What is Early Orthodontics?
Early orthodontics is basically doing orthodontic work while a child still has a mixture of primary (baby) and permanent teeth. This typically occurs between the ages of 7 to 12 although this can vary depending on the dental development stage of the child.
The advantage of early treatment is that the early diagnosis and treatment of your child may help an orthodontic problem earlier whilst often minimizing more serious orthodontic problems from occurring. By lessening these problems early, later orthodontic treatment may be shorter and easier (or not required in some cases).
When is early treatment done?
- Crossbites (top jaw is too narrow or a top tooth is biting too inwards)
- Deep Overbites or Openbites (top teeth overlap the bottom teeth too much or no overlap)
- Underbites (lower teeth are positioned too far backwards or too far forwards)
- Severe Crowding (lack of space)
- Rotations (teeth not straight)
- Muscle imbalance (poor tongue or lip positions or bad oral habits)
What appliances do you use during early treatment?
Partial Braces are braces worn on the adult teeth, while your child still has primary teeth. These normally only involve the front 4 incisors and the first adult molar. This may or may not be used in conjunction with springs which help with some expansion. These are typically used to help resolve crowding in younger children.
Jaw expansion is typically done with maxillary expanders (more information here). These can either be removable or fixed. Maxillary expanders help to widen the upper jaw by pushing the teeth and bone outwards, and typically involve turning a super screw.
Mandibular advancement devices (functional appliances) include the MARA appliance, Herbst appliance, Twin-Block appliance or Clear Aligners (Angel Aligner A6). Again, these can be removable or fixed. These appliances help to position the lower jaw in a more forward position, thereby encouraging faster growth of the lower jaw into a more favourable position (eliminating an overjet).
How long is Early Orthodontic Treatment?
Early treatment typically ranges from 6 to 18 months. This varies depending on the complexity of treatment.
Our philosophy
Orthodontics is not just simply about straightening teeth. Here at Dental at Keys we aim to create a beautiful full smiles. We pay particular attention to the curvature, width and height of the smile. All of these aspects involve a lot more work than just straight teeth. The last thing we want for you is to have a flat straight smile (ie. Denture smile).
We also pay great attention to the profile of your face. Not only should your smile be full, but your facial profile should match it is as well. There is no point in extracting teeth in a patient who already has a sunken profile. Similarly, patients with lips that are too full should not have this worsen. This is why we say we treat the face, and not just the teeth.
