Your dentist checks your child at an early stage, sees how the teeth and jaws develop and informs you of the changes that may occur while your child grows. Therefore, we recommend that your child get a dental check-up regularly.
It is possible to examine orthodontic treatments in childhood up to the age of 18 in two stages.
Protective-Preventive Orthodontic Treatment
Your child’s first orthodontic examination should be at the age of 5-6. The purpose of this first examination is:
– to detect jaw related disorders in children and intervene early
– treatment of wrong functions that will cause jaw problems in the future, such as wrong swallowing and breathing through the mouth
– is to eliminate the possibility of adverse forces coming to the teeth.
If your child is breathing through the mouth and their lips are open, an orthodontist and otolaryngologist should work together to correct these functions. This type of treatment is a treatment method consisting of different breathing and muscle exercises and appliances that children of this age can wear.
Even if you do not observe any problems, you should take your child to an orthodontist when s/he is 5-6 years old. Because it is easier to solve some orthodontic problems when they are noticed early and it is possible to prevent the occurrence of jaw problems, especially caused by mouth breathing.
Orthodontic treatments in this period are called “preventive treatment”.
Sometimes, children may have bad habits such as wrong swallowing, finger, pen, tongue sucking, which are left over from infancy. Interventions to eliminate these bad habits are called preventive treatment.
With the elimination of habits in the early period, a situation that may affect the skeletal structure in the future will be eliminated. For this reason, it is very important to have your child examined by an orthodontist in the early period in order to get the best result. Your orthodontist will evaluate whether there is a need for treatment for your child and will inform you of the most appropriate treatment time for you.