Currently, most children have healthy teeth with no decay at all, thus no need for extractions because of decay.

The very sad statistic in Western Europe is that some 60% of children attending the dentist are in need of orthodontic treatment. There are many theories as to why orthodontics is now becoming more and more prevalent. There is certainly no doubt that crowding is more noticeable and common in modern man that it used to be in Ancient Man.

Another theory relates to our diet. Ancient man had a very hard and tough diet which required much chewing and grinding. Thus developing the muscles around the face and the jaws, resulting in larger bones and larger areas available for the teeth to erupt. Now that we are on a very soft and undemanding diet, the muscles around the jaws are poorly developed and therefore the jaws themselves are poorly developed and there is not enough room for the teeth.

Another interesting fact about modern life is the prevalence of breathing disorders and allergies such as asthma. These allergies may lead to difficulties with breathing. The result of this would be that the lower jaw drops open and patients mouth breathe. This dropped posture of the lower jaw does tend to result in malformation of the jaws, with over eruption of the teeth.

You can understand why a lot of orthodontists feel that early arch development (to try and gain the maximum development of the jaws early) is a good idea.