Published on June 20, 2019, Updated on June 20, 2019
While not all children will need orthodontic care, it is recommended that every child has an orthodontic assessment by the time they turn 7. Serious dental concerns begin developing around that age, and braces are sometimes recommended to correct these issues. Some benefits of child orthodontics include an improved ability to speak and chew, a reduced number of cavities, and an easier time brushing and flossing teeth. During your child’s first orthodontic visit, they will be evaluated and receive dental X-rays to determine what treatment should look like. Learn more about what to expect when your child receives braces!
As kids grow and develop, their teeth will erupt and shift, as well. Many parents wonder at what age their child should be evaluated for orthodontic care, and most are surprised at the age that the American Association of Orthodontics recommends. By the time they turn 7 years old, children should have their first orthodontic appointment, whether they have obvious orthodontic issues or not. Although 7 is a young age, children’s teeth begin erupting as infants, and dental problems can develop as soon as their first tooth erupts. At this age, children have a mix of primary (baby) and permanent teeth, and eruption patterns can affect malocclusion. If a problem exists, their orthodontist can inform you of what treatment should be done, how long it will last and what to expect. Not all treatments require braces, especially when children haven’t developed all of their permanent teeth yet. Some additional advantages of seeing the orthodontist at an early age include:
If your child is eligible for orthodontic treatment, there are a variety of options for you and them to choose from. Braces essentially correct alignment issues by steadily moving teeth into a straighter position. For young kids, most just need braces with brackets, wires and rubber bands. Metal braces with multi-colored bands are a popular choice for kids, but clear removable braces, called Invisalign, are also common, but they use plastic trays called aligners to adjust teeth instead of brackets and wires. Clear brackets, which mimic your child’s teeth color, can also be used for those patients wanting their treatment to be as discreet as possible. Some children might need to use other appliances, such as headgear, to provide a stronger force to their teeth, but this is rare and is usually worn just at night.
Orthodontic treatment for children typically lasts up to two years, but can vary depending on the dental issues that your child might have. Throughout treatment, they will have regular orthodontic checkups to tighten their wires and fix any broken brackets, plus provide a thorough cleaning. After treatment, most kids will be encouraged to wear a retainer to keep their newly-straightened teeth in their correct positions for years to come. Most retainers are made of hard plastic that is shaped like a mouthguard or has metal wires attached to it. These appliances prevent malocclusion from developing again, which will help your child avoid getting braces at a later time in life.
Although the majority of kids and teenagers get excited to have braces, some can be hesitant about having something foreign in their mouths. At Hardy Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics, we understand that a child’s smile and how it looks can affect their self-esteem and confidence. We do all that we can to make your child comfortable and informed during the entire treatment time, and we practice compassionate dialogue to ensure that your child is prepared for braces. As a parent, one of the best things that you can do to help your child prepare for orthodontic care is establishing a good oral hygiene routine with them before treatment begins. Braces are notorious for getting food stuck in them, so it is much easier for bacteria to grow and decay to form during treatment. Consistently brushing and flossing teeth before, during and after treatment will keep their teeth free of plaque while giving them a beautiful smile. Educating your child about what foods are not good to eat during treatment will also prevent broken wires and brackets, which can be annoying and costly to repair. In this day and age, orthodontic care is so easy, fast and safe that kids don’t need to fear the orthodontist, especially if they’ve done all they can to protect their teeth.
Receiving orthodontic care is one way to establish good oral health, especially for young kids and teenagers. Crooked teeth can cause a lot of problems for kids, like affecting how their permanent teeth erupt and increasing the likelihood of cavities as food becomes easily stuck between them. As a parent, being proactive about your child’s oral health should be a priority. If your child is due for an orthodontic checkup, call Hardy Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics at (720) 887-6003 to schedule a consultation. Call now to kickstart your child’s journey to healthier, straighter teeth!
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To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to