Anyone do braces at age 7/8?

[LBW]

DS1 had his initial ortho consult today at our dentist's recommendation. We saw an orthodontist who is well regarded in this area, and he recommended about 6 months of expander use followed by another 4-6 months of partial braces. The cost would be about $3400. DS1 is 7 1/2, and has about 8 permanent teeth. He unfortunately inherited my narrow jaws, and his teeth are already severely crowded. The expander should help make room for the permanent teeth so that they come in straighter.

I love the idea of doing this treatment early. I had braces twice as a teenager, and still have crowded/crooked lower teeth and an overbite. I probably should have had an expander, but didn't. At the time, expanders were these contraptions that were cemented to the roof of your mouth! The new ones look like simple plastic retainers, and are removable.

Has anyone here had ortho treatments on a child this young? I was told that this early treatment should create less of a need for drastic treatments later, but it's not a guarantee that he wouldn't need further adjustments in a few years. The plan would be to continue with regular check ups, and consider additional treatment if it's needed.

[schums]

No BTDT yet, but we'll be going in for an ortho consult before DS turns 9, according to the dentist. I know a TON of kids his age that are already working with an ortho, so around here, it's pretty common. Usually for expanders and over/under/cross bite correction at this age. From what I understand, they do some of the work young (so expander and braces for a short while) then wait for the rest of the permanent teeth to come in, then generally do an extended time with full braces in late jr. high/early high school.

[chlobo]

Haven't BTDT but I spoke at length with a dentist about this issue and he really feels that waiting until the teen years really misses the boat and that if you have big issues you really want to get it taken care of early before the body has "stabilized" in one place. So while I agree it might be hard, I agree with your dentist that this is the best course of action.

[MelissaTC]

M has a friend who is 7 and wearing an expander. I think it is becoming more and more common for kids to receive ortho work earlier than what we did. I know I started at 10 and I was the only kid I knew with any kind of metal in my mouth. Most of my friends didn't start until 13 or 14.

[Andi98989]

My sister started in expanders when she was in kindergarten - her mouth was a MESS. She was in those for a couple of years; I think she was in braces by third grade and it was seventh before she was out of them. You would never know anything was wrong with her teeth the way that they look now.

[Sillygirl]

Jonathan has a crossbite (new term for me, I always thought it was an underbite) and we were told at his age 5 appointment to expect some sort of orthodontia by age 7.

[pinkmomagain]

Having a 13 yo daughter, I've seen a few friends who had braces in elementary and now need them again in middle/high school. My oldest got her braces on in middle school and recently had them removed so she will be going into HS with straight teeth. That includes the palate expander she had before going into braces.

My middle daughter has crowding (she'll be 11) and our ped dentist won't even send us to the ortho until she has almost all of her adult teeth.

But I'm sure each case is very different. If an ortho did tell me to put my child in orthodonture at age 7, I personally would get a second opinion. There is responsibility that comes with braces: compliance with avoiding certain foods/candy and thorough teeth cleaning/flossing/rinsing. I'm grateful my oldest was old enough to do this fairly well independently.

[almostamom]

My nephew and a friend's daughter both had expanders in 2nd grade (7 yrs old).

Linda

[♥ms.pacman♥]

i got braces when i was 8 years old (3rd grade). i would not recommend it getting it so early, based on my experience. my parents paid through the nose for my braces, retainer etc...and by the time i was 14, i was told that i needed to get them again because the initial treatment had to been done too early to have any lasting effect. :eek: :( yeah, talk about money down the drain! anyway, at the time i said i didn't want them because i was already in HS and plus i felt bad that my parents would have to pay $$ yet again. i ended up getting the braces again when i was 21 and paid for it with my own $$. dealing with braces when you're in college and having to fund that amongst other things..soo not fun. so yeah, i wish i hadn't gotten braces so early in the first place and had gotten them in middle school like everybody else. DH got his in middle school and went to HS with perfect teeth and never had issues later on. wish i had gotten that experience instead.

[missliss55]

DD#1 is 7 and our pediatric dentist (who I adore and trust) said that she will probably start braces next fall (so 8 1/2) when the rest of her teeth come in (she lost teeth very early). He explained that they typically do them in 2 stages. She will have her cross bite fixed in the first stage and the 2nd stage (if needed) is like a fine tuning. Now DD#2 has no cross bite and minimal over bite so she will more than likely skip the 1st stage and only do the 2nd. I ask about a zillion questions b/c I had braces for 5 1/2 years and in the end had to have jaw surgery.

[kransden]

It depends on how many permanent teeth they have and the severity. One of dd's friend's got braces at the end of 1st grade. DD will need braces, but at 7.5 she has only lost 2 teeth. So who knows when she'll get them.

[o_mom]

Most of what I see on the 7-9 yos around here are expanders and such, not full braces. They are typically trying to create more room for the perm. teeth and make adjustments for them to come in straighter. Then there is usually a second phase with more traditional braces around 12-13 yo which seems to last about 18 mos.

When I had braces, it was typical to wait until 12-13 yrs for anything and I knew a whole lot of kids that had extractions or head gear along with braces because of the crowding. I think now they try to get the expanders in early enough to avoid doing that. Also, it was typical to have full braces for 2-3 years.

We will probably take DS1 for a consult in a year or so. I'm not set on movie-perfect straight teeth, but DH has had non-cosmetic issues with his teeth because of the crowding that we would like to avoid.

[egoldber]

Most of what I see on the 7-9 yos around here are expanders and such, not full braces. They are typically trying to create more room for the perm. teeth and make adjustments for them to come in straighter. Then there is usually a second phase with more traditional braces around 12-13 yo which seems to last about 18 mos.

