Interceptive Braces for Kids

Baby teeth aren’t just cute to look at; they also act to reserve the space for future adult teeth to emerge.  The current position of your child’s baby teeth and when it starts (or fails) to come loose, can tell us a lot about your child’s facial and dental future.

Interceptive Early Braces for kids are targeted braces treatment to correct developmental problems that affect the eruption of adult teeth.

The American Association of Orthodontists recommends children from age 7 to visit an Orthodontist for dental and facial assessment.

That’s because facial growth and smile development are BOTH important. At age 7, that’s when problems start to show. It’s the right time to start evaluation and make sure things are moving the right way. (pun intended!)

When we identify dental and facial growth problems early, we can use Interceptive Early Braces to TARGET and NIP problems in the bud before they snowball into the teenage years and become more difficult; more uncomfortable and longer to treat. Braces materials for Interceptive Early Braces range from sectional fixed braces, removable braces, Myofunctional Therapy and Invisalign for kids.  Which one to use will determine by proper diagnosis, treatment planning and balancing the practical needs of the family.

Here’s a pictorial summary that we made to describe some of the common problems easily picked up at age 7.

Click to Download for your reference and share it with your loved ones and friends.

Indications for Interceptive Kid’s Braces:

Space Maintainers:

When a baby tooth is lost too early, the surrounding teeth start to drift into that space. In order to prevent the underlying adult tooth from getting stuck/ impacted, space maintainers are digitally designed and fabricated to maintain the space until the adult tooth is ready to erupt.

Space Regainers:

We need to regain space for erupting adult teeth when neighbouring teeth drift into the space of baby teeth that was lost too early.

There are various space regainer designs for different problems and circumstances. As each patient is unique, we will customize and design a treatment plan after a detailed assessment and diagnosis.

Facilitate Adult teeth to erupt:

Adult teeth that are stuck need to be treated or it may never erupt into the mouth!  This results in an abnormal arrangement of teeth, spaces or damage. Treatment involves redirecting the path of stuck adult teeth whose path of eruption has deviated from normal and timing the removal of surrounding baby teeth to facilitate adult teeth eruption.

Closing spaces:

Abnormally large spaces between teeth may indicate the presence of an extra tooth or tooth-size arch length discrepancy or localized cyst.

It is important to remove any pathology causing the space, then the abnormal space should be closed to allow adult teeth a smooth path of eruption. We do this by various means such as interceptive early braces and Invisalign.

Correcting malpositioned teeth:

When adult teeth grow into scissors or crossbite it may cause a bite interference and as a result, the jaw may deviate and appear crooked or long jaw. Interceptive braces aim to correct this undesirable, unintended jaw shift and prevent unnatural damage to malpositioned teeth. When adult teeth develop and erupt into a bad position, it may cause damage and harm to the adult teeth next to it. Therefore, it is urgent to correct this problem to prevent irreversible harm or damage and save teeth at risk!