Orthopaedic treatment for children | Roseneath Dental Practice

Monitoring the growth and development of a child is essential and should include the development of the face.

This usually forms part of a child’s routine dental checkups. It is easily done, and it is important to detect problems as early as possible as it is found that the majority of children are not developing correctly!

Some may remember having teeth removed as a youngster in order to make space for the other teeth. Well, that was avoidable had the correct treatment been carried out earlier on.

Children with jaw development problems often have breathing issues amongst others. If not corrected the problems are compounded when one is an adult. Temporomandibular (jaw) joint problems, bite problems, clenching and grinding teeth at night and an unattractive facial profile are all the result of the jaw development not being corrected timeously.

The two main problems encountered in children are jaws that are not the correct size and jaws that are not in the correct position.  Both situations are treatable and the treatment is called ORTHOPAEDICS. The treatment involves the child wearing a simple brace (often removable and colourful!) and is painless. The braces assist the jaws to grow to the correct size and to position them correctly.

The end result is a child that has unobstructed breathing, the correct bite, a happy TM joint, and a normal face profile. And of course no extracting of healthy teeth!!!