Pediatric Dentistry Evolution: Timely treatment of the pediatric dentist in malocclusion

The contemporary pediatric dentist has a greater interest in the intervention of malocclusion, this is due to the precious interaction with patients in growth stages, so that some dental schools in the training of specialists in pediatric dentistry are including in their programs the topics of orthopedics for the proper management of dentofacial disorders.

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry reports that the Guidance of eruption and development of the primary, mixed, and permanent dentitions is an integral component of comprehensive oral health care for all pediatric dental patients.

Such guidance should contribute to the development of a permanent dentition that is in a stable, functional, and esthetically acceptable occlusion and normal subsequent dentofacial development. Early diagnosis and successful treatment of developing malocclusions can have both short-term and longterm benefits while achieving the goals of occlusal harmony, function and dentofacial esthetics.

To do a correct diagnosis, prognosis and evolution of the patient and its legal implications, case documentation is indispensable

An adequate documentation will have auxiliaries that provide us with information for treatment, therefore the importance of the elements that constitute it.

The intervention of the pediatric dentist in malocclusion is to establish a priority of treatments. What most frequently works is in dental alterations of number, form and structure; posterior and anterior cross bites; intervention of non-functional habits, identification of problems in airways.

The assesment of evidence for each topic was based on the reference manual of pediatric dentistry approved by American Academy Pediatric Dentistry.