When a baby tooth is damaged beyond repair, it sometimes becomes necessary to extract or remove the tooth. This prevents dental infection and protects the underlying developing permanent tooth.

When a baby tooth is damaged or removed too early, it can cause other teeth to shift to fill the space. However, newer teeth have a harder time coming in correctly, leading to impacted or misaligned teeth. To prevent this from happening, we apply a space maintainer to keep other teeth in place. While this won’t eliminate the need for braces, it can lower the amount of time necessary for a braces treatment to complete.