Articles
Early Versus Later Treatment

Most orthodontic treatment is undertaken in early adolescence when individuals have lost all their decidous teeth and are starting to undergo the changes associated with puberty.

In recent years, it has become popular for some to advocate an early phase of treatment while the baby teeth are still present. This is done in the belief that it simplifies the later second phase of treatment, although the total treatment time is prolonged.

A study by Professor Camilla Tulloch from Chapel Hill, NC, USA costs considerable doubt on this belief. Her study on children with protruding teeth suggests that the two phase treatment started early is no more effective than a single phase treatment started in the adolescent. Further it may be less effective as it reduced neither the time the braces were needed in the second phase of treatment nor the complexity of the treatments.

Am. J. Orthodontic Dentofacial Orthop 2004, pg 657-67.