Does it seem like they are putting braces on kids earlier these days?”
However, there is a reason for it. In the “good old days” when folks waited to fix their teeth, the easiest solution was often to pull those adult teeth that didn’t fit, and then straighten those that are left. That means a lot of folks have far fewer than the 32 teeth they are supposed to have (one friend of mine has only 21!). The alternative would be to cut the jaw bones and “stretch” them so all the teeth would fit and then use the braces to put everything where it is supposed to be. I know folks who have done this, also, and it was NOT fun although necessary because their TMJ problems were so bad. In addition, when you are dealing with adult bones and teeth everything takes much longer than when you work with younger bodies. Remember the kid who ended up in braces all four years of high school? So you might spend many years in braces as opposed to a couple of years. And by the time the teeth are fixed, the damage to the TM joints has been done, so then you need work to fix that. S
