Start the Journey to a Beautiful Smile

You want the best for your child as a parent. This includes having healthy teeth and a nice smile.

We will treat your children as if they were our own, providing them with the best orthodontic care possible.

All Kids Should Get an Orthodontic Check-Up by Age 7

Your child requires properly aligned teeth and jaws in order to have a long-lasting and healthy smile – in other words, a healthy bite.

The American Association of Orthodontists recommends that your child have an orthodontic examination by the age of seven.

Your child’s teeth will have developed sufficiently by then for subtle problems with jaw growth and emerging teeth to be detected while some baby teeth are still present.

This examination may reveal that your child’s bite is fine and that braces for children are not required.

Alternatively, Dr. McCarty may identify a developing problem but recommend monitoring your child’s growth and development and, if necessary, starting treatment at the appropriate time for your child.

In other cases, Dr. McCarty may discover a problem that would benefit from early intervention.

What Exactly Is Early Treatment?

Early treatment may prevent or delay the development of more serious problems, making later treatment shorter and less complicated.

Dr. McCarty may be able to achieve results that would otherwise be impossible once the face and jaws have finished growing.

Choosing the Best Time for Treatment

While the age at which children receive braces varies, orthodontic treatment is most commonly initiated between the ages of 9 and 14. Some orthodontic issues are easier to correct if treated early.

If Dr. McCarty believes your child requires treatment, he will advise you on the best time to begin treatment. This provides your orthodontist with the best opportunity to:

• Guide jaw development
• Reduce the possibility of trauma to protruding front teeth.
• Correct bad oral habits
• Improve your child’s appearance and self-esteem.
• Direct permanent teeth into a more advantageous position.
• Make a more appealing arrangement of your teeth, lips, and face.

Symptoms of a Bad Bite

It’s not always easy to tell if your child needs braces or if he or she has an orthodontic problem. Even teeth that appear straight may conceal a problem bite. Here are some signs that you may need orthodontic treatment:

• Early or late loss of baby teeth
• Difficulty chewing or biting
• Breathing through the mouth
• Thumb-sucking
• Crowded, misplaced or blocked-out teeth
• Jaws that are too far forward or back
• Biting the cheek or biting into the roof of the mouth
• Protruding teeth
• Upper and lower teeth that don’t meet, or meet in an abnormal way
• An unbalanced facial appearance
• Grinding or clenching of the teeth