Space Maintainers

Space Maintainers: Protecting Your Child’s Permanent Smile at Schaefer Dental Group in Lansing, Michigan

Your child’s little baby teeth have some big responsibilities. Until the adolescent years, they help your youngster bite, chew (ensuring proper nutrition), and speak correctly. Crucially, they also serve to guide the permanent teeth underneath them into proper position. A major function of baby teeth is to hold space for the adult teeth that will eventually push them out.

Sometimes, injury or disease can cause a baby tooth to be lost prematurely. When that happens, the permanent teeth coming in on either side can actually drift into the space that was reserved for another tooth. This can cause teeth to erupt out of position or to be blocked entirely, resulting in crowded or crooked teeth.

Fortunately, if your child loses a tooth prematurely, the dentist in Lansing, Michigan can use a dental appliance to hold the space open for the permanent tooth meant to fill it. This device is called a “space maintainer” or a “space maintenance appliance.” Made of metal and/or plastic, its purpose is to help your child develop the best bite possible and potentially avoid the need for braces later on.

Types of Space Maintainers

Space maintainers can be fixed or removable, depending on the child’s age and needs. Your Lansing dentist will recommend the best type:

• Fixed Appliances: These are cemented onto adjacent teeth and are typically preferred for younger children as they cannot be misplaced. Designs include a band around a tooth connected to a wire loop that extends out to touch the next tooth, or a loop attached to a stainless steel crown placed over a nearby tooth.

• Removable Appliances: These look like the retainers worn after orthodontic treatment. They can include a false tooth, which is particularly useful if the lost tooth was visible. Older children can usually handle the responsibility of wearing and caring for this appliance correctly.

Whether fixed or removable, your child’s space maintainer will be custom-made after taking impressions of his or her mouth. A child will wear the appliance until X-rays confirm that the permanent tooth underneath is ready to erupt naturally.

Space Maintainers and Long-Term Oral Health

It is very important that anyone wearing a space maintainer maintain good oral hygiene at home and have regular professional dental cleanings at Schaefer Dental Group.

Space maintainers are also useful when one or more permanent teeth are congenitally missing (never existed at all). In these cases, permanent dental implant teeth are often recommended for adolescents or adults. However, dental implants cannot be placed in a growing child. Therefore, a space maintainer with a false tooth is vital to hold the space open until jaw growth is complete and an implant can be appropriately placed. This simple, non-invasive intervention helps us avoid a malocclusion (bad bite) and preserve the option for permanent restoration.