An orthodontist is a specialist dentist who straightens teeth and fixes bad bites. Treatments often involve wearing braces; they can be expensive and can take a few years to complete. Anything that we can do to prevent problems arising or to make complex problems easy is always worth considering.
 
Should you wait until all of your child’s permanent teeth have erupted to visit the orthodontist, or is there benefit in being seen while there are still baby teeth in the mouth? Hugh Bradley is an orthodontist working at ORTHO, Donnybrook and Dundalk. Here, he offers a few words of advice to help you understand the process of getting teeth and how complex problems can be avoided or made simpler.
 
Why are baby teeth important?
Our teeth are designed to last a lifetime, and so they have to be extremely hard and durable. The enamel on our teeth is the hardest substance in the body. It takes nature six years to grow a tooth hard and tough enough for this purpose. For six years then, nature gives us temporary teeth designed to tie us over until the real teeth are fully cooked and ready.
 
The baby teeth will get us into the teenage years, and each has a tooth growing under it ready to take its place when the time is right. The baby teeth keep the space in the mouth for these teeth underneath. If a baby tooth goes bad and is lost before the new one underneath is ready to come, the space for the new tooth can be lost as other teeth drift into the space. The new tooth then gets stuck or impacted and cannot fit in without help. Early loss of baby teeth can result in an orthodontic problem arising where there was none, or in a mild problem becoming complex.
 
So, baby teeth need to be looked after. Sugar causes the baby teeth to decay. The enamel surface is softer than the permanent teeth. Your general dentist will help maintain your child's teeth, so bring them with you when you go for your six-monthly or annual checkup. When nothing needs to be done, it gives a young child a positive experience of a dental visit and helps reinforce the idea of prevention.
 
Where a child loses a baby tooth early, you may be referred to an orthodontist to see whether some early treatment is indicated, to prevent difficulties later.
 
How the teeth bite together
The teeth are for chewing, and the top and bottom ones are designed to bite together, with the upper teeth slightly in front and outside of the lowers. If the bite is faulty, the jaws can be forced sideways or may drop back, resulting in mouth-breathing and prominent teeth. Pick up these problems early, and they won’t develop into a serious issue. Your dentist will pick up any bite problems and will refer you to an orthodontist for an early assessment. In general, these things are spotted at about eight years of age for girls, and a bit later (about nine years) for boys, whose growth tends to be a bit slower.
 
 
 
Mouth-breathing
It is normal that we breathe through our noses at rest with the lips together. In order for the teeth and jaws to develop as they should, have the lips together at the front and the tongue sitting up in the palate on the inside of the teeth. Any other conditions can result in the bite and shape of the dental arches becoming abnormal. Thumb-sucking habits beyond infancy can severely affect dental development.The orthodontist is often the first port of call for these issues.
 
Early treatment
An orthodontist is a dentist who has trained and specialised in making teeth straight and fixing bad bites. They use different types of braces to get things corrected. Braces are gadgets that are fitted in the mouth - some removable, and some stuck to the teeth - which put gentle guiding pressure on the teeth.
 
Because the last of the permanent teeth don’t erupt until the age of 12-13, the final position of the teeth cannot be judged or finally sorted out until that time. At Ortho, most kids get their braces or Invisalign-Teen at age 13-14. Many kids have some treatment carried out earlier - treatment designed to intercept problems that have been noticed early. Early treatment at Ortho is carried out at eight to 10 years of age in girls, and nine to 11 years in boys, and the braces used are invisible and very small. It is carried out to either eliminate the need for treatment or to make complex problems easier to solve later. It can eliminate the need to lose permanent teeth by creating more space in the jaws.
 
Early correction of prominent teeth reduces the occurrence of broken teeth and improves facial harmony. If the bite is crossed over, early correction enables the jaws to close normally. Be seen early to identify specific problems in development and to get things back on an even keel, allowing the teeth to erupt and develop more normally.
 
Early treatment is not often indicated is cases of spacing or where the general dental health is poor.
 
Guidelines
Bring your child to the dentist as an infant. Keep the baby teeth until they are ready to fall out naturally. Your dentist will refer you to an orthodontist when a problem is spotted. Girls should see a specialist orthodontist at around eight or nine years, and boys at nine or 10 years of age. Early treatment of bite problems can be of huge benefit to children, simplifying or eliminating the need for complex treatment later.
 
Early treatment can create beautiful faces where normal development has been upset. 
Specialist Orthodontist
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