We do get asked this quite a lot from our parents that bring their kids here, ''For my little Johnny or little Suzie, when is the best time for braces? Is now the best time or should we wait till, after all the baby teeth come out before we put braces on?''
Well, I guess the answer is yes and no. I know it's very vague. But that's because, you know, just like how everyone is different, every tooth is different, and everyone’s developmental age or developmental growth is different as well.
There are many factors involved. And one of the three main factors is what we said age dependent, and what is clinically present. And as well as, what do you want to achieve out of this?
- Age Dependent:
- So, in some cases, I've seen little Johnny, who’s like 7 years old. And there's a little bit of, crooked teeth, they're not too bad. But we do see what we call an overbite. And in cases like that, or sometimes even an open bite, where when you bite down your teeth and you're not exactly touching at the front. And, and in cases like that, you're better off treating early pre-orthodontically.
- When it’s things like, overbite or gaps or cross bite, whereby bone manipulation is involved, you want to, I mean, the golden time, the best time to move bone is when they're kids and when they're younger. Because as you get older, their bones fuse and they don't expand and move as much, so we're quite limited to what we can do.
- And because of that, there's a higher chance of needing surgery down the track as well.
- What’s Clinically Present and
- What you want to achieve out of their Braces
- On the other end of the spectrum, I see little Suzie where she's 11 years old and has a little bit of crooked teeth. I might say that it's not urgent right now, unless, she's not having a great time at school and getting teased at school or very self-conscious about it. Then perhaps now's the best time to start the Braces process.
- In some cases, if they're not aware of the dental issue, not self-conscious about their teeth, and it doesn't bother them, then it's okay to wait for a few years until later down the track.
To summarize, in some cases we do wait till baby teeth all come out, However, in some cases we don't. The answer really is lies in, well depends on how crooked, what you want to achieve and how old they are.
Now the best thing to do about this, is to speak to your local professional or Tooth Heaven. For our patients we normally suggest to book in with, me myself, Dr. Lee or, for a Discovery Session for Ortho. And I'll be able to advice you a little bit better whether, you know, little Johnny or little Suzie, should be worried about his or her teeth right now, or it's okay to leave it for later down the track.
We understand that this advice is a little bit general and a little bit vague, but it's very hard to be specific, if we haven't seen your teeth to begin with. So, this is why we suggest the Discovery Session on Ortho. Until the next time we speak again, and I hope you enjoyed this video. See you next time. Bye now.
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