When to start an orthodontic treatment, could be a difficult question. There are many things to be taken into consideration, such as patient's age, your health and medical condition, how severe your malocclusion problem is, moral readiness, etc.
Symptoms of orthodontic problems
Of course, the best way to determine whether your kids have any orthodontic problems is to take them to a doctor. But, there are things recommended do at home to figure out if such visit is really needed. First of all, examine your kid’s teeth to see, if there are any teeth problems, such as deformed, slant or unlined teeth. This is a sure indication of an orthodontic problem. You may also check out if your child’s front upper and lower jaw teeth are centered and aligned. If not, you may want to consult an orthodontist about it.
Orthodontic treatment for kids
As a rule, the first phase of kids’ orthodontic treatment is recommended to start at the age of 4 to 10 years. This will allow to discover orthodontic problems as soon as possible and to attain the best results in fixing those problems.
The early age treatment may take about a year. Early treatment allows fixing cross-bite problem as soon as it occurs.
Orthodontic treatment for teens
Usually, the best time thought for orthodontic treatment for teens is 12 to 14 years of age. The time of the treatment course greatly depends on how severe your kids’ orthodontic problem is. Mild problems, as a rule, take about one year to fix, while more severe ones may take up to 4 years of treatment. Dental braces therapy during this period of time is called teeth growth treatment. And, most children, who went through some orthodontic treatment during the early childhood years, most likely have to go through the growth therapy during their teen years.
Orthodontic treatment for adults
It has to be stated that today’s braces orthodontic techniques allow to move and correct position of any healthy teeth at any age (kids and adults alike). Various jaw, crooked teeth or crowded teeth problems can be successfully corrected for adults of any age.
However, there are some factors to be considered before you can engage into orthodontic treatment. For instance, broken down or decayed teeth have to be treated and cured before the orthodontic treatment starts. Another problem is gum decay or periodontal problem, which is also recommended to treat before you get your dental braces fitted.
Benefits of early treatment:
- shorter time of treatment and increased effectiveness of early orthodontic treatment;
- simpler techniques applied compared to teen or adult age;
- helping not only to form proper teeth line, but also developing proper face features.
Duration of orthodontic treatment
As mentioned above, earlier treatment usually takes shorter time to finish. With kids’ aged 4 to 10 orthodontic treatment generally takes 1 to 2 years.
In the case of more severe cases of malocclusion, the treatment may take 2 to 4 years and with stronger or more potent orthodontic techniques applied.
Such factors as patients’ age, sex, and the age when the treatment was begun are listed among the rest of the key factors, which greatly influence the duration of orthodontic treatment.