Children suffer from various dental problems like thumb sucking, tooth decay, lip sucking, tongue thrusting, crooked teeth, or early tooth loss. While some of these dental problems can be treated by your dentist, you need to take your child to an Orthodontist for some dental issues. Here are five signals that indicate your child requires a visit to the child orthodontist.
Overlapping Or Overcrowded Teeth
Overlapping teeth is a type of malocclusion, a scientific term for the misalignment of teeth. Some children have several overlapping or crooked teeth, which need to be treated early. There can be several reasons behind overlapping or overcrowded teeth, like thumb sucking.
If your child has overlapping or overcrowded teeth, you need to take your kids to pediatric dentistry to examine teeth misalignment and give you various treatment options like braces, veneers, or clear braces.
A Noticeable Overbite
There are different types of an overbite, like a skeletal overbite or a dental overbite. A dental overbite affects the facial appearance of your child. In a dental overbite, the teeth are misaligned, leading to the lower jaw pushing towards the neck. If your child has a noticeable overbite, you need to take him to an orthodontist.
Many children who have noticeable overbite feel uncomfortable as their face shapes attract the attention of their peers, who tease them a lot. Hence, you need to take your kid to a child orthodontist if you notice any signs of overbite. If overbite treatment is started early, the dental problem can be fixed without surgery.
Thumb Sucking
A recent study mentions thumb sucking is common in children, and around 70% – 90% of children suck their thumb. If your child is constantly sucking his thumb, it is an indication that he will need dental braces soon. You need to take your kid to an orthodontist to get the braces fitted in that scenario.
Thumb sucking is not a good habit, leading to various dental issues. Sucking the thumb causes a problem in teeth alignment and prevents proper growth of your child’s mouth. An orthodontist will treat thumb sucking in different ways. He may place an expander in his mouth to physically prevent your child’s thumb from entering his mouth. The orthodontist will also fit braces to correct the teeth’ alignment.
Early Loss Of Baby Teeth
Baby teeth start falling out when your child reaches the age of 5 or 6. However, some children start losing baby teeth quite earlier due to various reasons that need investigation. Some of the reasons for early loss of baby teeth are overcrowded teeth or teeth that are on the verge of overlapping.
Whatever the reason, you need to take your child to an orthodontist to find out the causes and give proper treatment to prevent the development of permanent teeth.
Jaw Shifting
Jaw shifting is associated with the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) connecting your lower jaw to your skull. TMJ can have several reasons like genetics, bruxism, injury, or arthritis. Jaw shifting results from misaligned jaws and teeth that an orthodontist can correct
Before recommending proper treatment, your orthodontist will analyze your child’s jaw structure, mouth, and teeth. Some treatment options to treat jaw misalignment are braces, upper jaw expander, reverse pull face mask, and headgear braces.
To sum up, these are five signals that indicate you should take your kid to a child orthodontist.
