WatchSpace Maintainers

Why one lost baby tooth calls for a space maintainer

They're going to fall out anyway, so how much can one baby tooth matter? Quite a lot. Chewing and speaking are only part of the job. Underneath each baby tooth an adult tooth is forming, and the baby tooth is what holds its place open. Decay, an injury, or an extraction can end that arrangement early, and the teeth on either side tend to tip toward each other and close over the gap, leaving the adult tooth nowhere straight to come in.

The video shows the fix in place. A small custom appliance sits in the gap and holds the neighboring teeth gently where they already are, so the room the adult tooth will need is still there when it's ready to erupt.

The appliance itself asks very little. Most kids get used to wearing one within a few days, it stays quietly in place until the adult tooth comes through, and it costs a fraction of what it takes to unwind that drift later with braces. Holding a space is about as straightforward as early orthodontics gets.

So if a baby tooth came out early, or had to be extracted, that's the moment to ask Dr. Najjar at NuLine Orthodontics about a space maintainer. As orthodontic specialists, we can see exactly where the permanent teeth are in their development and step in while the spacing issue is still a small one.

Read the video transcript