Orthodontia. Isn't 4th grade a little early to start?

[Beausoir]

My son needs braces. Nothing severe, just a couple crooked teeth.
The orthodontist wants to start now. He says there is no reason to wait.

But doesn't 10 years old seem a little early? My kid doesn't really have the "personal responsibility" thing down perfectly. He's just a typical 10 year old and we need to remind him to brush twice a day or he won't.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[seabeyond]

1. both boys do and i have been asking around. consistant answer

when most of their adult teeth are in around 12. i know a lot of kids are starting early and i checked it out and doesnt seem like a good idea. depending on how bad, (my kids arent that bad) there might need to be done a little early work, like if two teeth in same spot or huge issue with eye teeth. but for most normal stuff around 12 or when most baby teeth are gone

[seabeyond]

2. also i found the guy i am going to use and he likes to follow the kids

no pay and i will be taking son in annually to have him "watch" his teeth to "plan".... all seems odd but he is a good guy and ok with me

[Deep13]

3. Hey, dental school is expensive. Someone has to pay for it.

:shrug:

[Deep13]

9. oops, wrong place

[Momgonepostal]

4. I think that's pretty typical now

My daughter had a lot of friends with braces, who got them in the 4th grade. I think the philosophy these days is that if they get them earlier, they won't have to wear them as long. My kids will both need braces, so I have discussed this with our dentist. He says if the issue is just straightening, that can be done anytime, so there is no hurry. But for other issues, and I can't remember which he said, maybe spacing or bite alignment, it's best to do it early.

[Maine-ah]

5. a friend of mine has an 11 yo

w/braces and also a thing to correct the shape of her jaw. The up-side is that she'll be out of them b/f she goes to high school.

[madinmaryland]

6. Our daughter in 4th grade is having work started this week.

This is a bit more than crooked teeth. There are issues with her bite alignment that he wants to correct, in order to minimize the work needed later.

[BarenakedLady]

7. Mine 9 yr old has them

She got them on when she was 8 for a pretty severe overbite and other issues. She has 4 on the top front and 4 on the bottom. It is amazing how much it has worked for her. She's getting them off in February, so that would be a full year they were on her. She's been really got at changing her elastics on her own.

[AirmensMom]

8. I got mine on at 9 ... many years ago.

Both of my girls started at 8. They did something for them to stretch their jaws out so they wouldn't have to have permanent teeth extracted (like I had to have done). As I understood it, that had to be done early. At the very least, it would be good to get the whole thing over with, IMO.

And ... once the orthodontist gets on his case to keep his teeth clean, he'll learn that part of "personal responsibility" pretty darn quick.

[Deep13]

10. I "needed" them when I was small.

Some of my teeth were not straight, edge-to-edge. By the time I was 20, they were. What is more, they look like real human teeth and not perfectly straight and unnatural in appearance. When I see someone with perfectly regular and whiter-than-white choppers, my first thought is "dentures".

[Bunny]

11. My ten year old just got hers off. She wore them for a year to

correct a problem related to thumb-sucking. She had braces on the six front top teeth. She did a pretty good job taking care of her teeth while the braces were on. She will need to get braces again when she is twelve, to correct some alignment problems on the bottom teeth.

I'm hoping that she won't have to wear these as long as her older sister, who has had her full set of braces for 33 months now! (she's getting hers off in two weeks :woohoo:)Her mouth was a small crowded mess, and she is very tired of wearing braces.

[Shine]

12. That seems waaaay early to me, but I guess docs are different.

my 13 yr old son need braces, too, but our orthodontist doesn't want to begin the process until he has lost all his baby teeth, which he hasn't yet. He still has 12 more teeth to lose, amazingly!! We've been taking him in every six months for the past year and a half and each time the doc has said, "Come back in another six months and we'll see if he loses any more teeth."

The last visit, a few days ago in fact, he said the next time he'll want to take an xray to see if there's "anything else going on" and then determine what the next step should be...ie, pulling teeth. Hmmm...

He's of the mind that it doesn't make sense to put braces on teeth that will be coming out, anyway.

Meanwhile, my 10yr old dtr has only 9 more teeth to lose. It's funny how every kid is on their own schedule.

[hedgehog]

13. Just a little story to amuse you while you are making up your mind

When I was working a temp job that involved 50-60 hours/week on a back shift, my husband took over taking the kids to doctor's and dentist's appointments. The temp job went on for 11 months. When I had been back on days for a few weeks, I asked my 18 year old son when his next appointment was. After some hemming and hawing, he admitted he didn't know. It turned out that both he and his father had forgotten an appointment about 10 months before, and they hadn't gotten around to making a new one. I called the orthodontist, and it turned out that the appointment that had been missed was the one in which the braces were to have come off! Needless to say, I made a new appointment and the braces finally did come off. He does have lovely teeth now.

[Connonym]

14. a second opinion never hurts

Talk with your dentist and maybe even see another orthodontist for another opinion. Lots of my kids' friends have been in and out of braces by 10 so I don't think it's uncommonly early.

[Reverend_Smitty]

15. My little cousin got braces at 8 or 9...

she just turned 10 and got them off a few months ago, now she has a retainer...however, I guess as a sign of her age, she broke it within 2 days of getting it. I think she took it out, put it on the floor and accidentally stepped on it. My aunt was not amused with that...lol

[malta blue]

16. My little one is 7 and we just got the referral

last week. Some of her classmates are already sporting the braces. I am not sure I am going to get them put on at this point, but am going to the dentist to see what he has to say.

[Nikia]

17. I've two different types of thinking amongst orthodonists

There are the one's like your son's orthodontist who thinks that it is easier to reshape the teeth pattern when the kids are young. Others want to wait until the teeth are pretty much set in order to avoid changes, especially when the braces come off.
I had my braces from 11-14. Although my teeth are better than they were then, my teeth are slightly crooked in some spots.
I have seen adults in braces too. Supposedly it is harder on adults, but at least they know that their teeth will probably stay straight.

[ok_cpu]

18. Our boy is 9 and wears a retainer

Braces are coming in about 12-18 months.

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

19. He prolly won't have it down when he is 14 either. I suggest you get

it over with.

[MissB]

20. I've noticed some of my son's second grade classmates

have them.

It seems early, but in talking with our dentist apparently there are good reasons for it.