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(Ivanhoe Newswire) Pulling a childs baby canine teeth to make room for the adult teeth may not be best for their future smile. Researchers report more research is needed to fully support the practice.
In about 2 to 3 percent of children, adult upper canines become displaced and grow in the roof of the mouth. It was thought that extracting a childs baby canines around 10 to 13 years of age would allow room for the adult teeth to grow in properly. However, new research shows this earlier practice was based on flawed research studies conducted more than 20 years ago. One was unacceptable because it did not test a control group, while the other two had inadequate reporting.
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"Extracting the primary canine may help the secondary tooth to emerge correctly, but at this time we can't provide any hard evidence," says Dr Parkin. "Greater attention to the design and reporting of studies is needed to improve the quality of clinical trials on this topic."
SOURCE: The Cochrane Review, April 2009
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