Do Braces Make Sense for Little Kids?
Do I have to do this twice?
When I think of braces, I think of a 14-year-old with a mouth full of metal. But these days, more and more 7-to-10 year-olds are getting braces. Why?
The answer depends on whom you ask. Some parents who think that early braces means no braces or a shorter time with braces in awkward adolescence. Others feel that a dentist will refer young patients to an orthodontist to drum up business. Meanwhile some orthodontists feel pressure from parents and kids to straighten up those teeth fast because, as Cynthia Beeman, associate professor of orthodontics at the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry in Lexington is quoted saying in the Wall Street Journal, “It is in the culture now that kids want to look like celebrities.”
Whatever the reason, the basic question remains: Will braces for kids under 10 mean no more braces when they’re teens?According to the Journal story, the answer is it depends on what the problem is. If a child has an under bite (as my son does) or a narrow upper palate, then early treatment makes sense. Why? Because you’re shifting things around before the jaw is fully formed and harder to treat. A child who’s 7 or 8 may get a device to widen his palate which in turn will make his teeth line up better. If he needs further treatment as a teenager, that treatment is likely to be shorter and easier than it would have otherwise been. This is exactly what one pediatric dentist told us when he saw my son’s mouth.
But, if your child has an over bite there are “no measurable benefits” to early treatment. Your kid’s teeth will look better for the braces, but several studies show he’ll probably need treatment again as a teenager. Which means he’d have to go through braces twice and you have to pay for it twice. It’s great to look good for the pictures, but it’s not so great to pay a few thousand dollars for each round of treatment and go through the discomfort of braces more than once. While looks are important in this culture, is a perfect smile for a 9-year-old worth it?
How much is that perfect smile worth to you — or your child? And if it’s worth an awful lot to your child, would you agree to braces for an 8-year-old even if you knew your child might need them again when he’s a teenager?
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Depends, functional orthodontics starts before puberty and works on proper arch development and bite alignment and almost always prevents the pulling of teeth due to crowding later. Of course, you may need phase 2 later, but it’s usually much less work, intervention and money- fine tuning, so to speak.
Don’t you have to have adult teeth before you get orthodontia? They had to pull my last 6 baby teeth before they’d give me braces when I was 14 – I didn’t lose a tooth until I was 8. Are there really so many 7-y-olds who have all their adult teeth, or what?
No. Especially- by that time it’s too late.
It’s not too late – they fixed my teeth just fine. How do you even know that the kid’s teeth are going to be jacked up before they start losing them? My baby teeth were lovely; my adult teeth were sprouting out of the tops of my gums all willy-nilly. Are the teeth just hanging out in the gums, looking all weird, before you even get a loose tooth?!
My son has an open bite, as do I, so I didn’t hesitate to get him into ortho. Currently he is 9 and has an expander to make his palate wider because it is ridiculously narrow. He will be getting braces in the next couple of months, even though he only has lost maybe 6 of his baby teeth. I fully accept he may have to have a second round of braces at some time, but I think what his orthodontist is doing is *very important*. I’m 32 and am facing jaw surgery because my palate did not get expanded and corrected enough by the braces I had when I was 12-15. I’d love to be able to go back and have proper orthodontic treatment before it was too late!
My daughter had lost all her baby teeth by age 10 and we had confirmed she had an overbite. Got her checked out at the orthodontist upon our dentist’s recommendation. They said she would need braces, but we should probably wait a year for two last molars to come in. We waited more like 18 months and I think it’s the right call. My girl is 12 and she has really taken to proper brushing and caring for her braces — which I don’t think would have happened at age 10. But that’s just my family’s experience. She’ll get her braces off in 8th or 9th grade which is still pretty early.