Develop a more appealing face with a beautiful smile
Starting as young as 2 years old, you may help your children
develop a beautiful smile with a more attractive profile as well as prevent
sleep apnea, long time orthodontic treatments, extractions to align the teeth
and avoid orthognatic surgery; all with
Functional Appliances.
We work with the children and parents to motivate them to enjoy wearing the
appliances for 10 to 20 minutes twice a day.
This amount of time is enough to produce a positive effect on
masticatory muscles during swallowing and breathing.
More than 60 % of a child's facial bones growth occurs before age 6 and the
majority of children develop orthodontic problems at this early age, therefore
it is only logical to apply orthopedic therapy early on and prevent long term
and expensive orthodontic and surgical procedures.
The teeth are guided into position by the lips, cheeks and
tongue. The shape of the jaw is affected by mouth breathing and tongue position
and affects the facial profile. All of these functions can be trained correctly
to help develop normal teeth, jaws and faces. Then, if braces are needed, it
will be only for less than a year, decreasing the risks of long term braces.
You can help your child by evaluating the following risk factors:
1-Lack of space between baby's teeth: Usually the permanent teeth are
bigger than the baby's teeth, therefore if there are not enough spaces between
baby teeth, the permanent teeth will, most likely be crowded.
2-Dental Arch form: Ovoid dental arches are ideal; triangular or square
formed arches do not provide enough space for permanent teeth to be
positioned correctly.
3- Jaw position: When correctly positioned the facial profile will be
straight. If the jaw is left behind when biting it will create a convex profile
with increased overbite (retrognatic). If jaw is positioned forward when biting,
the profile will be concave (prognatic) with reversed overbite.
4- Profile: Straight profile is ideal. Convex and concave profiles are
due to incorrect Jaw positioning or maxilla underdevelopment. If detected early
- as young as 2- the problem can be corrected. There is no need to Wait until
the situation gets worse and can only be solved with orthognatic surgery and
long time braces.
5-Facial Asymmetry: When the jaw is positioned to one side or both sides
are outside the maxilla it will create facial deformation.
6- Open Bite and Deep Bite: When the upper and lower teeth don't meet
properly leaving an open space or negative space, it can lead to abnormal
facial growth creating too long or too short faces. With orthopedics we can change that and create more appealing faces.
7- Breathing:
Day time and night time breathing should be performed with the mouth closed and
lips sealed. If your child sleeps with the mouth open or keeps the mouth open
during the day, professional evaluation is recommended since this problem will
affect dramatically the child’s facial development and smile. Children with mouth breathing have a higher risk of developing obstructive sleep apnea, that can be prevented if treated early.
8-habits: Tongue
trust, over use of pacifier, nails biting, thumb sucking, lips sucking, mucosa sucking and other habits can
have a big effect on children’s facial development and breathing patterns leading to sleep apnea, small chin, facial asymmetry, exaggerated over bite, teeth crowding and many other breathing, TMJ, facial and orthodontic problems. This can be managed and
retrained to guide facial development correctly with a beautiful wide smile and optimal facial profile. The kids usually have fun during the easy, inexpensive and effective process of correcting their face and smile. In our offices we encourage the mothers to start treatment as soon as a problem is noted, and we also recommend to have the kids evaluated every 6 months starting at 2 years of age.
9- Swallowing: Should be performed with the proper tongue seal at the roof of the mouth. if tongue is directed to the teeth, will create teeth mispositioned and open bite that will compromise the airway facilitating sleep apnea and TMJ problems.
10-Diet: Softer diet in young infants create a smaller bones and an incorrect maxilla/mandible relationship. This will allow to develop teeth crowding with mayor orthodontic needs, TMJ dysfunction and Obstructive Sleep apnea. Hard/semi-hard and fibrous diet accompanied with normal swallowing and breathing stimulates growth factors to develop the necessary bone structures to accommodate all teeth and proper airway.
Children 2 to 6 years old can be treated with trainer and other orthopedic appliances.
If your child is between 6 to 10 years old, different orthopedic appliances combined with the trainer can
be used for an early correction of the bite and facial profile. Children 10 to
16 years old, will be treated with combination of orthopedic appliances and
orthodontic appliances and/or only braces in some cases. Adult’s treatment
usually involves Orthodontics, extractions and in some cases orthognatic
surgery.
If your child presents one of more of the described signs, do not wait any
longer; The facial development problems should be treated as soon as discovered, without the proper treatment the situation is only going to get worse. Call today for a complimentary consultation:
