Orthodontic treatment amongst young children is also known as interceptive orthodontics. This will need to be started from an early age of around four or five years old. The children’s teeth of these ages are still developing and their jaws are still growing.

It is important to understand that early treatment will not apply to all the different orthodontic problems, but it definitively can help in some of the cases. The two conditions that will require early intervention are protruding front teeth and crossbites.

With cross-bite, it will cause uneven growth of the jaws. If the front teeth stick out, it might injure or fracture during an accident like a fall.

The orthodontist will treat children with many different problems. These include overlapping or crowded teeth, congenitally missing teeth, extra teeth, spacing problems, inherited malocclusions, or problems with tooth development and jaw growth.

These jaw and tooth problems might be caused by accidents, losing their baby teeth too soon, retention of baby teeth and certain types of a dental disease or tooth decay, as well as a habit of sucking their thumb or fingers. It can also originate through a family inherited or genetic gene.

All of these can result in the urgent need for treatment and to see a kid’s orthodontist.

Importance of Orthodontic Treatments

To correct your kid’s orthodontic problems early in life will improve their self-confidence, and it is also a very important reason for their dental health. Malocclusions will cause difficulty for your child with speaking and chewing. At the same time, it will wear away the enamel on their healthy teeth while putting excess stress on their gum tissue and the surrounding bone. It will also be difficult to clean if their teeth are overlapping or crooked, that will, in turn, put them at risk for gum disease and tooth decay.

Early Orthodontics Benefit

Early intervention will be an advantage because your child’s jaw will still be growing. Treatment at an early stage will be useful if their jaws and dental arches are not in the correct position. These problems can be improved or fixed with functional appliances. Later on, they will need more treatments, but it will be less involved and shorter.

Over the past couple of decades,’ children’s braces have improved tremendously. Through technology, it has been made much more attractive and comfortable compared to those braces that we as parents use to wear.

It will be most successful to perform the upper jaw expansion when the child is younger than sixteen years of age. With the cross-bite expansion, the child should be treated at a much younger age, but not younger than five years old.

Orthodontic Treatment and Oral Hygiene with Braces

Good oral hygiene is the key to the best outcome with orthodontic treatment for your child. Bacterial plaque and food will accumulate around their braces, flossing and brushing will be much more challenging during the process.

However, if your child’s teeth are not thoroughly cleaned, you will end up with gum disease or decay, as well as permanent discoloration of some areas.

Look at the following oral hygiene guidelines.

Your child should brush his/her teeth with fluoride toothpaste after every snack, meal and also before bedtime. If you are away from your home, make sure that your child packed a travel toothbrush like the Colgate Wisp, which is portable and doesn't require any toothpaste.

A minimum of once per day for flossing.

Ask your kids orthodontist which special flossing tools will make this job easier and to demonstrate how to use it.

You should visit a family dentist regularly for cleanings and checkups.

Ask your orthodontist or dentist which prescription rinse they can use to prevent decalcification.

Problems, Use a Kid’s Orthodontist

Diastema or gaps between the teeth

Diastema is a gap or space between two of their teeth. However, gaps might occur in between any two teeth in the mouth, it will mostly appear between their two upper front teeth.

When there is a mismatch between the jaw bones and teeth sizes, it could be the cause of either crowding of the teeth or extra space in between the teeth. Spaces between their teeth will occur when the teeth are too small for their jaw bone and it will be crowded if it is too big for their jaw bone.

Spaces might develop for other reasons such as when some of their teeth are undersized or missing! This can often happen with their upper lateral incisors with the teeth that are next to their upper front teeth. This will cause their upper central incisors in developing a space.

It can also be caused by oversized labial frenum, which is a piece of the tissue that normally will extend from the inside of their upper lip on the gum above their upper front teeth. Sometimes the labial frenum will continue to grow and pass between their two front teeth. In this case, it will block the space that will naturally close between these teeth.

Habits like thumb and finger sucking can lead to gaps in between teeth because it tends to pull their front teeth forward and will create the gaps.

From incorrect swallowing reflexes, spaces can also develop. Most of the time during swallowing the tongue will press against the roof of their palate/mouth, but some kids develop a different reflex that is known as a tongue thrust. Their tongue will press against the front teeth when they swallow. Over periods of time, the front teeth will be pushed forward by the pressure and cause spaces to develop.

With periodontal or gum disease it may result in loss of bone that supports their teeth. Once they have lost a lot of bone, the teeth will become loose and this movement will be the result of gaps in between their front teeth.

Children might only have temporary gaps when their baby teeth fall out. Most of the time the spaces will close as soon as their permanent teeth come out in their final position.

Treatment options for diastema

Once the orthodontist determined what the reason is for the child’s diastema, they will discuss the treatment plan with you the parent and these options might include the following.

They can decide to keep the diastema condition until they are older.

An orthodontic treatment where they will move their teeth to close the diastema!

You can choose to use porcelain veneers, where they use thin porcelain pieces to bond the outside to the child’s teeth.

Benefits of upper jaw expansion for your child

This form of orthodontic treatment is only used in specific cases. The perimeter of their dental arch will increase with widening the circumference of their palate, in order to create extra space for the teeth to grow.

During childhood, the maxillary or palatal expanders will do three things to make expanding of the upper jaw particularly helpful.

It will correct a crossbite – The upper teeth need to close all around the outer side of their lower teeth. With a narrow palate, it is just the other way round, where the upper teeth bite on the inside of their lower teeth. This will result in the asymmetrical growth of their lower jaw that will cause facial asymmetry if it’s not corrected in time.

Reduce or eliminate overcrowding, to make space for all of your child’s upper teeth in order to erupt in the correct positions.

To improve their breathing ability – With a deep or narrow upper jaw, it will be difficult for your child to breathe easily through their nose. This will cause the child to breathe continuously through their mouth, which will cause the inhalation of unhealthy unfiltered bacteria, potential halitosis, and a dry mouth.

All these conditions can be corrected through expanding the width of their palate and accommodating the development of all their teeth, improve their bite and also open up their nasal passages. Visit a kid’s orthodontist today.