Improve your child’s dentition and straighten teeth with Myobrace.

Like their fine motor skills and language abilities, your child’s jaws are continually expanding as they grow and age. While humans have long been advancing our children’s physical and cognitive development through enrichment activities and education, researchers are only just beginning to understand how normal human jaw development is being hindered by modern lifestyle changes.

Nature vs Nurture

Have you ever heard that overcrowding, crookedness, or malocclusion (a misaligned bite) is the result of genetics? While every individual’s genetic makeup undoubtedly influences their dentition and jaw size and shape, the dramatic changes to the foods we eat and how we sleep are more likely to cause orthodontic issues that require braces. Industrialization and agriculture have made food more accessible and softer than ever before, requiring less chewing than your ancestors had to do to get the same amount of nutrients from their tough, fibrous foods. Additionally, humans no longer sleep close to the earth on hard surfaces, and instead have shifted over to soft pillows and mattresses. These giving surfaces are more likely to cause the mouth to fall open during sleep, interrupting the development of the proper closed-mouth oral posture that supports healthy swallowing mechanics and the subsequent development of the soft oral tissues.

Put simply, life doesn’t put the same demands on our jawbones as it used to, even as recently as 150 years ago, and the proof is in our dentition, occlusion, and breathing while we sleep. In the cases of both a softer diet and place to sleep, the influences of gentle but persistent pressure that enable our bones to develop and change have weakened, resulting in underdeveloped jaws that aren’t broad enough to support our full dentition. Along with contributing to misaligned jaws and teeth, this lifestyle disease can cause wisdom teeth to become impacted (fully or partially stuck below the gumline), requiring oral surgery to remedy. Poorly developed jaws and orofacial musculature is also associated with sleep apnea and snoring. Along with contributing to poor cognitive performance and physical fatigue, dysfunctional breathing during sleep is also associated with serious health conditions later in life, including depression, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and fatty liver disease.

What is Myobrace?

As humanity continues to advance technologically, the odds of us going back to our pre-industrial, hunter-gatherer lifestyles are slim. Not to mention, your child or teen may not appreciate having to switch from macaroni and cheese to roots and tubers, or from the comfort of their bed to the floor. Fortunately, as the root cause of crooked teeth, malocclusion, and impacted wisdom teeth has become clear, dentistry has responded with a proactive pre-orthodontic treatment called Myobrace that can help your child’s jaws develop more optimally.

The Myobrace System uses a series of removable oral appliances to encourage your child’s genetic potential for orofacial development to be naturally reached. By correcting the myofunctional habits that contribute to poor jaw development, airway issues, and crooked teeth (“myo” means “of muscle” or “relating to muscles”), Myobrace can prevent future breathing, orthodontic, and dental issues before they even begin. Suitable for children between ages 3 and 15, Myobrace appliances are worn during sleep and for one or two hours during the day.

How can Myobrace help my child’s smile?

Myobrace does so much more than straighten teeth and prevent or shorten the orthodontic treatment your child would most likely need as a teen (though it does that, too). By encouraging the proper development of your child’s oral posture, orofacial structures, and swallowing mechanics, Myobrace treatment can spare your child from dealing with the discomfort of impacted wisdom teeth, and the surgical extraction required to remove them. Offering a holistic approach to oral and overall wellness, Myobrace can also help prevent serious health conditions that could negatively impact a child’s quality of life as they age.

The shrinking of the human jaw is a modern phenomenon and Dr. Dickinson Sr, Dr. Dickinson Jr, and Dr. Branon can help prevent this from occurring in your child. For a complete consultation about your child’s jaw development, contact our office to schedule an appointment today.