A gap between the teeth

When your baby’s teeth first begin to come in and you notice that gap between their teeth when they smile, the family may coo that it’s cute. "However, it is very important that if your child has a gap in their teeth due to a maxillary frenum, or another reason, that it be corrected," says pediatric dentist Dr. Cameron Fuller. Your child’s education, speech and self-confidence is dependent upon it being corrected at an early age.

            As your child gets older they are working on saying certain sounds. Children who are younger than five should be developing the ability to say all of the sounds. After five if these sounds are not solidified it will make it much more difficult for them to learn to correctly speak. “And by age seven if the sounds are not correct they run the risk of never being able to say them correctly,” says Dr. Cameron Fuller. By age five and six your child should be able to say their S’s and R’s correctly which are some of the last sounds to develop.

            Children who have speech delays may also be impacted in reading. Learning to read is dependent upon a child’s ability to correctly hear and blend more complicated vowel teams together. If your child is always saying some sounds incorrectly their brain and ears will hear the sounds that way long term.  Unfortunately, by third grade a student who is delayed at that age runs the risk of never catching up to grade level.

If your child is impacted by a gap due to a maxillary frenum that is stretched between their front teeth, as they get older, it may increase in thickness stretching the teeth wider and wider.  Call Dr. Fuller and his team today for a consultation.