How to prevent malocclusion and give your child a straight, healthy set of teeth is a concern for every parent. However, most people have always believed that orthodontic treatment can only begin after the teeth are replaced at the age of 12, and some dentists even hold this view. The most important thing to remember is that some dental deformities such as “envelope” and “small chin” should be treated early, because during the growth and development of children, malocclusion can affect the development of the child’s teeth and jaws, causing serious facial development deformities! By the time the teeth are replaced, most children have already passed the growth spurt and growth has begun to slow down. If early intervention is missed, the malocclusion will continue to develop, which will not only make future treatment more difficult, but may even develop into a serious bony malocclusion, which will eventually have to resort to surgical procedures to achieve the desired treatment effect. Early orthodontic treatment refers to the prevention, interruption and orthodontic treatment of the causes and manifested malocclusions that can lead to dental and jaw deformities during the early growth and development stage of children, generally referring to the pre-puberty (9-11 years old for girls and 11-14 years old for boys) and the peak stage, which is of great significance to the future healthy development of teeth, jaws and face. Early prevention and preventive and interceptive treatment should be started from the birth of the child. The early orthodontic treatment should include reasonable feeding, good eating habits, active treatment of oral and respiratory diseases, timely treatment of caries, making a gap retainer to maintain the integrity of the teeth after premature loss of milk teeth, interrupting bad oral habits that affect the normal development of the teeth and jaws such as finger sucking, lip biting and abnormal swallowing with the help of orthodontic appliances, and timely extraction of multiple teeth. The goal of early orthodontic treatment is not the local alignment of teeth, but to guide the normal growth of teeth and jaws. In addition to actively correcting bad oral habits during the 4-6 years of age of the milk teeth, the problem of “enamel” that affects jaw development should never be ignored. Patients with dental and functional “enameled” teeth may return to normal after only three months of wearing orthodontic appliances, avoiding the interference of the adverse environment on the child’s jaw and facial growth and development. In the 6-12 years of age, children with “geodontia”, “small chin” and facial distortion and other abnormalities in the relationship between the upper and lower jaws need early growth control and jaw orthopedic treatment. Patients with functional maxillary and mandibular relationship abnormalities induced by bad habits and dentition disorders can generally be corrected in a short period of time with relatively simple orthopedic methods and appliances before and during the peak of puberty, achieving twice the result with half the effort and avoiding the development of severe bony malocclusion, which can cause lifelong regrets. At this stage, children and adolescents have rapid craniofacial skeletal growth and plasticity, and early intervention treatment for jaw developmental abnormalities caused by congenital factors can significantly reduce the degree of deformity and even achieve a satisfactory appearance in most patients. In fact, most parents often neglect to observe their children’s jaw development, but only express anxiety about the misalignment of one or two teeth during the child’s tooth replacement period, at this stage, if the teeth are only partially misaligned, there is generally no need to rush to correct, with the changes in the growth and development of the oral and jaw system, the mildly crowded teeth may be adjusted to align on their own. The orthodontic treatment of dental malocclusion should be started after the replacement of milk teeth, which is most suitable at the age of 12-14, when the body is in the period of youthful development, metabolism is strong, there is still a certain potential for growth and development, the alveolar bone repair capacity is better, so the effect of tooth movement is significant. In order to avoid missing the best orthodontic period for malocclusion, parents who are concerned about the healthy growth of children are advised to bring their children to the orthodontic specialist for regular checkups for timely detection and early treatment.