How do you know if your child needs braces?
During the developmental stage, between the ages of 6 and 11, the bones of the face begin to grow and the teeth begin to change (from baby teeth to permanent teeth). However, this growth does not always occur optimally and the result can be misaligned teeth and a bad bite that affects the oral health of adolescents and adults. To prevent this, we have interceptive orthodontics, for which it is essential to detect problems in the development of the child’s teeth and jaws in time.
The 10 factors that indicate that your child suffers from a problem in dental and bone development:
- Prolonged sucking of the thumb or other finger.
- Early or late loss of baby teeth.
- Problems chewing or biting.
- Noise when opening or closing the jaw.
- Excessive interdental space.
- Crowding or misalignment of teeth.
- Teeth protruding from their arch.
- Disproportionate development of jaw or teeth.
- Breathing through the mouth
- Speech or pronunciation difficulties.
Prolonged sucking of the thumb or other finger.
Both prolonged sucking of the thumb (or other finger) and the use of a dummy after the child has stopped using a bottle can affect the dentition. More specifically, these bad habits can disrupt the upper incisors, causing them to move forward.
At the same time, they can affect the lower ones, causing them to move backwards. As a result, the child can suffer from a malocclusion problem known as open bite, when the upper and lower incisors do not come into contact with each other during chewing.
2. Early or late loss of baby teeth.
One of the characteristics of milk or primary teeth is to conserve the space that, after they fall out, the permanent teeth will have to occupy. For this reason, the premature or late loss of these teeth can affect the permanent dentition, causing misalignments in alignment.
On the one hand, early loss may be due to an accident or the cause of dental caries, easily avoidable with proper oral hygiene at home and a balanced diet. On the other hand, the late eruption of the first primary teeth, around one year of age, can delay and affect dental development.
Baby teeth should begin to erupt at 8 months of age and be lost between 6 and 9 years of age, to be replaced by permanent teeth. Outside these periods, it is possible that children may be affected by problems in the dentition that can be solved thanks to interceptive orthodontics.
3. Problems with chewing or biting.
In order for there to be balance during chewing, each tooth in the upper arch must have a partner in the lower arch. When the occlusion, i.e. the bite, is not correct, it is possible that the child may begin to experience discomfort when chewing that manifests itself as strange notches.
If this happens, it is very likely that the child is chewing on one side of the mouth, which can lead to occlusion problems such as crossbite, as well as head and neck pain.
4. Noise when opening or closing the jaw.
Thanks to the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) we can move and open our mouth normally. However, it is possible that during the developmental phase certain disorders may occur that manifest themselves in the form of noises or clicking noises during chewing, or even opening and closing the mouth. This pathology is often accompanied by headaches and neck pain, which is an indication that there may be an oral health problem.
5. Excessive interdental space.
An excessively wide dental arch, an insufficient number of teeth, or too few teeth, can lead to larger than normal spaces between the teeth. This not only affects the aesthetics of the smile, so that the teeth appear wider apart, but can also impair the alignment of the erupting permanent teeth.
6. Dental crowding or misaligned teeth
As we have already mentioned, a correct bite or occlusion occurs when both upper and lower teeth fit together. If there are problems with teeth that are too close together or crowded or with poor alignment of the teeth, it is possible that the child has problems in the dental arch that should be corrected to improve the balance of the teeth and improve the bite.
7. Teeth protruding from the arch.
When the teeth protrude from the upper or lower arch, i.e. they are further out than normal, there is a bad fit, a bad bite. If this happens with baby teeth, it will happen with permanent teeth and may also be an indication that the jaws are not growing normally. And although it is common as a result of thumb sucking or dummy use, it does not always happen for this reason, so it is important to pay attention to the evolution of the teeth and jaw.
8. Disproportionate development of the jaw or teeth.
Although each child has different facial features, their face should develop in a harmonious, symmetrical way, otherwise it is possible that there is a problem with the teeth and/or jaws, for example a disproportionate size of the teeth or a jaw that is too large, which indicates that there is a problem.
9. Breathing through the mouth
Dental malocclusions, i.e. bite problems, prevent children’s mouths from resting in a natural position. Because the lips do not fit together as they should, the mouth often tends to be open and children become accustomed to breathing through the mouth rather than through the nose. This can be an important indication that the occlusion is not correct.
10. Speech or pronunciation difficulties.
On some occasions, the speech or pronunciation difficulties that are usually treated by the speech therapist have their origin in the development of the teeth and jaws. Therefore, the solution may be multidisciplinary and it may be necessary to consider interceptive orthodontic treatment to help solve speech or pronunciation problems.
Although dental occlusion and bite problems can be solved in adulthood, during the infant stage of development they are easier to solve and even prevent thanks to orthodontics. In addition to alignment and bite, interceptive orthodontics can correct jaw malformations without resorting to surgery (in adults).
For this reason, it is advisable to supervise the evolution of your children’s teeth, taking into account the factors mentioned above. However, it is especially important to have regular check-ups with the paediatric dentist from the age of 6, as children’s orthodontics is effective in the growth stage, when dental problems are easier to treat.
