Orthodontic work - how early?

My poor DD1! It looks like she has a mouth like her mama :/
When her teeth first came in, there were big gaps between them, I figured that was normal and that the gaps would close as her teeth grew bigger. But then DD2's teeth all grew into perfect little pegs with no gaps in between.
Now I've noticed that DD1 has begun to develop a lisp and that her front teeth are becoming bucked like mine were as a child - and upon inspecting her jaws, I've realised that her top jaw is becoming very elongated and pointy, with a very high palate, just as mine was before it was corrected with several years' worth of retainers and braces :(
She's got the beginnings of an overbite already and she's only 3.5 :( Do I need to wait until her baby teeth have fallen out and her second set are through before commencing corrective work, or can an orthodontist start working to correct the shape of her little jaw soon? Is there any chance that the misshapen jaw will 'work itself out' over the next few years? My poor baby! I hated my braces and the constant poking and prodding and trips to the dentist... :( Any advice or experience would be appreciated!

My 8yo DD is starting her orthodontic treatment tomorrow. Her mouth looks like a jack-o-lantern. She will be starting with a plate and them more than likely braces after that. In a few months DS1 (who will be 10) will also start, but our Dentist wanted to wait till he had turned 10 to see if he had had a growth spurt to give the jaw a chance to grow a little more. 8 months ago when we first discussed orthodontics he said he wanted to wait till she was 8. I have no idea though if there is an absolute minimum age to start though sorry.

Thanks Trill, I thought it would be something like that - I think I was in grade 6 or so when I started my orthodontic journey so I would have been about 10 or 11 :/ It was so horrible, I was hoping DD1 could get *some* help with her little mouth before she's old enough to really have it stick with her for life! But then again, at this age it would be pretty hard to get her to wear a retainer/plate every day (I even had one that I had to turn screws in every week to stretch my jaw out, pretty tricky stuff at that age!) :( I just want to fix it now before it gets worse, poor bub! I was just looking at photos of myself just before I got my plates and my mouth looked SO horrible :(

Well we went to the dentist today and he's given her a reprieve LOL. He took another mould of her mouth and compared it to the first one and he can see that slowly things are improving on their own. So he wants another review in 6 months when she has her next regular check up. Fingers crossed that as your DD1 grows, she gets a bit more room for her teeth so the problems aren't too bad

They should get checked out at about 8-9.

We had DS checked out late last year and he's going to need work both pre and post puberty. At the moment she wants to wait a little longer (another 6months) before starting the plan of attack. He'll need a plate in the bottom to hopefully lengthen his jaw and braces late high school to pull everything into line.

He's basically ended up with his fathers jaw which we ended up getting fixed 4-5 years ago and because it wasn't done when he was a kid he required surgery on upper and lower plus a long treatment of bracers and having a wirer permanently fixed in place behind his bottom teeth......oh the money we spent but it was needed his x rays were just scary, so much bone had already worn away because of the strain!

Both my nieces needed lots of jaw work and from memory they got their first thing on the roof of their mouth that they turned a key on to change the shape of their jaw :o at around 13. Both have had braces and the one who has them off has a gorgeous smile now - worth all the pain and $$ and the other chicky has a few years to go but she's only 15. Good luck Im pretty sure ours will need them too with both of us having shocking teeth:rolleyes:

does she suck her thumb or have a dummy?
the gaps are good believe it or not, that means she will have room for her adult teeth to come through.
its worth getting her regular dental checks as that way you're in the system so to speak, early work can happen but is a very much an individual thing.
at this age there is nothing you can do

as a dental nurse im devastated that DD1's thumb sucking has created issues, she will need early intervention as well :(