What age should I take my child to the orthodontist?

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At what age should I take my child to the orthodontist?
According to the American Association of Orthodontists, our association recommends that children be evaluated by an orthodontist at around age 7, and I tell parents that, it doesn't mean at age seven we're going to treat everyone that comes into the door, but we're looking specifically for problems that, if corrected at an early age can allow a positive growth of the jaws and prevent abnormal growth of the jaws. It really doesn't take a lot of time for us to evaluate and look at kids, and at that time if we deem that they need some early treatment we may go in and do early treatment. Specifically with the class 3 growers, where the lower jaw outgrows the upper jaw; why that is so important to catch early, is the studies show that if you correct that relationship, whether it's a bite relationship with the teeth, or skeletal relationship with the jaws,if we take a bite, where the lower teeth are ahead at the upper front teeth and we bring it back into a normal relationshipthat as our jaws continue to grow, and our jaws, both are upper and lower jaws grow in a horizontal manner fromour skull, so they grow diagonally this way that as they continue to grow, they will grow more favorably together, and they're less likely for the lower jaw to continue to outgrow the upper jaw.There are some rare cases where it's such a severe skeletal growth problem that the lower jaw may outgrow the upper jaw again. That rarely happens, but it can. But what we've noticed that if it does reoccur, it's much less significant at that stage in life verses if you left it untreated it would be much more severe; severe to the point where orthodontics alone may not be able to resolve the problem. It may require orthognathic surgery, or jaw surgery, to move the upper jaw enlarge and lower jaw around to get a favorable relationship.