The Problem

Erupting teeth are easily guided by the forces of the muscles surrounding them. These are – the tongue on the inside and the lips and cheeks on the outside. Did you know that it takes less than 2 grams of force to move a lower front tooth. The tongue can exert up to 500 grams of force and the lips and cheeks between 100-300 grams of force. Did you know that you swallow more than 1000 times a day? So if your child’s lips are moving when they swallow (called a reverse swallow) the forces placed on their teeth are going to cause the teeth to erupt to a position dictated by these incorrect forces. Myofunctional Orthodontics addresses these incorrect muscle actions and allows the teeth to erupt into their normal position.

We prefer to start early in addressing these issues as incorrect breathing and Myofunctional Habits can affect the growth of your child’s face. It is never too early to address issues that are going to create problems with your child’s facial growth.

The traditional approach waits for the incorrect growth patterns to fully express themselves and then moves the teeth to the incorrectly developed jaw size. This is a very mechanistic approach and Specialist Orthodontists are very good at mechanically moving teeth to fit these undeveloped jaws. We prefer to get your child’s growth “back-on-track” thus allowing natural growth to provide the right size and shaped jaws to naturally fit the teeth into the jaws.

After Fixed Brace Orthodontics, patients are now advised to wear retainers for the rest of their lives as there is a tendency for the teeth to move back to where they were. With Myofunctional orthodontics, if you treat early enough, you don’t need retention, as the muscles of the mouth and face are all working as they should and they act as the retainers to keep the teeth straight.

Why do all we can to avoid Orthodontic treatment with extractions.  After extractions the child’s Upper and Lower arches will be smaller and/or narrower, this  reduces the amount of space for the tongue. This will force the tongue to go backwards resulting in a limiting of the Airway space. This can lead to problems that can affect breathing and sleep.