If your child has teeth that look like they belong to some imaginary creature rather than a child, you probably want to help him or her correct this. Overlapping, crooked and crowded teeth are fairly common in young children, and if it does not appear as though your child will grow out of it, your family dentist will suggest that you take the necessary measures to correct these issues. Here is how you can correct your child's overlapping, crooked and/or crowded teeth with a little cosmetic dentistry.

Fixing Overlapping Teeth

When your child's teeth look like two fjords of ice crashing into each other and occluding (hiding) part of one tooth with another, you may be worried that there is no amount of cosmetic dentistry that can fix that. Actually, there is--your cosmetic dentist (a.k.a., your orthodontist) will wait until your child is somewhere between the ages of eight and ten and then install a palette widening bar in the roof of your child's mouth. This device latches on to two six-year-old molars on the top jaw. It gradually widens your child's palette, pushing all of the teeth outward with it. You have to do your part, of course, by using a tiny, wire-like device to turn the widening screw inside the bar a couple twists at the times the orthodontist has prescribed.

As the palette widens and gives your child's teeth more room, the overlapping teeth may separate on their own. If not, then the braces your orthodontist installs will help move these teeth off of each other and move them apart. In extreme cases where the overlapping teeth seem to be rigidly stuck, surgery may be needed, but that is rare.

Fixing Crooked and Crowded Teeth

Crooked and crowded teeth are almost always corrected via braces. Your child may need braces for a year or more, and once the teeth have been successfully straightened and uncrowded, then he/she may need to wear a retainer for a few more years. In cases where your child's teeth were especially crooked or crowded, this cosmetic dentistry procedure may have to be repeated a second time in his/her tween or teen years before the teeth will stay put and stay corrected.

Another cosmetic procedure used on crowded teeth is filing. However, this procedure is only used on adult teeth, and only used on teeth that are only slightly crowded (i.e., you cannot get a piece of dental floss in between the teeth, but the teeth otherwise appear straight). If your child has crowded adult teeth, the dentist/orthodontist may decide that a little light filing work is all that is really needed to get the teeth even and open enough to provide good dental hygiene.