create those belated dental malpositionings due to lack of space.