When shall we start the braces for my child?
For the last 20 years of my practice this is the most repeated question ever, from every mom and dad.
We never stop watching our children since birth with care and love.
The first smile, first word, first tooth, and first step , we notice all their firsts with love.
No wonder that the first child always teaches us a lot, so here in this article I am going to give some main advices all related to children teeth including the answer for the famous question in the title.
In the following points you may find several answers for a lot of common question since all children come to life without a manual book ,
- Start brushing his first tooth once it erupts in his mouth with the proper brush.
- Thump sucking is a normal habit but you need to stop it at the age of four otherwise it will cause deformities to the upper and lower teeth.
- Spaces generate in between the milk teeth at the age 4 to 5 years old are normal and considered as a good sign for the future of the permanent teeth.
- Changing milk teeth into permanents starts at the age of 6 and ends usually at the age of 13 with some exceptions.
- The upper front permanent teeth (the upper incisors) start erupting at the age of 7 and no wonder you will think that they are extremely big but they are not, because they are an adult teeth but your childs skull still small and not yet fully grown up.
- Take your child to the dentist for regular check up and make sure to treat dental caries in milk teeth immediately before they become worse and always remember that the dental pain is a very late symptom.
- At the age of 8 to 10 years old mild crowding or mild spaces both are normal to appear and usually they disappear or become better later without orthodontic intervention .
- We treat most cases of malocclusion orthodontically after the eruption of the upper permanent canines, and only we do early intervention with the cases of orthognathic disorders (upper or lower jaw protrusion , retrusion and open bites) , cases of crossbites or parafunctional habits.
- You need to consult your dentist or orthodontist whenever you suspect any deformity as early as possible and he will guide you what to do.
- There is a very big relation between respiratory problems and orthodontic malocclusion so you always need to consult both the E.N.T and the orthodontic specialists and you need to make sure that your child is breathing through out of the nose not the mouth and you need to make sure that your child doesn’t keep his mouth open during sleep .
- The rule earlier is better is not always correct in starting the orthodontic treatment the rule earlier is better is always correct in consulting the dentist or the orthodontist.
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