Early Orthodontic Treatment
Setting Your Child Up For A Lifetime Of Healthy Smiles
High Line Orthodontics in Chelsea, NY is pleased to offer early orthodontic treatment. Early orthodontic treatment, sometimes called Phase 1 or early interceptive treatment, is an orthodontic treatment phase dedicated to guiding the growth of your child’s jaw and bite. Early orthodontic treatment occurs when your child has a mixture of baby and permanent teeth, and allows an orthodontist to expand the arch of the jaw to make room for permanent teeth. This can prevent more serious orthodontic issues in the future.
When Should My Child See an Orthodontist?
The American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) recommends that your child first see an orthodontist at age 7. At this age, your child has a mixture of baby and permanent teeth, and Dr. Pompei can determine if your child has any malocclusion or bite misalignment. Not every child will need early orthodontic treatment. However, if it is determined that your child is a good candidate for early orthodontic treatment, it can help expand the arch, make room for erupting permanent teeth, limit more severe orthodontic issues in the future and help guide the growth of your child’s jaw and bite.
How Does Early Orthodontic Treatment Work?
Each child is different and has unique treatment needs. However, there are a few common things you can expect during your child’s early orthodontic treatment. First, we will conduct a detailed evaluation of your child’s smile and bite, including photographs and impressions of your child’s upper and lower arch. Following this initial evaluation, Dr. Pompei will discuss any orthodontic issues your child may have, and her recommendations for treatment. Dr. Pompei may recommend that your child wear braces to better align teeth, or palatal expansion, in which the upper arch is expanded using a fixed appliance to make room for permanent teeth. It may take your child a few days to become accustomed to their new appliance, but there should not be significant discomfort or pain. Once early orthodontic treatment is complete and your child’s permanent teeth have erupted, Dr. Pompei can re-evaluate your child’s smile and determine the best course of action for further orthodontic treatment.
Benefits Of Early Orthodontic Treatment
Early orthodontic treatment has many benefits for your child’s dental and overall health. Benefits include:
Reasons why Early Treatment May be Indicated
The best way to know whether or not your child is a good candidate for early orthodontic treatment is to schedule a consultation with an orthodontist. However, there are some noticeable signs that your child may need early orthodontic treatment, including:
When children have growth imbalances, their upper and lower jaws may not be aligned. Since teeth live in the jaw bones, misaligned jaws usually mean a misaligned bite. Gentle forces can be used to increase or decrease the amount or direction of jaw growth to improve these disharmonies.
All of your upper teeth should fit slightly over your lower teeth like a lid on a box. If an upper front tooth is on the inside of your lower teeth, you have an anterior crossbite. If upper back teeth are on the inside of your lower teeth, you have a posterior crossbite. Anterior crossbites are harmful because they often don’t direct biting forces down the long axis of a tooth and can push teeth outside of the gums or bone. They also may cause enamel wear or chipping. Posterior crossbites may cause you to have to shift your jaw to one side to get your teeth to fit together when chewing. After years of shifting your jaw to the side, your jaw can grow asymmetrically or joint problems may develop.
By age 7 or 8 it can be obvious that growing adult teeth are severely crowded. Radiographs can help us determine if developing teeth are at risk of getting impacted (stuck inside the bone) or entering into the mouth in a poor position. Interceptive treatment can be used to re-direct the way a tooth or teeth enter the mouth and can open or save space for these teeth. This maximizes the chances teeth will erupt into a more stable and well-aligned position.
Space maintainers can be used to prevent posterior adult teeth from drifting forward into the space vacated by primary teeth. This can prevent crowding from occurring, or if crowding is already present, can save space so that it can be used later to align overlapping teeth.
Habits such as finger sucking, tongue thrusting/low tongue posture, and mouth breathing all affect tooth position and jaw growth. For example, anterior open bites, where the teeth in front don’t touch, can be caused when thumb sucking pushes upper and lower front teeth apart. Habits should be stopped by the time the first adult teeth start coming into the mouth. Orthodontic appliances can help with habit elimination and correction of the problems the habits have caused.
When front teeth are protruding excessively making it difficult for a child to close his or her lips around the front teeth, these teeth are at a higher risk of being traumatized in an accident or while playing sports. Straightening these teeth and tucking them back behind the lips protects them and should be done as soon as possible.
Sometimes kids will feel self-conscious when their front teeth first grow in and are very crooked or spaced apart; this may cause them to be teased and not want to smile. It’s fine to wait until all the adult teeth have erupted so that alignment and bite issues can be addressed together in one phase of treatment. However, giving a child confidence to smile by straightening the front teeth early can be very valuable for self-esteem.
our philosophy on early orthodontic treatment
Interceptive/Early Treatment/Phase I orthodontics is treatment for children who do not yet have all of their permanent teeth. Our philosophy is to be conservative and work with your child’s individual needs, intervening only when necessary and most efficient. The circumstances where early treatment is beneficial—or not—have been studied extensively by orthodontists in universities around the world, and Dr. Pompei believes adamantly in practicing only according to the best scientific evidence available.
The American Association of Orthodontists recommends that all children be evaluated by an orthodontist around age 7, when the first adult teeth have entered the mouth. There are cases where developing problems can be eliminated before a child has a full permanent dentition. Sometimes growth can be leveraged to achieve a more harmonious facial balance. Sometimes a child has missing teeth or extra teeth that go unnoticed but cause problems in the bite, these issues can be addressed proactively when they are identified early.
We aim to make our early treatment oriented towards a specific goal and as short and sweet as possible. It is important to note that since Interceptive Treatment (Phase I) is targeting one particular problem, most children will still need Comprehensive Treatment (Phase II) to address overall alignment and bite issues once all adult teeth are in. Successful Phase I treatment can reduce the complexity and duration of Phase II treatment.
