Crooked Teeth - Are Your Kids Thumb Suckers?

If your child’s teeth are crooked, whether from sucking a thumb or if the teeth just came in that way, your child may have other issues in the mouth. Are there gaps between the teeth? If so, that’s great. If not – if the baby teeth are close together – there may not be room for the adult teeth to come in.

In most cases, if there are no gaps between the baby teeth, it indicates the child may need braces. The good thing about catching this condition early is that the bone is still soft and room can be made for the permanent teeth to come in. Don’t wait until your child is 13 to have braces installed. A child can be treated as early as 8 years to mold the bone and create space for the permanent teeth.

That way you avoid surgery to remove the permanent teeth because there is not enough room for them. When you remove adult teeth, it shrinks the face. You don’t get that nice, broad smile, and because of the narrowed smile, the sinuses may not have enough room to get enough oxygen in the body.

This is just another instance of why early detection is so important. If these problems are caught early, there’s no need for surgery and the sinuses will be able to work properly. Not only is early detection easier on the patient, it’s also easier on the pocketbook.

The biggest problems are caused when the parents wait until the kid is 6 or 7 years old to visit a dentist for kids. They usually come because the child has a cavity or the permanent teeth are coming in crooked. Then that first visit is associated with pain. It’s a lot less expensive to get your teeth cleaned and checked than it is to get a filling or an extraction.

Two months is not too soon for the first visit, but certainly by the time the first baby teeth appear. Early visits will get the child accustomed to the dentist, who will be able to tell if any problems are developing.

If there is a problem with crooked teeth, if it’s caught before the bone hardens too much, the braces will be much less painful than if the parents wait until the teenage years. Find dentistry for kids here: http://smilecentre.com/