Children’s dental care isn’t vastly different from caring for adults’ smiles. Many of the most common threats are the same, such as the tooth decay that develops when oral bacteria gather excessively on teeth surfaces. However, at our Livonia, MI, dental office, we know that a child’s oral health poses several unique challenges, most of which stem from the fact that their oral and facial structures are still growing and developing. Orthotropic treatment helps us ensure that this growth and development goes smoothly, and can help your child avoid a wide range of potentially serious issues.
What’s the point of orthotropics?
Orthotropics has a highly specific focus – to ensure the proper growth, development, and alignment of your child’s oral and facial structures. The intricate relationship between these structures plays an important role in several different aspects of your child’s oral health, as well as other functions such as sleeping and breathing properly. With orthotropics, we can diagnose and address any discrepancies in this alignment using the appropriate, custom-designed aligners. The sooner oral and facial development are corrected, the better chance your child has at avoiding complications that can arise later in life.
Couldn’t my child just wear braces?
While orthotropics and orthodontics share similar goals – to improve alignment issues – they are not the same treatment. Orthodontic braces are designed specifically to improve the alignment of your child’s teeth and bite, allowing them to grow in properly on your child’s upper and lower dental ridges. By contrast, orthotropics has a broader goal, and involves properly aligning your child’s teeth, jawbone, nasal passage, airway, and other related structures. This requires a much more comprehensive diagnostic analysis and treatment designed to do more than just straighten your child’s teeth.
How does an appliance improve behavior issues?
When your child’s oral and facial structures are not aligned properly, oral health concerns aren’t the only complications to arise. Such discrepancies can lead to a wide range of related conditions, such as sleep-breathing disorders that can make it impossible for children to sleep deeply and restfully. This can lead to negative impacts on their behavior during the day, including an inability to concentrate, remember things, and follow instructions, and in some cases, increasingly more unruly behavior. Orthotropics can help improve the underlying cause of the sleep disorder and, in turn, help improve the behaviors that are related to poor quality sleep.
Learn more if you’re curious about orthotropics
Orthotropic treatment isn’t something that every child needs, but for children with misaligned oral and facial structures, it can prove more beneficial than you expect. For more information, or to schedule a consultation for your child, call the office of James Stewart, DDS in Livonia, MI, today at (734) 425-4400.