How early can orthodontic care begin for kids? For children under the age of seven, we could start treatment to ease alignment concerns using early interceptive orthodontics. At your Frisco, TX, children’s dental practice, we want to help address your child’s misalignment and improve overall oral health, which is why we offer early interceptive orthodontics treatment for kids seven and younger!
Starting Care Before Age Seven
Misalignment could occur in a child’s smile due to issues like thumb sucking or tongue thrusting, or even due to complications with the growth and development of the jaw, or even issues with the eruption of the teeth. Other causes could include the premature loss of baby teeth, which impacts alignment and increases the risk of misalignment and impaction of the permanent teeth. This could lead to issues with the bite, such as an underbite or overbite. Misalignment then grows in severity with time, but we can start care early to help guide the growth of the smile and ease alignment concerns in the teen years.
Our Interceptive Orthodontics
With interceptive orthodontics, we will take detailed images of your child’s smile and use these images and measurements to custom-fit oral appliances that help guide the growth of the smile and minimize misalignment, so kids need less time with braces or aligners in the future. We could use a retainer, which can be fixed in place or removable, to help ease alignment concerns and gaps in the smile. If a baby tooth is lost prematurely, we could use space maintainers to help ensure permanent teeth can arrive without difficulty, keeping smiles more even and healthy.
Continuing Care in Older Kids
These early orthodontics are recommended for kids under the age of seven or at around age seven, when there is a mix of permanent teeth and primary teeth, and we can better assess the alignment and state of the smile. Following these interceptive orthodontics, as kids reach their teen years, we could finish correcting alignment with braces or aligners, shifting the teeth into their proper position. If you have any questions about how our team will offer better alignment with our early interceptive orthodontics, or if you want to schedule a visit for your child now so they start 2025 on the path to an even smile, then contact our team today to learn more.
TALK TO YOUR FRISCO, TX, DENTIST ABOUT CHILDREN’S ORTHODONTICS
We can offer aligners and teeth spacers to help guide the growth of your child’s smile. Better alignment not only means a more beautiful smile but also better oral health and bite function too. To learn more about pediatric dentistry and our approach to orthodontic care for kids of all ages, call Healthy Smiles Children’s Dentistry at (214) 436-4774.
