Why Do Early Orthodontic Treatment?

Specific reasons to consider early orthodontic intervention for your child/dependent...

These are goals that can be achieved in Phase I (early) orthodontic treatment. With a philosophy of later treatment, when all the permanent teeth are in, some objectives can be more difficult or impossible to achieve compared to early treatment.

Since priorities for individual patients vary, the following factors are not listed in the order of importance.

  1. Compliance
    • Younger patients tend to be more compliant and cooperative.
    • Teenagers tend to be more independent and defiance in terms of treatment (we know how they can be).
    • This promotes better relationships between the Doctor and patient in the first and into the second phase of treatment.
  2. Enhance the ability to function optimally
    • Dental and related skeletal problems can affect proper breathing, swallowing and talking.
  3. Psychological implications
    • This includes esthetics of the child that improves his/her outlook and attitude by increasing his/her self-identity and pride by not being too different from the norm.
    • As adults, we forget how unforgiving children are to other children who are "different" in terms of appearance and speech.
    • When we improve the appearance and function of children at an earlier time period we can increase their confidence and self-esteem during and after treatment.
    • This is an overlooked and often ignored part of orthodontic treatment and not just for early treatment.
    • Orthodontic treatment is an excellent investment for the young patient's self esteem.
  4. Opportunities for the Doctor to modify treatment methods based on the response to treatment knowing that the patient has growth and development remaining in the early years
    • Growing children allow us to do orthopedic correction and not just orthodontic correction. Once growth is complete we cannot do orthopedic corrections.
    • Orthopedic correction means that we can alter the growth, shape and development of the jawbones along with the teeth.
    • Orthodontic correction means that we can only alter the position of the teeth.
  5. Assist in avoiding facial/oral surgery or decrease the amount of surgery necessary at a later date
    • Decrease the chance of impacted (stuck, not erupting normally) teeth that may require future surgery.
    • In severe cases surgical correction is necessary for proper form and function.
    • Many times we can even eliminate the risk of future surgery with early treatment.
  6. Decrease the chance of extracting permanent teeth in the future
    • We do our best to minimize extracting permanent teeth when we do treatment.
    • If we modify the shape of the jaws and move teeth early, we reduce this chance.
  7. Decrease the risk of tooth roots shrinking due to orthodontic treatment
    • Research shows that early treatment decreases the chance of the roots shortening during treatment

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