How to "Brace" yourself for your child’s first orthodontic visit: A parent's guide
I grew up around teeth, my dad was a dentist, and his father was a dentist. Having a career in teeth was baked into my DNA. After finishing dental school at the Medical College of Georgia in 2008, I spent 3 years in Nashville TN at the Vanderbilt Medical Center to complete my Orthodontic residency. After 7 years of schooling, I was ready to create beautiful smiles on my own. For those who go through it, professional school and residency seems like it will be the most challenging series of events in your lifetime; at least it did for me. That was until 2014 when my wife, Amy, and I had twins; you go through your whole life thinking you're learning everything along they way to make your prepared for anything life throws at you and then all of a sudden you realize you have no idea what you're doing. After spending a few nights at the hospital, in our case Northside, you go home and you're on your own; trial and error at its finest. At this point you really learn how nice it is that there have been plenty of people who have done this before you; Seeking others advise, and incorporating the parts that you want to into your plan can make hard things seem simple, or at least simpler.
Over the last 8 years I have had the pleasure of treating over 6500 orthodontic patients across Georgia and I’ve probably seen just about everything. There are some common questions and principles that I can share that I think would make you more knowledgeable to make a more informed decision of when and why to bring your children to the Orthodontist:
Q: At what age should I make the initial consultation for my child at the Orthodontist and why.
A: The American Association of Orthodontist recommends scheduling the first consultation with an orthodontist no later than 7 years old. It seems a little young (having two 7 year-olds myself, I would have probably laughed at this) but there are some key problems that we can catch early and correct. At this visit we will take some photos and get an X-ray from the dentist (when possible) and review the growth of the jaw and the erupting of the teeth.
Q: When is phase I or early orthodontic treatment needed:
A: There are only a few good reasons to do early orthodontic treatment (aka phase I or 2-phase treatment) for these younger patients. Crossbites are something that we try to correct early when we see them because if left untreated they can change the pattern of facial growth and lead to issues including premature wear of the teeth.
A crossbite has 2 forms; one is a posterior crossbite, which occurs when the back top teeth fit inside the bottom teeth and the other is an anterior crossbite. This occurs when the top front teeth fit behind the bottom teeth (like a bulldogs teeth). Crossbites can be a skeletal issue such as the jaws not being proportional, or a tooth issue, or a combination of the two. It's important for the Orthodontist to determine what is going on and to attempt to correct it to prevent the problem from worsening or creating additional issues.
Another problem we look for are habits; these include thumb, finger and lip habits. By age 7 when the adult incisors are erupted the habits should be stopped as they will create additional issues such as increased overjet (buck teeth), decreased overbite (open bite) and will create/ worsen a posterior crossbite. When an appliance is made to stop the habit it usually works within a week or two. We get an exceeding good response from these habit appliances and can typically remove them within a month.
Often when we consider early orthodontic treatment we are not concerned about spacing or crowding issues within reason because this can be corrected once all the adult teeth have erupted or are close to erupting. If everything else looks normal, this means that only one orthodontic treatment may be necessary. One exception to this is that sometimes when the teeth are not ideal our children may not like their smile or unfortunately people at school may say things about their teeth - when poor alignment of the teeth lead to psychosocial issues, aligning the teeth with braces is a quick and typically easy way to boost your child’s self confidence.