Dr. Megan LeCornu – Embrace Your Smile Orthodontics
It is so funny because families and parents will come in, and they’ll say to me, “My child really wants braces.” I feel like people of my generation are kind of surprised by that because when I was a kid, you had braces; it was a bad thing. You were made fun of. It was like “train tracks” or “brace face.” But the reality is orthodontic treatment has changed so much. Nowadays, our kids can have clear brackets; they put colors on them, and the colors pop. Sometimes they’ll do no braces; they’ll do clear aligners.
I think the reason the whole mindset behind orthodontic treatment is changed is because it is not what we went through in my generation. In my generation, it hurt. You always had a pokey wire. There was always soreness. Nowadays, it’s more comfortable, and it’s faster, it’s less pokey.
I think it’s important for parents to know because the techniques and technology have changed so much. It is not identical to what we had. I’ve had patients who’ve come in, like little kids who’ve come in, and they were so scared. They were like, “It’s going to hurt so bad, I know. I’m so afraid. Mom or Dad told me it was going to hurt.” Or I even had a little girl the other day who asked me, “Why do all old people say braces hurt?” She was asking me that because, in her experience, she had been in braces for six months, and she wasn’t having the level of pain. It was not a bad experience for her.
And so I think it’s really important for our parents to know, and even for our grandparents to know, when talking to kids about braces, they need to be positive because it has changed so much. They need to say, “Well, when I was younger, it was really tough, but now it’s a new age, and there are so many new techniques, and it’s a lot easier than when I was your age.”
Frequently asked questions:
What is early treatment, and when is it needed?
The way that I get asked the question is this. “I see all of these kids in my daughter’s class that have braces on, and they don’t even have their permanent teeth in. What is with that?” What these parents, I think, are asking me is, “What is early treatment, and when is it needed?”
First of all, it’s important that you realize that not all patients need early treatment. If you’re bringing your child in for a consultation, don’t automatically assume that they’re going to need treatment because that’s simply not the case. The reality is, as I mentioned earlier, we really like to make sure that we keep treatment as short as possible so that the patient’s time in braces is as efficient as possible.
Some situations do benefit from early treatment. Those situations are patients that have some kind of growth problem, so if the size of the top jaw and the size of the bottom jaw isn’t matching up properly and it’s leading to bite problems, those are things that we like to intervene early, and the reason for that is because the upper jaw, the sutures, and the upper jaw start to fuse around the age of 10, so what that means is we can actually alter the growth pattern of the upper jaw before this age.
Patients with underbites, where they have basically the bottom teeth in the front of the top teeth. We like to intervene and fix those early because we can actually use special appliances to pull the upper jaw forward crossbites, where the jaw is too skinny for the lower jaw. Honestly, this is something we see pretty frequently, and when we catch this early, we can expand the upper arch so that it matches the lower one.
Another thing we like to treat early is if we have a severe protrusion, and what I mean by that is where the top teeth are sticking out really far from the bottom teeth.
Patients that are being made fun of at school. Oftentimes, kids are mean. Kids are mean, and we like to ensure that all patients feel confident in their smiles.
It is important for you to know not everybody needs it, but if a child does need it, often, doing an early treatment can make things a lot easier for everybody, including the patient and the parent and, obviously, the orthodontist as well.
2 Locations
Embrace your Smile Orthodontics
23206 Lyons Avenue, Suite 206, Santa Clarita, CA 91321
(661) 259-2388
Embrace your Smile Orthodontics
27891 Smyth Dr. Unit A. Valencia, CA 91355
(661) 295-8288
