“WHAT DOES MY CHILD’S CROWDED TEETH HAVE TO DO WITH HIS HEALTH, GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT?”

Mouth breathing deprives him of sleeping with a closed mouth and a tongue placed in his palate for his upper teeth to shape around it.

His palate is part of his mid-facial complex which will be narrowed too, meaning his air passages will be constricted. This will leave him with a normal amount of nasal mucosa which will be too much for lining out the narrowed nasal cavities! The result: Lifelong nasal obstruction, mouth breathing and overall restricted growth potential.

How can a narrowed upper jaw restrict his growth?  Eleven of the 22 sutures of his skull are attached to the upper jaw. By correcting the dimensions of the upper jaw while he is still growing, will not only restore his nasal breathing, but will stimulate development of the frontal part of his brain and stimulate his growth. His palate and his brain floor are intricately connected, believe it or not. The gland that regulates all his hormones, is snugly placed in the roof of this mid-facial complex. By correcting this, you can improve his IQ and brain development by as much as 10 per cent.

Why not just extract the crowded teeth and align the rest? Apart from removing vital stem cells around the roots of the extracted teeth, which will be needed for jaw development later, extracting teeth calls for narrowing down the dimensions of the jaws to close the extraction spaces. This contradicts all the principles of normal jaw growth and – development. Extracting teeth where not really indicated (it is only indicated in a vast minority of cases) will give a complete opposite result and create a myriad of health problems. Having a complement of straight teeth is just the sweet result of restoring the normal growth before aligning the teeth. The inherent reason for the crowded teeth should be addressed first.

My dentist said that I must wait till my child has lost all his baby teeth, when should I start with treatment then?  Your dentist probably only knows about brackets for aligning permanent teeth, and if there was space for all the permanent teeth, which is hardly the case, you then will have to wait till 13 years of age. This is way too late! The face growsin 3 ways: The first shuts down at 7 years of age, the second at 10 and the 3^rd at 18 years. The most effective growth management program starts at 7 years. The first phase of treatment addresses the facial-growth development issues, whether it is caused by genetic problems, breathing problems or bad habits like thumb sucking etc. We opt for a mouth and face with normal shape, size, and jaw relations. This should preferably be done before 10 years of age.

If the first phase starts at 7, how do you attach the appliances on the teeth with so many baby teeth still present? Our fixed appliances do not get attached to baby teeth in general and are developed for fixing on permanent teeth of a 7-year-old child. This principle was established by Dr. Ricketts in the U.S.A in the late 1960’s and refined by Dr.Wilson in the 80’s. Our appliances were further refined by ourselves to fulfill the dream of creating optimal facial growth with the least amount of discomfort and maximum results. The aim is to optimize growth and development before puberty and in doing so, prevent tooth loss and severe jaw- and facial surgery after puberty. We successfully prevent these 2 serious growth complications in almost all instances by intercepting and correcting the 4 dimensions of the face and jaws in time.

When do you align the permanent teeth if they are only present at 13? After the first phase (the Natural Orthopedic Phase) we monitor the development of your child’s face and jaws every 6 months until he has lost almost all his baby teeth. This usually takes place between 11 and 12 years. We then plan a second phase which addresses the alignment of the permanent teeth for which we created space during phase 1. We call the second phase the Orthodontic Phase.

What is the difference between The Ortho Logic Studio and other orthodontic practices? Conventional orthodontic practices only do “Phase 2”. This is to align permanent teeth. To align teeth, you need to have space. There are only two ways of creating space: Managing facial growth or extracting teeth. We do the natural- and logic option, Managing the growth (Phase 1) and then aligning the teeth (Phase 2). We rarely need to do extractions of teeth and even less frequently have jaw surgery done.

So, you will not have my child’s teeth extracted? If your child is a girl, having Macrodontia (excessively big teeth) and present with an open bite (not being able to close her teeth and mouth naturally) we might need to remove permanent teeth during phase 2 only. Other teeth that usually need to be removed are the wisdom teeth, and we evaluate them at the age of 15 to see if there will be space for them. Usually, they are removed around the age of 15 under general anesthesia. This is a normal procedure for all other patients as well.

Knowing now that your child’s sleep apnea, snoring, chronic sinusitis, open mouth chewing, or excessive long lower jaw can be permanently addressed in a natural way, take a closer look at him or her. All of this can be addressed without tooth loss or invasive jaw surgery. If the teeth are crowded, it is likely that the jaws did not develop naturally. General growth and mental concentration should be optimized. He or she needs to be able to breathe, chew and exercise with a closed mouth. If the teeth or jaws are not lightning up well, call us today. Your child needs the best help he or she can get as soon as possible. It is not only about the smile, but a healthy face also shows a perfect smile!

By Bert Botha (Ortho Logic Studio)