Early preventive orthodontic treatment usually starts around the age of 7-9 where there is a mixture of adult and baby teeth. The objective of such treatment is to reduce or eliminate the developing orthodontic problem and reducing the need for treatment later on. Often this treatment will take advantage of the early growth spurt, taking a difficult orthodontic problem and making it into a more manageable one. Most early treatments still require a second phase of treatment at the adult dentition stage to achieve the final bite.
Examples of early preventive treatment
- correction of a crossbite to prevent asymmetrical jaw growth
- correction of traumatic bite to prevent further wear of incisors
- space maintenance to prevent erupting adult teeth from being impacted
- space maintenance to prevent progression of space loss and crowding
- correction of protrusive upper incisors to reduce the likelihood of trauma to those
teeth