Does your Child exhibit any of these symptoms?
Sleep Disordered Breathing in children is a much more critical and common problem than what has previously been thought. SDB can manifest itself in a variety of symptoms that can be easily overlooked, misdiagnosed, and most unfortunately left untreated.
What is Sleep Disordered Breathing?
20+ years of research ties Sleep Disordered Breathing to crooked and crowded teeth, arrested growth and development, behavioral challenges which can have a similar appearance to ADD / ADHD and even Bed-Wetting. The symptoms associated with SDB can vary from one child to the next, but even mild SDB (mouth breathing, crowded teeth, snoring) can point to serious underlying health issues and the need for treatment.
How Can I Tell If My Child Has Sleep-Disordered Breathing?
Does it ever sound like a freight train is running through your child’s room at night or as they lay asleep in back seat on the way home from a trip? Loud snoring is one very apparent indication that your child may have Sleep-Disordered Breathing. Gasping and snorting sounds while your child sleeps may catch you off guard or even make you momentarily worry. These sounds stem from your child moving from a deeper sleep to a lighter sleep (towards waking up) and struggling to breathe.
How Can Orthodontics Help?
Often, sleep-disordered breathing is caused by the way the upper and lower teeth and jaws come together, which create the shape of the oral and nasal cavities, affecting the overall breathing quality. To treat children in such instances, we utilize the HealthyStart™ System in our office — a revolutionary, non-invasive, and natural way of straightening teeth. Clinically proven to correct a child’s oral habits and helps them to breathe properly through their nose, the comprehensive and holistic treatment of HealthyStart™ regimen begins early in a child’s life which positively affects and gently guides the developing dentition into the correct alignment before adult teeth become locked into place. The Healthy Start techniques work simultaneously to correct both the oral habits as well as the child’s orthodontic problems.
What Else Can HealthyStart Do?
In reality, perfectly aligned baby teeth do not provide enough space for the larger permanent teeth to erupt into the space left by the lose of the smaller tooth, often causing a crowded set of permanent teeth. Many times the permanent teeth will have to rotate in order to fit. The HealthyStart system guides the eruption of the permanent tooth in a predetermined slot in the Healthy Start appliance, ensuring that it comes in straight but also allowing the natural expansion of the arch. An additional benefit occurs by allowing the incoming teeth to grow in straight, the fiber bundles that anchor the permanent teeth into the mouth means that there will be minimal or no relapse of the permanent teeth – the permanent teeth have grown in straight.
HealthyStart Can Also Correct “Gummy Smiles”
What is a “gummy smile”? It is a condition in which a high lip-line exposes an abnormal amount of gum or gingival tissue. The upper permanent central teeth can be restricted from occurring beyond a normal overbite with the Healthy Start Appliance.
