Teeth too crowded

Hopefully someone canhelp me out here. There is no room for my sons teeth and his once beautiful, straight baby teeth on the bottom are now falling out leaving crooked, crowded permanent teeth. His top teeth have all shifted too and none have gotten noticeably loose. Is that typical?

Has anyone heard of anything you can do..early on? My dentist is recommending I wait until he is 7 and I feel bad for my little guy. Someone mentioned something about a mouther widener thingy. Anyone know what it is and what age to find out?

Thanks!

Message edited 7/29/2010 11:36:24 PM.

Re: Teeth too crowded

They can give him a palate expander. Dont get one until his 6 year old molars come in though.

They are the first permanent teeth...

My daughter didnt get her 6 year old molars until she was close to 10. We had a removable appliance and it was a total waste of money...

Re: Teeth too crowded

Same exact scenario with my dd, her baby teeth were so perfect. Now..no room. Not only are her teeth all over the place crooked, some of them can't even come in because there's just no space for them.

She will be 9 next month and she has just started with a palate expander on both the top and bottom.

Re: Teeth too crowded

DD had a palate expander as well - and as the PP said - wait until the permanent molars come in before getting it. That was the suggestion made to me instead of starting earlier with a removable one.

DD's crowding was so bad that we had to extract 2 baby teeth to make room for adult teeth that weren't even supposed to "go" there. We chose to do this because if we didn't the adult teeth could have come in behind the baby teeth and cause more pain/problems once we started to fix her mouth.

Re: Teeth too crowded

My 6.5 yr old has a "dental age" of a 8.5 yr old and they want to pull 4 teeth because of severe overcrowding. My dentist had me take her to my daughter's orthodontist and have him check out and give an opinion. He took x-rays and said pulling was my only option right now :(

Re: Teeth too crowded

I just posted the same thing a week or 2 ago!! I called a ped dentist near me and they will consult on it, sometimes they will pull teeth or use something called spacers to do an early intervention of sorts on the teeth. We are going to see if DS qualifies, his one middle top tooth is coming in so crooked and there's a baby tooth sitting right next to it that's cramping it's style.

Re: Teeth too crowded

My 6 year old only lost his 2 bottom teeth. One grew in fine and now the second one next to it is literally growing in sideways! We are headed to the dentist in the next week or two and we'll see what they say.

Re: Teeth too crowded

Thanks for all your replies. I might see if I can get a second opinion on my son's teeth. He goes to my regular dentist, not a pediatric one. I think they might tell me more. And if not, at least I will be sure that I am ding the right thing by waiting.