Early orthodontic treatment benefits a child's developing smile in several ways. Misalignment of teeth can lead to poor facial development and health issues like sleep problems. Orthodontic treatment can address misaligned teeth, improper jaw formation, and other dental issues. This helps guide proper tooth eruption and jaw growth. It may also help with problems like teeth grinding and bedwetting. Seeing an orthodontist by age seven allows them to monitor a child's development and plan any needed treatment. Orthodontic treatment is generally done in two phases, with phase one from ages 8-9 focusing on habits and alignment, and phase two using braces from ages 11-15 to position teeth.

1. Early Orthodontic Treatment Benefits Your
Child’s Growing Smile
When your child comes in for early orthodontic treatment, it’s usually not just
because their teeth are not aligned. Because of this misalignment, this can
lead to poor facial development or other health problems. If your child’s
developing jaws and face don’t grow correctly, there may be health issues that
affect their sleep quality and consequently impact healthy brain and body
development.
Tooth eruption is yet another issue, but our orthodontist can monitor and
guide your child’s teeth to fix problems early on. This is also why the American
Association of Orthodontists® advises that your child has their first orthodontic
screening by the age of seven to assess their need for orthodontic treatment.
The goal is to begin treatment early to fix issues before they grow into more
costly and time-intensive concerns.
Treating your child’s dental issues earlier can help create the room needed for
erupting teeth that are crowded, allow space for the teeth which are yet to
erupt, lessen the need for tooth extractions and guide their jaw growth for
facial symmetry. If your child snores or breathes through the mouth, wakes up
frequently, grinds their teeth, wets the bed or has trouble falling asleep,
orthodontic treatment can even help with these problems. Other issues that
can be resolved with orthodontics are speech impediments, chronic
headaches, colds, sore throats or ear infections.
If baby teeth are lost too soon or too late, this may lead to crowding of the
permanent teeth. Your child’s smile or bite can also be affected by thumb-
sucking. A crossbite can also influence your child’s teeth and lead to gum
disease, chronic pain in the jaw, neck and shoulder areas. This can even
affect your child’s self-confidence leading to behavioral issues.
Early orthodontic treatment is done in two stages, Phase I and II. This allows
your child’s permanent teeth to come in correctly and help prevent extractions
down the road. Phase I is generally done around the age of eight or nine,
while Phase II is done around age 11 to 15.
Phase I focuses on helping your child learn good oral hygiene habits,
resolving dental issues, correcting their bite and jaw development while
shifting their permanent teeth into the proper place. The goal of this phase is

2. to start improving your child’s alignment and lessen the risk of dental issues in
the future.
In Phase II, braces are employed to guide your child’s permanent teeth into
position and stabilize them. Having orthodontic treatment done at this age can
prevent the need for braces as an adult (which often involves tooth extraction
or oral surgery), so wearing braces as a child prevents this and reduces the
length of time they need to wear braces.
If you would like to have your child’s oral development checked, our
orthodontist is happy to determine whether treatment is needed and designing
a personalized treatment plan for the best results. If you would like to find out
more or want to schedule your child’s orthodontic consultation with us, please
call or visit us today!
Dr. Christopher Corsa is a board certified, Harvard and Columbia educated
orthodontist, top 1% VIP Platinum Invisalign provider. Dr. Corsa and his team
at Corsa Orthodontics strive to provide patient-centric and caring orthodontic
services to patients of all ages, living in San Jose, CA and its surrounding
areas of Campbell, Cupertino, Sunnyvale and Willow Glen. Call Corsa
Orthodontics today for a free consultation and let’s get the smile you’ve
always wanted.