Paediatric orthodontics and anxiety: all you should know

We recently spoke to highly esteemed London-based orthodontist, Dr Chaw-Su Kyi, to talk about dental care for young children. We quizzed her about how fear and anxiety in young children is dealt with by Dr Kyi and her team, and what the many benefits of having orthodontic care are, particularly for young people.

Is it normal for young people to feel nervous before having orthodontic treatment?

For many children, this is their first experience of any active dental treatment. A large portion of our young child patients are in their early teens when they start having treatment for braces. The good news now is that it is quite common to wear braces. Nowadays, there is no stigma attached to wearing braces.

We are very fortunate because we don’t have a lot of patients that are very nervous. To be honest, it is normally the parents who are more nervous than anything else.

What are the benefits of having orthodontic care?

There are plenty of benefits of having orthodontic care. The main ones include the following:

• having straight teeth
• having a good overbite
• healthy teeth
• functional teeth

When you have, for example, a larger overbite, or say for example, your upper front teeth are protruding forwards, there is certainly a risk of certain trauma, particularly in younger children. Correcting an overbite for long-term stability and long-term health is extremely important.

In today’s society, we are living in an extremely image-conscious way. Nowadays, children are very aware of how they look and of how their peers might think they look. Some children will of course feel extremely self-conscious and may not want to show their teeth.

Building that confidence and seeing them develop is just incredibly rewarding. We see how they blossom into very self-confident teenagers, smiling, chatting, and beaming self-confidence.

Why or how can these reasons help young patients overcome their anxiety?

Knowing what our patients’ concerns are is a huge step towards helping them overcome their anxiety. It’s about seeing what the end result is going to be, and why they want to achieve it.

What do orthodontists do to manage fear and anxiety in young patients?

When you know and understand what is going to happen, anxiousness and fear seem to quickly disappear. We make the whole procedure very comfortable even before the patient comes in for any brace implementation. We will even send them videos of the procedure so they can see how easy it is.

We will ensure to answer all the questions they may have. Describing the procedure and showing them how exactly it will be done certainly squashes any fear or anxiety.

Dr Chaw-Su Kyi is a highly proficient and esteemed London-based orthodontist. She is an expert when it comes to paediatric brace treatments. Consult with her today via her Top Doctors profile.