Orthodontics for Young Children
While there is not an exact age for kids to start orthodontic treatment, the American Association of Orthodontists and Drs. Passamano recommend children have a routine orthodontic consultation at 7-8 years of age or when their permanent incisors begin erupting. Here are some benefits to orthodontics as a child.
- Correct and modify your child’s growth to achieve facial harmony
- Facilitate upper and lower jaw arch development
- Guide teeth and your child’s jaw so permanent teeth can come in straight without problems
- Create space to allow permanent teeth to come in normally without extraction of permanent teeth
- Correct thumb sucking problems
- Here are some signs that your child may need to see an orthodontist: difficulty chewing, thumb-sucking, mouth breathing, difficulty chewing/biting, early or late loss of baby teeth, crowded front teeth, jaws and teeth not proportional to face, etc.
Below are some photos of patients who benefited from Phase I Treatment Not all children will benefit from Phase I; many children will not require Two-Phases of orthodontics, and instead only One-Phase when most of their permanent teeth are erupted.
Most Phase I children will receive some orthodontic appliances for 1-1.5 years, then appliances are removed for 1-3 years while permanent teeth erupt. At that time, further orthodontic treatment can be evaluated. Below is a slideshow of successful Phase I to Completed Treatment patients from our Passamano Orthodontics office in Irvine, CA.
Before and After Photos
Case 1
Case 1: The front permanent teeth generally erupt around 6-8 years old and here they erupted on the wrong side. We used orthodontic appliances to get this young patient’s teeth to line up on the correct side. It also helped his self-esteem!
Case 2
Case 2: Often times, Upper canine teeth can be impacted because there’s not enough room in the upper arch for them. A sign that expansion is needed is upper lateral teeth that are angled outward (shown below). This usually means the canine is too close to the lateral incisor root. An expander and braces were used to get this patient’s teeth to look beautiful.
Case 3
Case 3: This 8 year old female had one right upper lateral incisor blocked out. Those teeth sometimes get blocked because of other erupting teeth. We were able to get that tooth in and all of her others and here is the result. This was a 2-Phase treatment.



Passamano Orthodontics
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Passamano Orthodontics in Irvine, CA
949-552-5542
info@youbraces.com
4200 Barranca Pkwy, Irvine, CA 92604
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Wed: 8:30am — 5:30pm
Thurs: 8am — 5pm
Fri: 9am — 2pm