Children's Orthodontics in Colorado Springs and Woodland Park
“Teeth don’t know how to count” is the first thing I tell parents. Teeth don’t follow a schedule that is based on your child’s age or what a book states. We don’t check at your child’s teeth and bones to see if and when they might require braces. Instead, we look at trends in how their adult teeth and face bones are growing.
Finding problems early on offers me the best chance to schedule your child’s treatment at the right moment and increases the odds of long-term success. Timing is essential in orthodontics. If we start at the correct time, we may get the best results with the least amount of time, effort, and money.
Case-by-Case Basis
A lot of kids don’t need treatment right away. When to start treatment relies completely on how your child’s grin and face are changing. This is where we think about the difference between “could” and “should.”
It’s perfectly common for kids between the ages of 7 and 12 to have some misaligned teeth. We only suggest treatment during this time if it would help us avoid worse problems in the future. We want to make sure that if we step in early, it’s for something that matters and makes a difference.
“Phase I” or “Interceptive Treatment” is what people often term early treatment. I prefer to think of it as a football interception: you see a problem, make a vital move to affect the outcome, and then let the rest of the play happen. We want targeted, useful actions that drive the ball forward and nothing else.
Interceptive Orthodontics Benefits
Interceptive treatment often focuses on correcting a narrow upper jaw. Expansion can:
- Make room for adult teeth
- Help align the bite and jaw symmetry
- Reduce the need for extractions
- Even potentially avoid jaw surgery later on
Bonus: a wider upper jaw can improve nasal airflow. While breathing is never the primary reason for treatment, it’s a great side benefit.
We also guide “Teeth Behaving Badly.” That’s my way of describing teeth that are headed off track, getting stuck, growing in the wrong place, or crowding others. Not every misdirected tooth needs help, but we focus on the ones that do, the ones that are really bad with directions!
Other benefits of early orthodontic treatment include:
- Guiding jaw growth
- Creating space for crowded or unerupted teeth
- Reducing the need to remove permanent teeth
- Correcting crossbites and asymmetries
- Minimizing risk of injury to protruding teeth
- Addressing overbites and underbites
- See Traditional & Clear Braces
