Children's Development


Have you ever looked at your childs teeth and thought "wow are those teeth crooked" or "How are all of the new teeth going to fit in such a small place?" If so chances are that your child could greatly benefit from Early Interceptive Orthodontics. This is usually termed "Phase One Orthodontics" I like to call it "Arch and Space Development". Usually around the age of 8 we evaluate for this service. By using molds of your childs teeth, we can take measurements, consult x-rays and determine the amount of space that your child will need for the permanant teeth to errupt . If your child does not have enough space required for the permant teeth to come into, than we need to act and try and create space.

In this process we place brackets on the front four permanant teeth and tubes on the permanant first molars as well as the baby 2nd molars. We add a light force orthodontic wire with coiled springs to straighten the front teeth, move them foreward and widen the back teeth. This creates the space needed for the larger permanant teeth to replace the baby teeth and errupt into an adequate position . By allowing the permanant teeth to errupt into normal function , your child may not need Phase Two Orthondontics later. Normally this initial process takes 8 months, afterwhich we place space maintainers so that no relapse or unwanted tooth movement takes place.

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Spirit Lake Dentist | Dr. Terry DeVore is a Spirit Lake Dentist.