If your child has problems with their teeth or jaw alignment, you need to talk to your dentist about seeking orthodontic treatment.
Orthodontic treatment is a crucial part of maintaining your child’s oral health. These procedures help move teeth into a position that aids a straightened appearance, better smiles, and overall dental health.
Why should my child get orthodontic treatment?
If your child’s teeth are crooked or their bite is unaligned, they most likely would have gum health problems or social issues about their appearance. This is also the case when the upper front teeth stick out. This unalignment may cause an uncomfortable strain to the jaw muscles, resulting in pain and headaches.
Orthodontic treatment helps to realign and fix the problem.
When should my child begin to see an orthodontist?
We recommend that your child visits the dentist twice in a year for preventative reasons. During this time, your dentist can detect orthodontic irregularities and address them using early intervention methods.
The American Association of Orthodontists and the American Dental Association recommend an orthodontic examination by seven. This window is the best possible time to fix teeth alignment and prevent periodontal disease for your child. Dental problems are best corrected when your child’s teeth are still growing. Once their teeth are permanent, correcting treatment will take a while and require more than usual work.
Depending on your child’s age, your child’s dentist may recommend any one of these three phases of treatments
Early Treatment:
Children aged two to six can receive early treatment to help ensure that their teeth have space to grow correctly and not shift undesirably. This is especially ideal for children who lose their baby teeth early, grind their teeth when sleeping, or are noticed to breathe through their mouth instead of their noses. In this stage, you can work with your orthodontist to identify and correct potentially harmful behaviors (such as sucking thumbs) in your child that affect oral health and teeth alignment.
Middle Dentition Treatment:
From the ages of six to twelve, the tissues of the jaw and gums are very pliable, making it a perfect window to address unaligned jaws and teeth. It is considered a major developmental period, and during this time, your child’s dentist may provide dental appliances like wires, bands, or retainers. It is important to note that being fitted with these appliances would require you to take extra care to maintain your child’s oral health.
Adolescent Treatment:
An orthodontist can work with children above the age of 13 to further improve the appearance of their smile and straighten their permanent teeth. While it is common for many parents only to consider orthodontic treatment at this stage, early treatment is mainly preventative. It helps your child achieve better oral health, bite and smile. It is primarily in this stage that dentists recommend braces to help the teeth align better. Your adolescent may have to wear retainers for a while so that the progress made with orthodontic treatment would not be undone.
Children Orthodontic Treatment Near You
If you live in Illinois, we at Beauty Smile Orthodontics have family-oriented treatment plans. Our offices are located in Bolingbrook and Mokena, and we accept most insurance plans. Please book an appointment with us today to give your child the best smile possible.