Did you know that the American Association of Orthodontics recommends starting orthodontic care as young as age seven? To help guide the growth of the smile and improve alignment issues, our team could offer Phase One Orthodontics, also known as Interceptive Orthodontics. In today’s blog, your Riverside Dental Group team talks about our Interceptive Orthodontics.
Starting Care for Young Children
When kids reach the age of seven, they have a mix of permanent teeth and primary teeth in their smiles, so we can better gauge the risk to their alignment. Since their smile is still growing, we can help guide this process with our Phase One Orthodontics, helping to limit misalignment so they require less time with braces or aligners when they reach the teen years. Our team will carefully examine the smile with digital x-rays and intraoral cameras, so we can assess the current state of their oral health and the potential risks to their alignment without treatment. We can also create a personalized treatment plan to help guide their smile’s growth!
Examples of Phase One Orthodontics
A retainer may be prescribed as part of the treatment. The retainer is an oral appliance that is worn in the mouth and helps guide the growth of the jaw and smile to limit misalignment. These can be removable or permanent, and we create them from acrylic and thin arch wires to ensure a comfortable fit and treatment with precision. But what if a child loses a primary tooth early? This could cause teeth to shift and impact how a permanent tooth erupts, increasing the risk of misalignment. But with a space maintainer, we can provide an oral appliance that keeps the area with the missing tooth open and prevents teeth from shifting, so the permanent tooth can arrive without complication.
What Happens Next?
Our team will examine the smile during periodic visits and may make adjustments to interceptive orthodontics as your child grows. Once he or she reaches the teen years and all of the permanent teeth have erupted and properly calcified, we can move on with the next stage of treatment, which usually involves braces or aligners to finally shift the teeth into their optimal positions, so your child has an even smile.
Help Your Child Enjoy Even Smiles with Help From Riverside Dental Group
We want to help kids of all ages on their journey to an even and beautiful smile. To find out more about correcting uneven smiles, call:
Riverside Dental Group at Magnolia in Riverside, CA at (951) 689-5031.
Dental Associates of Moreno Valley in Moreno Valley, CA at (951) 697-6800.
Riverside Dental Group at Woodcrest (951) 776-9001.
Oasis Family Dental in Temecula, CA at (951) 695-2290.
Dental Associates of Riverside in Riverside, CA at (951) 369-1001.
Dental Associates of Corona in Corona, CA at (951) 273-9580.
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