What is your child’s sleep doing to their health?
5% of children suffer from pauses in their breathing, known as Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). Snoring is just one way OSA impacts your child’s life. Orthodontics aims to reduce the risk of severe medical and behavioral problems by reestablishing proper airways during sleep.
Airway Orthodontics aims to improve more than the appearance of the smile. With improved alignment comes the ability to enhance airway health and overall health. At Adventure Orthodontics, we focus on the long term health and well being of our patients as well as a beautiful smile.
While we often think of the cosmetic challenges of crooked teeth, alignment issues can actually cause a host of health problems. Both tooth alignment and bite can cause mouth obstructions for your child, potentially causing breathing problems like Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). This serious medical condition causes patients to temporarily stop breathing in their sleep, resulting in problems ranging from difficulty sleeping to even diabetes, lung disease, and high blood pressure.
Airway orthodontics eliminates the oral obstruction caused by misaligned teeth. Because each child’s development and oral anatomy are different, our orthodontic team evaluates all airway orthodontic patients individually to create a customized healthcare plan.
Why Airway Orthodontics?
A common reason to improve misaligned smiles or correct crooked or crowded teeth are improving smile appearance. The reality is, crooked and crowded teeth may be the result of a more pressing underlying issue. Adventure Orthodontics practices Airway Orthodontics to look beyond the symptoms to find the underlying cause of crooked teeth. By analyzing your child’s anatomy, breathing, physiology, and neurology, we can develop a treatment plan that will ensure whole body wellness.
Underlying causes of incorrect bite positions can be improper oral habits like mouth breathing and developing an incorrect swallowing pattern. A wrong bite position can also mean that the jaws are not growing correctly. With Airway Orthodontics, we aim to respect and protect the airway’s health during the orthodontic treatment process. Correcting the cause promotes healthy airways. Healthy airways improve your child’s health and encourage healthier adulthood.
Does My Child Need Airway Orthodontics?
Airway orthodontics is necessary if your child’s breathing is affected while they sleep. Cessation of breathing can be caused by complete or partial upper airway obstruction. Typically thought of as an ‘adult’ disease, Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) occur in up to 5% of children. If your child is experiencing disruptive breathing while they sleep, they are at an increased risk of developing severe medical health problems as well as learning and behavioral problems.
Signs your child may suffer from OSA may include (but are not limited to):
Implications to your child’s health go beyond a crooked, crowded smile and a misaligned bite.
Possible complications of OSA:
How Does Airway Orthodontics Help?
Each child and situation is unique, which means that specific treatment plans will vary depending on their particular malocclusion, tooth development, and age. Incorporating Airway Orthodontics in your treatment plan supports proper nasal breathing and tongue position. Proper breathing and tongue position allows the upper jaw to form in a way that will enable the room necessary for straight teeth. Your child will enjoy a well balanced and esthetic face that is ideal for function and good health.
In addition to proper breathing and tongue position, Airway Orthodontics promotes healthy jaw joints. By encouraging the upper jaw to form correctly, the lower jaw can move freely and grow properly. Proper lower jaw location reduces the risk of Temporal Mandibular Joint dysfunction (TMJ). If your child is already experiencing the discomfort, clicking and restricted movement commonly associated with TMJ, Airway Orthodontics can re-posture the lower jaw to alleviate symptoms and protect the jaw joint.
Airway Orthodontics
Key to Long-Lasting Smiles
Adventure Orthodontics can help your child enjoy a healthy, properly functioning smile that can last a lifetime! Airway Orthodontics will help your child have healthy airway function, better health, and a beautiful smile!
Call today to schedule your child’s Airway assessment.