When is the Best Time to Look Into Braces?
Is it Worth Doing Both Phase I and Phase II?
Opinions have gone back and forth throughout the years on whether having BOTH phase 1 AND phase 2 orthodontics done is genuinely worthwhile.
Why not just do it all at once, when the child is a little bit older? Why not save time, money, and hassle??
I’ll start by saying that I myself chose to do phase 1 orthodontics with both of our daughters.
Here is why...
As our daughters started to lose their baby teeth, both had NO room for their adult teeth to erupt in their place.
Baby teeth are smaller than the adult teeth that replace them, so it’s actually IDEAL if a child has spaces between their baby teeth. If not, there’s just not going to be enough room.
If the baby teeth are tight together, orthodontics will most likely be in their future.
Both of our daughters’ teeth had ZERO spacing, and the roof of their mouths was small and narrow.
Their upper lateral teeth (the teeth next over from the two central teeth) stayed stuck underneath the gumline after their baby teeth fell out. They just never came in.
Our youngest daughter also had tremendous trouble with her breathing. She would snore all night long, had night terrors, and battled with cavities due to the dry mouth that the snoring caused. (Yes, even with me as her mother)
Dry mouth is a horrible thing to battle in the dental world. Add dry mouth to baby teeth, which aren’t as strong as adult teeth, and you’ll just watch them deteriorate before your eyes.
To remedy these problems, I took both of the girls to the Orthodontist.
We decided that palate expansion would be the best for both of them. Both I and my husband had palate expanders as children, so these girls were doomed from the start. :)
We expanded our girls’ palates for 14 days, using an appliance called a hyrax. A hyrax works by using a “key," which you “turn” once or twice a day, according to your orthodontist’s recommendations.
In both cases with my girls, those upper lateral teeth that I told you were stuck???...They started to erupt!!! They came in around day 12 of turning the key! 12 days and there they were! They fully erupted that same month!
Even more importantly, with the help and guidance of both the orthodontist and pediatrician, we also decided to have our youngest daughter’s tonsils removed.
With this combo of early orthodontics and tonsil removal, her breathing improved. Her night terrors stopped, and her cavity situation was fixed! Her strep throat battle came to a halt!
Second opinions from professionals who care are always worth listening to. Early opinions prepare you even more and catch problems sooner than later.
I know that expansion talk sounds scary:
When orthodontists expand the palate using a hyrax appliance, more room is created for the adult teeth to come in.
The child’s airway is also opened up more, aiding breathing, reducing allergies, and allowing the face to grow and develop appropriately.
The palate, or the roof of our mouths rather, actually has a lot to do with the way our face forms.
If someone is a mouth breather, their mouth is open more often than it is closed. Hence, the tongue cannot put the natural amount of pressure on the palate as it usually should.
The palate, therefore, instead of forming more flat and wide, becomes more arched and narrow. When this happens, the face itself will form longer and more narrow as well.
Breathing, allergies, cavities, etc., can remain a problem for life.
The hyrax appliance is a metal contraption that goes across the palate and connects to two or three teeth on each side of the mouth. There is an adjustment area in the center of the hyrax that uses a “key.”
The Orthodontist will show you how to “turn the key,” and how often. It all depends on how much expansion is desired.
It is usually just a few turns, once or twice a day, for around 10-14 days... sometimes longer. That’s for the orthodontist to decide. They are the experts.
It DOES NOT HURT when you turn the hyrax with the key. It DOES feel a bit weird in the nose area, though. It feels like you are a little lightheaded for a second. That’s the best way to explain it.
If full palatal expansion isn’t recommended, but a little more room is still desired, a “quad” appliance can also be used. This appliance doesn’t spread at the fissure as the hyrax appliance does. Instead, it guides the arch wider by pushing the teeth themselves.
So, at what age should a child be seen by an orthodontist?
If palate expansion with a hyrax is recommended, it should be done earlier on in life. The fissure between the two palatal bones tightens and closes around the age of 15. New techniques have made expansion possible after this point, but it’s not much fun and definitely not as easy.
To determine if either expansion treatment would benefit your child, orthodontists recommend seeing children for the first time around 7 years old.
The earlier you can make room and catch problems, the easier orthodontics will be for your child, and the straighter their teeth will look as they are growing up.
Honest Orthodontists will tell you the TRUTH. If your child will not benefit from early orthodontics, they will not recommend it.
More Reasons for early intervention...
Early intervention has proven to help with the development of childrens’ self-esteem.
Teeth that are coming in wrong can be watched and re-directed if need be.
Early orthodontics guides and enables the mouth to form correctly, rather than trying to work with what you have ended up with later in life.
When you choose to do orthodontics in two phases, you have more control and less to do later. TWO phases is NOT recommended for everyone, though. The honest orthodontist will let you know if both phases are needed.
You’re less likely to have to pull perfectly wonderful teeth in order to make enough room for the rest. It is better to make room and guide everything correctly to begin with.
Orthodontists are using Invisalign technology more and more now as well. If your child is disciplined, this could be an option for them.
It never hurts to seek that second opinion!
So, ask your honest dentist what they think. They will refer you to their honest Orthodontist.
Consultations are oftentimes free, but still worth the investment and professional opinion if not.
When early intervention is not recommended for your child, the Orthodontist will usually recommend that you return when all of the baby teeth have been lost and when their 12-year molars have fully erupted. This is, on average, around 12-13 years of age.
If you want multiple opinions, talk with two or three orthodontists! It never EVER hurts to seek second opinions.
We wish you the best of luck and hope this information helps!
Though it would be best if we did, we’ll never claim to know it all, all of the time. NO ONE knows it all! We do claim honesty, though, and we sincerely want to help as many people as we can! Our patients have maintained beautifully, following our conservative recommendations :)
So, thanks so much for reading and letting us spill our SODA! Remember to take the time to find your HONEST DENTIST, and be sure to browse around our links and follow us on social media for answers to more of your exciting dental questions, like:
