Setting up children with healthy oral hygiene habits and ensuring they go to regular dental check-ups throughout their childhood is key to ongoing good oral health in the future.

Orthodontic Assessment for Children

Orthodontic assessment and treatment is used to correct a “bad bite.” This condition, known as a malocclusion, involves teeth that are crowded or crooked. In some cases, the upper and lower jaws may not meet properly and although the teeth may appear straight, the individual may have an uneven bite.

Protruding, crowded or irregularly spaced teeth and jaw problems may be inherited. Thumb-sucking, losing teeth prematurely and accidents can also lead to these conditions.

Correcting the problem can create a nice-looking smile, but more important, orthodontic treatment often results in a healthier mouth. That’s because crooked and crowded teeth make cleaning the mouth difficult, which can lead to tooth decay, gum disease and possibly tooth loss. An improper bite can interfere with chewing and speaking, can cause abnormal wear to tooth enamel, and can lead to problems with the jaws.

We regard orthodontic treatment to be highly specialised therefore we only refer to comprehensively trained specialist orthodontists.

Fissure Seals and White Fillings for Children

Fissures are the grooves that occur naturally on the biting surfaces of the teeth. All back teeth [molars and premolars] have grooves of greater or lesser depth. Occasionally these fissures occur on the inside aspect of the upper front teeth as well.

As these grooves are very tiny, bacteria and foodstuffs lodge and are not effectively cleaned away by either saliva or even tooth brushing. The presence of this trapped plaque often results in the beginning of tooth decay.

Fissure sealants are an excellent means to preventing tooth decay and cavities on the biting surfaces of teeth. In nature, the shapes of the occlusal (biting) contours of the teeth can be likened to hills and valleys. Sometimes the fissures, pits and grooves (valleys) are very steep and as such attract and retain plaque and foodstuffs. The acids which get produced by the fermentation process, which follows result in cavities forming. Fissure sealants are a non-invasive effective way of sealing these grooves beforehand.