Diastema (dentistry)
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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.
Some famous people with diastema are Angela Davis, Peter Beinart, Condoleezza Rice, T. D. Jakes, David Letterman, Finlay, Jorja Fox, Madonna, Lauren Hutton, Terry-Thomas, Belladonna, Oliver Stone, Uwe Boll, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kurt Nilsen, Cornel West, Bokeem Woodbine, Elvis Costello, Laurence Fishburne, Elton John, Guy Verhofstadt, Ronaldo, Michael Strahan, Shirley Chisholm, Jermaine Jenas, Ben Tune, Elijah Wood, Jermaine Defoe and, most recently, Brooke Allison "Brookers" Brodack the well-known internet celebrity.
In the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote of the "gap-toothed wife of Bath". Les Blank's Gap-Toothed Women is a documentary film about diastematic women. And Gap-Toothed was a popular online humor magazine devoted to diastematics. Tribe.net has an online community of gap-toothed supporters.
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