Ask The Orthodontist

When to Remove Baby Teeth

Baby teeth, also known as primary teeth or deciduous teeth,
serve an important purpose. In addition to their functional
purpose they serve as nature's space maintainers for future
permanent teeth.

Jared Alec Grodman, son of
Karyn and Dr. Scott Grodman
and brother of Adam, will read
from the Torah
at Temple
Israel
Saturday, Nov.
19, during
Havdalah serv-
ices. His proud
grandparents
are Doris and
Grodman
Mel Ladin. He
is also the
grandchild of the late Leatrice
and Harold Grodman.
Jared attends Clifford Smart
Middle School in Walled Lake.
His most meaningful mitzvah
project involved building a LEGO
city, with the proceeds being
donated to the Grodman Cure
Foundation to help find a cure
for diabetes.

Jacob Mathew Gross will be
called to the Torah as a bar mitz-
vah Saturday, Nov. 19, at Temple
Israel. He is
the son of
Deborah and
Geoffrey
Silverman,
Lindsay and
Jodi Gross and
is the brother
Gross
of Darin,
Taylor, Danny,
Alex, Brett and Gabrielle. Proud
grandparents are Barbara and
Conrad Pearl, Laurie Gross and
Jerry Gross, Bernice and Al
Yendick, Shelly and Marvin
Freedman.
Jacob is a student at Warner
Middle School in Farmington
Hills. His most meaningful mitz-
vah project was volunteering at
the Michael Yendick Foundation
for Children.

Alana Alexandra Karbal
(Shifra) will be called to the
Torah as a bat mitzvah Saturday,
Nov. 19, at Congregation
Shaarey Zedek Southfield.
Sharing in her day will be her
parents, Monica Karbal and
Steven Karbal, her sister Ashley,
grandparents Sharon and Samuel
Katz and Rosemarie and
Seymour Karbal and great-

November 17 • 2005

grandmother
Ida Sanders.
Alana is an
honor student
at Orchard
Lake Middle
School in West
Bloomfield. Her
Karbal
mitzvah proj-
ects included
working at Shaarey Zedak's Beth
Hayeled/ B'nai Israel School.

Simon Marc Kaufmann will be
called to the Torah as a bar mitz-
vah Saturday, Nov. 19, at Temple
Emanu-El. Sharing in the joy of
this special occasion will be his
parents, Jolie
and Martin
Kaufmann,
and grandpar-
ents Elaine
and Jerry
Laker and
Therese and
Kaufmann
Norbert
Kaufmann.
Simon is in seventh grade at
Berkshire Middle School in
Beverly Hills. For his mitzvah
project, he helped clean the tem-
ple grounds by weeding and
spreading wood chips and sand
in the playground.

Joseph Louis Brodsky Kepes
(Yosef Ari), son of Shelly Brodsky
and Gregg Kepes, will be called to
the read from the Torah as a bar
mitzvah on Saturday Nov. 19, at
Congregation Shaarey Zedek
Southfield.
Proud siblings
are Samuel
Paul and Nia
Sophia.
Honored
grandparents
are Bernice
Brodsky
and
Kepes
Lee and
Stewart Kepes
and adored Poppa, the late
Nathan Brodsky.
Joseph attends Berkshire Middle
School in Beverly Hills.
He continues his mitzvah of
the last two years by volunteering
for the Friendship Circle.

B'nai Mitzvah on page 76

As a general rule, when a permanent tooth is beginning to
erupt, the baby tooth it replaces should either fall out, be
wiggled out, or removed by the dentist. Otherwise the
baby tooth may deflect the permanent tooth into the
Nelson Hersh DDS, MS
incorrect position. If removing a baby tooth will encourage
Licensed Specialist
the permanent tooth to erupt in the ideal position, then it
is time for removal.

The orthodontist should also be keeping an eye out for asymmetry, meaning that if one
baby tooth is gone and the corresponding baby tooth on the other side is not, it may
allow teeth to begin shifting and cause midline deviations.

If permanent front teeth do not have enough room to erupt properly, it is often
advisable to remove certain of the baby teeth in sequence. Some advantages of this are
to minimize severe crowding and rotations of teeth, reduce chances of decay, etc., but
the taking out of baby teeth does not permanently solve the problem. As far as dental
space is concerned, extracting now sometimes is "robbing Peter to pay Paul" but it can
be one of the kindest procedures we have found for guiding the permanent teeth into a
more normal relationship.

The orthodontist becomes involved because a master plan must be established. If the
baby teeth do not allow enough room for the future permanent teeth, then it must be
decided whether more space can be made to accommodate the teeth, (such as an
expander) unless this jeopardizes the stability of the dentition.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Hersh at the
newest state-of-the-art orthodontic facility in West Bloomfield/Commerce Township
at 248-926-4100.2300 Haggerty, Suite 1160.

Nelson (Nick) Hersh
DDS, MS

Licensed Specialist

1 048630

DETROIT

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