Any Dentists/ortho can advise?

[Hye000]

My DD is 12.5 now, she has lost 9 baby teeth & still has ALOT to go until orthodontist will put her on the waiting list for braces. I appreciate that you can’t do braces with baby teeth still in place & that NHS have a strict criteria but at what point would they be willing to remove some of the baby teeth to assist. For context, my daughter has only lost 1 baby tooth in the last 3.5 years! Her front adult teeth are extremely overcrowded due to the baby canines not falling out & the teeth aren’t able to turn to face forwards because of this. The dentist took X-rays and even the adult teeth underneath aren’t straight so what is the likelihood of them pushing the remaining baby teeth out naturally?? (Will upload pictures if anyone has similar experience with their own children)

I am not pushing for this because of cosmetic only, they have already said she will definitely need braces eventually, I’m just conscious of time & if its taken 3+ years to lose one tooth then by the time she had lost all milk teeth naturally she will no longer be eligible on the NHS. Would there be another solution to this if say I would be willing to pay privately??

They look to be developing fine to me. There is space for everything to move around ( it takes time) and all the teeth are present but most are quite a way off eruption.

Taking the baby teeth out now will not encourage the permanent teeth to erupt any quicker and you would risk the gaps closing up leading to a lot more crowding.

The last teeth to erupt will be her upper canines, after loss of the upper primary molars are lost. The primary molars take up approx 25% more room than the premolars that replace them which leaves adequate room for the canines.

The slightly rotated lateral molars are only partially erupted, once they are fully erupted the pressure from the tongue and lip muscles will derotate them.

Teeth come through where they can and it is the muscles of the face that guide them into their final position. This is why some anatomical face shapes create specific jaw and tooth relationships.

She was a late bloomer losing milk teeth, she didn’t begin to lose her teeth until she was 8. when you say it’s to do with facial muscles, would this have anything to do with her diet as she has had issues with eating since she was very small.

She has not lost any molars at all yet despite being 12.5. She has only lost upper 4 front & lower 4 front & think one lower canine

Her front 4 teeth have fully erupted now. Those pictures are a couple of years old as I don’t have any recent pictures of her teeth as she won’t show them when she smiles

Have just been through a very similar thing with ds - he also lost his baby teeth very slowly and was under the orthodontist for about 4 years, each visit she would say come back next year and we'll see if any more teeth have fallen out. Eventually agreed to get one baby tooth removed when he was 17, but otherwise was extremely reluctant. The good news is that she said as long as he was under 18 when he started being seen he would still be eligible for NHS treatment. Bad news is he will almost certainly have braces at uni which seems like a bit of a logistical nightmare with appointments!

I feel like we will end up in the same boat. I’m just concerned as you read so much about the success of braces being at the highest when they go through puberty. Having braces at 18 is way past the point In Which they have their biggest growth spurt etc.

@Hye000 theres not much that can be done about the rate of your dd dental development. As @Angrymum22 has said, things really do look like they’re developing normally.
There are many people who have orthodontic work carried out after the pubertal growth spurt, it’s honestly fine. The only brace which you may want at that age is twin blocks ( but even that is a contentious issue!).
You really do need to wait for more dental growth to happen. You’re in the system, make sure you don’t get lost in it.

@Hye000 when was the X-ray taken?

This X-ray was taken last year at her last orthodontist appt, she has another app in June.