Space maintainers are a crucial need if your kid has lost his tooth at an early stage or has got his primary tooth extracted due to severe infection. Whatever is the cause behind losing a tooth, a dental space maintainer can always benefit your children. But without getting acknowledged with a space maintainer dental appliance, you won’t be able to make the most out of this dental appliance.
Let’s move forward to understand a bit more about dental spacers for the sake of your child’s good dental health!
What is A Dental Space Maintainer? A dental space maintainer is a bespoke dental appliance crafted by an orthodontist. This appliance is crafted using acrylic or metal material. The spacer can be made fixed or removable depending on the requirements. The aim of the spacer is to keep the space between the teeth open so that a permanent tooth easily erupts there and occupies the place. If the space between the teeth is not maintained with spacers, there is a risk of shifting teeth into the open space. Such situations usually give rise to the need for orthodontic treatments. Also, it is not mandatory to have a spacer for your child every time. Therefore, prior consultation with the concerned orthodontist is required to determine if there is any need for dental spacers or not!
Common Types of Space Maintainers: The dental spacers can be classified into the following two types:
Removable: Removable spacers are typically made up of acrylic which is a commonly used material in dental appliances. These orthodontic appliances appear much similar to retainers. Sometimes, an artificial tooth is used to fill the space which is required to stay open for an uninterrupted tooth eruption. This type of maintainer is ideal for grown-up kids who can follow its cleaning guidelines.
Fixed: Fixed dental spacers can be further classified into four different types - distal shoe, lingual, unilateral, crown, and loop. Each type is designed to help in the process of tooth eruption. However, an orthodontist’s advice is required to check which one of these options will work for you!
About Wearing the Space Maintainer: While wearing a space maintainer dental appliance for the first time, your kid may consume a bit of time to get accustomed to wearing them. The parent and child must be taught various ways to clean the spacers by a concerned orthodontist.
Special care must be taken if your kid has been advised for using fixed maintainers while eating chewy food that can stick to the appliance and cause damage to it. Similar things apply to sugary food such as candies. Furthermore, one should avoid pressing spacers with tongue or any other thing to avoid bending the appliance. You must pay a visit to a pediatric dentistry California clinic for keeping a track of the progress by your professional dentist. Don’t forget to visit Smile Select Dental if your little kid has just lost a tooth. As you know that this void area increases the risk of shifting of teeth into the open space which could give rise to costly orthodontic treatments in the near future. Consult our unrivaled service for pediatric dentistry California. We aim to deliver your kid a pediatric care that will last for a long time.
Schedule an appointment today to get started with dental spacers!
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