It’s a given fact among orthodontists that every child should have an orthodontic examination by the age of 7. This is to look for healthy development of teeth, their positions in the developing mouth and the way they relate to each other. Some problems might be obvious but some are lurking unseen by parents - and the kids themselves - and require someone with an appropriate mix of experience and knowledge to detect or investigate.
Why bother so young?
The idea is that if you detect certain problems there are simple interventions (we’d call that interceptive orthodontic treatment) that might avoid a more serious problem developing, one that will require much more complicated treatment, longer and with scope for side effects. (This is particularly true for crossbites that interfere with how the teeth meet, or upper adult canine teeth that grow off course)
For everyone else, regular dental and oral health examinations are still essential. Most of the time the dental health is maintained since the last exam, or the patient attends and can report a problem like a sore tooth. Sometimes though, a problem arises that the patient is unaware of and it takes…. you guessed it, an appropriate mix of experience and knowledge to detect. Or sometimes just suspicion.
Why bother if the patient isn’t bothered? Because there are serious problems that can start off painless and only present themselves at an advanced stage. And guess what, then it’s much more difficult to treat them and the outcome is less predictable, or predictably less good. This is particularly true for early tooth decay, serious gum diseases and oral cancer.
Neither of these areas are my specialist subject, but I have to know enough about them to recognise them and examine each new patient to make sure they don’t suffer from either. I’m fortunate to be dealing with a group of patients that are generally healthy and have good dental and oral health but I often have to send patients to their general dentist to investigate a cavity on a tooth, and occasionally have to send a patient to a dentist that deals with gum disease (a periodontist) before I can treat them. I never had to send anyone to get mouth cancer sorted out.
Until a few weeks ago.