Controversial Dental Issue: Two-Phase Orthodontic Treatment

The two phase orthodontic treatment is quite a controversial issue even among the highest professional dental circles. This treatment is also known as interceptive or preventative orthodontics.

According to some university studies, single phase orthodontic treatment after all the permanent teeth are grown, should offer the same results as when two-phase orthodontic treatment is also performed. However, most of these studies fail to take into consideration all the side facts.

The professionals who are not in favor of the two phase orthodontic treatment, state that whether the problem is solved in a single or multi-phase, the results are the same.

These orthodontic studies do not take into account several factors such as the psychological or soft tissue aspect of the treatment, because these very studies are being conducted retrospectively (this means that the professionals come up with results based on studying only plaster models).

Taking into account these two very important factors (psychology + soft tissue), leads to the conclusion that two phase orthodontic treatment has got basically much more benefits, than waiting for all the permanent teeth to set in and then do the orthodontic procedure in a single phase.

Interceptive care does not make a strong point, which is enough to prove that final orthodontic results are much easier achieved this way. However, most of the clinical experts agree that early orthodontic treatment is the most beneficial from all points of view.

If dental problems are caught in their early phase, what later would become a clear surgery case it is at that moment only an extraction case. Moreover, in rare cases the need for full braces can be eliminated if orthodontic treatment is done early enough.

In the case a child develops a very serious dental problem by the time he is 6 or 7 years old, this means that a second phase orthodontic treatment will be needed later, when he/she is a teenager.

Interceptive orthodontic treatment provides the young patient with the psychological benefit first of all. If the dental problem is caught and treated early, by the time he/she will grow into a teenager there will be no need to go through all the embarrassing and ridicule as it usually happens in the circles of young children.

Name calling and joking (the psychological factor) is definitely reduced if early orthodontic correction procedures are performed on the patient. With a two phase orthodontic treatment, the child will grow without those psychological scars, and the self –esteem which is one of the most important drivers at that age, will be much elevated.