Random topic - kids' dental work

[traveltheworld]

DS has perfectly aligned and very cute baby teeth.  They are very small.  He finally lost his first baby tooth and has another adult took coming in - we noticed that it's more than twice the size of his baby teeth.  His dentist says that there will be overcrowding (which I guess makes sense?) and is recommending that we start him on a Myobrace.  It's around $2,500, and will only be half covered by insurance, so it's not cheap, and there's no guarantee that he won't need braces in the future, but I feel like if it's a semi-legitimate option, we should try it.  Has anyone done that before?

p.s. kids are so expensive.

[sdlaura]

No experience with this product, but I think it's pretty normal for adult teeth to look huge on little kids when they first come in. DD's front teeth are coming in weird, but since she's only lost 3 teeth so far, I plan to wait until we have a more full picture before thinking about anything orthodontic.

[madringal]

I'd get the opinion of an orthodontist before doing anything. And god, yes, they are expensive. DD1 (11) will get her second phase of braces later this year, which will be ANOTHER 4k, on top of the 4k we paid a few years ago.

[mommyatty]

I wouldn’t do this unless they are doing the thing in the roof of the mouth that expands their palate. That does need to be done early before their bones all fuse or whatever it is that makes it harder later. DS has to have that done both as a small child and as a teen. I’m dreading orthodontia for our kids. We both had braces. So far, our kids look like their problems aren’t nearly as major as ours were.

[mrsGreeko]

The myobrace is the thing that teaches them to breathe through their nose and to hold their jaw in the right configuration for optimal jaw development yes? I would absolutely do it.

I just read this book called Jaws: A hidden epidemic. This article covers the main points: www.dentistrytoday.com/news/todays-dental-news/item/3092-jaws-the-story-of-a-hidden-epidemic

But, we are dealing with this with my DS who was a mouth breather 100% of the time and as such his jaw started to develop asymmetrically and all of this likely has impacted his airway. In any case he’s had to have his tonsils and adenoids out to help him breathe correctly so that his jaw can develop properly and he’s getting an expander in June because his palate was also impacted by the mouth breathing. His baby teeth actually came in sideways and then when his adult teeth came in they completely pushed the baby teeth next to them completely behind because there wasn’t room. I wish I would have known that I could have had an impact earlier on his jaw/palate development and airway.

[186momx]

I would get a couple consults with orthodontists. I've known a number of kids that have had phases for braces because they needed to expand their mouths. I had my own small mouth expanded starting at 6 but I never had to pull teeth to make room and had my wisdom teeth out to avoid messing up my 12+ years of orthodontia work.

DD complained about her eye teeth being funky to her dentist and he told her she had lots of room and they needed to come in all the way before she complained. They straightened out on their own. DD already has a spacer in her mouth so we will be late arrival to the orthodontia world. I've been saving $$$ in my HSA just for dental.