At Park Place Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics in Arlington, TX, our doctors and staff know the importance of your child’s first orthodontic exam! Orthodontics play a huge role in your child’s appearance and health, even before adult teeth begin to form. At Park Place Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics in Arlington, TX, Dr. Shen and our staff know the importance of your child’s first orthodontic exam! Orthodontics play a huge role in your child’s appearance and health, even before adult teeth begin to form. According to the American Association of Orthodontics, a professional orthodontist at Park Place Pediatric should examine your child’s teeth by the time they are seven years old! Our expert orthodontists are trained to accurately identify bite issues at an early age, preventing your son or daughter from misaligned teeth later in life.
Although your child’s teeth may look straight, there could potentially be underlying problems with the way their adult teeth will erupt. A misaligned bite, a bad relationship between the upper and lower jaw, unordinary tooth crowding, or problems caused by non-nutritive habits can lead to major orthodontic issues after your child’s baby teeth are replaced by their adult teeth. Your Park Place area orthodontists can help to identify these issues right off the bat, ensuring that they will be corrected by the time your child’s teeth are fully developed.
Orthodontic Exam At Age 7 With Your Arlington, TX Orthodontist
The transition from your child’s baby teeth to their permanent teeth is extremely important. Baby teeth establish the foundation for your child’s adult teeth, guiding them into their proper positions. As baby teeth are the building blocks for a healthy smile, it’s important for Dr. Shen to examine your child’s mouth while they still have their initial baby teeth in place. Their baby teeth may look perfectly fine, but there could be underlying structural problems waiting to show. With the help of one panoramic x-ray, our team can identify if your child is naturally missing any adult teeth, as well as identify deviations from normal tooth eruption, which may lead to complications down the road.
The primary goal of early orthodontic treatment at Park Place Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics is to correct the issue at hand in the shortest amount of time possible, periodically evaluating the need for braces later in the early teen years. The most common types of early orthodontic treatment involve braces on the front teeth, a palatal expander, retainer, or a combination of one or more of these.
Symptoms Of Underlying Issues
Oftentimes, a child’s behavior may indicate that an orthodontic examination at Park Place Pediatric is in order. Here is a list of major symptoms that may occur, signaling that it’s time for a visit to your Fort Worth, TX orthodontist:
- The loss of baby teeth too early, or too late
- Difficulty chewing or biting
- Breathing primarily through their mouth
- Sucking their thumb too long
- Has crowded, misplaced, or blocked-out teeth
- Has a jaw that shifts, or makes noises while moving
- Difficulty speaking
- Frequent biting of the cheeks
- Facial imbalances
- Grinds or clenches teeth
- Large, or uneven spaces between teeth
Contact Your Arlington, TX Orthodontist Today!
Early orthodontic consultations determine the extent of your child’s orthodontic needs, allowing Dr. Shen to identify problems that can affect ideal dental health, and pinpoint structural issues that may lead to aesthetic discrepancies. Your child’s smile is critically important to their confidence, and to all of our staff here at Park Place Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics in Fort Worth, TX. If your child is experiencing symptoms of underlying orthodontic issues, please don’t hesitate to contact us today. Your child’s orthodontic well-being is important to us, so don’t wait until it’s too late!