Children suck their thumbs, bite their nails, swallow by thrusting their tongues forward and sucking, breath through their mouths, bite their lips and do other things that deform their jaw bones and make their teeth crooked. These habits should be extinguished as soon as possible to develop a radiant smile that promotes success in life.
Many parents want help with stopping the habits and correcting the damage they cause. We have developed a two pronged approach to accommodate this need.
We now have an in-office orofacial myologist, Misty Bridges, who can change oral habits. Misty sees our patients when she comes from Tyler every few weeks. We have many parents who are very happy they used Misty’s services. She is good with children, explains the problems in detail to the parents, gives the children effective exercises and rewards them for beneficial changes. She is very effective in her work and we are glad to have her here helping our patients.
When Misty is finished correcting the habits we are ready to correct the damage. We enjoy doing early orthodontic treatment on these patients because the correction goes so quickly in the absence of the habits. Sometimes we can use removable appliances like the Biolock or Bionator. Othertimes we use Damon braces. We see stable corrections because the habits have been stopped.
Orofacial myology is a relatively new field with great promise. Many people believe that if young children keep a proper tongue position against the palate behind the teeth, breath through their noses and keep the lips together, that orthodontic treatment can be avoided. I believe this is largely true. Misty can save parents a lot of time and money and help build that radiant smile.