When I had braces, it was typical to wait until 12-13 yrs for anything and I knew a whole lot of kids that had extractions or head gear along with braces because of the crowding. I think now they try to get the expanders in early enough to avoid doing that. Also, it was typical to have full braces for 2-3 years.

:yeahthat: A lot of kids here get expanders at a younger age to make room for permanent teeth. I got braces when I was 13 and I had to have 4 permanent teeth pulled. I wore braces for more than 2 years. I think now they tend to wear the expander and then braces later for a shorter period of time. It's definitely a shift in philosophy vs when I was young.

[jess_g]

DS1 had his initial ortho consult today at our dentist's recommendation. We saw an orthodontist who is well regarded in this area, and he recommended about 6 months of expander use followed by another 4-6 months of partial braces. The cost would be about $3400. DS1 is 7 1/2, and has about 8 permanent teeth. He unfortunately inherited my narrow jaws, and his teeth are already severely crowded. The expander should help make room for the permanent teeth so that they come in straighter.

I love the idea of doing this treatment early. I had braces twice as a teenager, and still have crowded/crooked lower teeth and an overbite. I probably should have had an expander, but didn't. At the time, expanders were these contraptions that were cemented to the roof of your mouth! The new ones look like simple plastic retainers, and are removable.

Has anyone here had ortho treatments on a child this young? I was told that this early treatment should create less of a need for drastic treatments later, but it's not a guarantee that he wouldn't need further adjustments in a few years. The plan would be to continue with regular check ups, and consider additional treatment if it's needed.


Funny I thought you ment leg braces as that is what we are looking into for my ds right now.

I have 2 kids with braces and the cost is about right. We are paying $3100 for one kid and $3400 for the other but we have dental insurance which pays $1500 per kid of that expense. I have also heard that our state insurance would pay in full for braces but we would have to go somewhere else and do a lot of driving for appointments which we do already. I am surprised at how many times we have to come into the office for 2 kids.

My kids are 14 (which I know is a bit late but we put off her treatment because she was so against it) and 10. I am hoping that by doing the 10 year old early he will be done by middle school.

Jessica.

[kam]

I started seeing an orthodontist at 5 due to a serious overbite. I couldn't close my mouth or swallow properly because of it. First, they put in a baffle (kind of like a little fence) on my upper palate that stopped my thumb from getting in. Then, I started braces as my adult teeth came in (7ish?). This is in addition to other treatments as necessary to deal with other related problems. (I had a few adult molars get stuck in my jawbone, and they needed "help" to come in. Gross).

I was under the treatment of my orthodontist until I was about 15. My teeth are still virtually perfect, and the worst was over in early high school. But yes -- I did spend ALL of elementary and middle school in braces.

[noodle]

Our ped dentist discouraged us from seeing the orthodontist before age 10, and then said that it wasn't necessary to go until he'd lost the rest of his baby teeth. I REALLY wish we had just gone for an earlier consultation. When we took DS at 10, he still had some baby teeth, but we started round one of treatment immediately with an expander and upper brackets. After about a year and a half of that combo, he'll wear a retainer until his mouth is ready for round two, which we expect to be around age 13 or 14.

We could tell by looking at him that he'd need braces, but if we'd waited, the problems would have been MUCH worse.

We got second and third opinions, and the consensus was that he needed braces NOW (as well as later), and that had any of them seen him at 7 or 8, they would have started treatment then.

Good luck!

[HIU8]

I have not BTDT yet with DS. However, we have been warned by the dentist that DS will end up with braces early. His mouth is very narrow and already crowded. His baby teeth are so buck right now it's just not funny--DS is 5 1/2.

I got braces at 9 until 13. From 13-17 I had a series of retainers. I had a bottom retainer in until about age 21 (I had been hit in the mouth with a softball that caused me to go back into a retainer). I now have almost perfectly aligned teeth, but it was a lot of years of orthodontia.

[smiles33]

DH is an orthodontist, not me, but I'll say that for SOME children, it's best to start younger as Phase 1 treatment might mean you get to COMPLETELY skip Phase 2. However, DH tells me some children are NOT mature enough to handle the upkeep (e.g., they play with the brackets and purposely break off wires, don't brush/floss so you get hygiene issue, etc.).

Check out the before/after photos on his website and you'll see several kids who started at age 8, at least one of whom whose teeth were straight enough that the parents could have decided they didn't need to make them technically "perfect."

This patient was 8 years old at the start of treatment and Phase 2 was optional but her parents went ahead with it to improve the back teeth and ensure the teeth remained stable (which means you don't have to get braces again when you're older if the teeth aren't sufficiently stable):
http://chongorthodontics.com/child1.aspx

This girl was also 8 and didn't need or want Phase 2:
http://chongorthodontics.com/child5.aspx

Consult with a couple orthodontists as it will help you see the varying opinions and treatment styles/office cultures out there. My DH happens to have a more balanced approach to practicing (i.e., he's not into the high volume "butts in the seat" approach where you get as many patients as possible to make as much money as possible). His patients see an orthodontist at every visit, as opposed to some other offices where you might just see an assistant at some visits.

Anyhow,this is stating to turn into an ad for him so I'll stop. Suffice to say, it can be very helpful to see an orthodontist early if your child is mature enough to handle the treatment and cooperate/follow instructions.

[marge234]

There is responsibility that comes with braces: compliance with avoiding certain foods/candy and thorough teeth cleaning/flossing/rinsing. I'm grateful my oldest was old enough to do this fairly well independently.

That's what I'd ask about.