Why can’t children get dental implants?
When a child loses a permanent tooth, parents may want to explore dental implants as a possible tooth replacement solution. Understandably, dental implants offer the most structurally complete tooth replacement and preserve the functionality and the appearance of the biological tooth. However, because their jaws are still developing, children typically are not good candidates for dental implants. If an oral surgeon placed a dental implant in a child’s jaw, there is a high likelihood that the dental implant would move out of the desired position as the jaw continued to grow and develop. Therefore, it is preferred to wait until jaw growth is complete before placing dental implants in children and adolescents. There may be some exceptions in which a child can get a dental implant as part of an overarching orthodontic treatment plan that helps to ensure the permanent positioning of the implant. However, these cases are quite rare.…