Crowding of the teeth is a very common problem and is due to a mismatch between the size of the teeth and the size of the jaws. This results in the teeth overlapping one another as there is not sufficient space in the jaw for them to align properly. The overlapping makes it difficult to clean the teeth and often results on gum disease later in life.
We assess crowded teeth from as young as eight years, sometimes earlier, usually when the first 2 lower adult teeth start to grow in. If left untreated until all the adult teeth have developed, treatment is much more difficult and may necessitate extractions of adult teeth to resolve the crowding. If these problems are diagnosed and treated early with simple appliances to hold space or even create space, extraction of adult teeth is often avoided.
There are many simple ways to resolve early crowding, from managing the loss of baby teeth to developing the jaws to make more space, such as expansion as explained above.
A space-holding device keeps the space as the large baby molars fall out and can make all the difference to avoid extracting adult teeth to unravel the crowding of the front teeth.
An unobtrusive removable device to actively create more space, by pushing the back teeth backwards
