Following the advice of the American Association of Orthodontics, at Ziving BCN we recommend that children receive their first orthodontic check-up before the age of 7. If we observe any problems it is important to correct them early, if the child does present problems it is advisable to start treatment early, we are able to recognize potential problems and correct them before they become more serious. This not only saves time for the family and your child, but also saves money.
Early orthodontic treatment, called interceptive orthodontics, has proven to be beneficial to the overall desired outcome in the child’s mouth. Because the permanent teeth of the young child have not yet finished erupting and therefore baby teeth are still present, we are able to thoroughly evaluate the front-to-back and side-to-side tooth relationships and fix the problems at their earliest stage and allow the child to develop normally and not allow problems to appear without treatment that will certainly manifest themselves later with the permanent teeth.
This treatment at this early stage is called phase 1 which generally treats the bone where the teeth are placed. After the eruption of the rest of the teeth, the placement of these will be evaluated and it is possible that a second phase of treatment will be considered to arrange the teeth in order to have all the definitive teeth aligned.
Thus, at present, the presence of baby teeth does not in any way preclude the initiation of early orthodontic treatment. Early orthodontic treatment varies from patient to patient, but may include removable or fixed appliances that can provide:
-a wider palate, more space for teeth that are overly crowded
-Preserve and increase space for unerupted teeth that have not yet erupted.
-create facial symmetry through manipulation of mandibular growth
-to promote the treatment to be performed in a second phase
-reduce the overall treatment time with braces