This continuing dental education article is being written to describe the need for early examination and diagnosis of malocclusions in growing children. A short review of growth and development will be presented, along with a description of the stages of tooth eruption. After completing this course, the reader will have a clearer understanding of problems associated with children in the mixed dentition stage of development.
The American Association of Orthodontists recommends that every child have an orthodontic examination by the age of seven. By then, the maxillary and mandibular first molars, lateral incisors, and central incisors should have erupted. This article will describe what practitioners should be looking for during an early treatment examination in the mixed dentition and aid them in determining what they should treat and/or when they should refer.
This article has been broken into two parts. Part 1 will include a discussion of the mixed dentition examination, records, tooth eruption sequence, growth and development, primary teeth as space maintainers, normal eruption of permanent teeth, delayed eruption of permanent teeth, over-retained primary teeth, and supernumerary teeth.
Part 2, coming in the June issue, will cover: excessive deep bites, crossbites, anterior crossbites, class III skeletal and dental problems, crowding in the mixed dentition, excessive spacing, open bites and class II skeletal or dental problems.
