Space Maintainers May Save Your Child’s Smile … And Yours

Space Maintainers May Save Your Child's Smile … And Yours

As we know, children don’t come with the perfect instruction manual and each child is different. When it comes to teeth, some basic rules for good health are of course brushing and flossing, but also regular dental visits. A child’s first dental visit should occur after the first tooth appears or no later than their first birthday.

Before we move onto the main topic for today, “space maintainers,” we’ll share this link to American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry’s great list of frequently asked questions about baby teeth.

We dedicated a page on the Fishbein Orthodontics website to space maintainers, because they are important in the proper development of a healthy smile. Here’s the situation: Your child loses a baby tooth early and their adult tooth is not yet ready to take its place. A space maintainer is a dental appliance, either removable or fixed, that basically saves room for the adult tooth.

The use of the space maintainer prevents crowding of your child’s permanent teeth. According to Dr. Ben Fishbein, “Once the space is lost, the permanent tooth will not have a proper pathway for eruption. When severe crowding occurs in your child’s mouth, permanent teeth may need to be extracted in order for proper alignment of the teeth.”

This is a preventive dental measure. As with most situations, prevention lowers future costs. Preventing the need for extractions or other orthodontic treatment will help both children and their parents smile. We’re glad that you came across this blog and invite you to bring your child in for a visit if you are concerned about one of these early losses of baby teeth.

Fishbein Orthodontics provides a special complimentary program to your children to make sure they are given the best orthodontic care possible.  We call this program 7&Up.  Age seven is when the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) recommends that children get their first orthodontic check up. Early intervention in the case of space maintenance is important to providing the best opportunities for a healthy and beautiful smile. Dr. Fishbein takes a conservative approach, and will only suggest treatment initiation if there is a clear benefit.

We at Fishbein Orthodontics want to provide you with the information needed to do what’s best for your family. Just by reading these types of articles, you are doing important parental homework. Please share this blog entry with friends and family. As we stated before, there’s no all-inclusive child manual. Let this serve as one page, but one you might bookmark for future reference. Parents … keep smiling.