How do breathing, sleep, and straight teeth relate to each other? Our bodies were designed to breath through our nose. Today many kids breath mostly through their mouth. They do this because of allergies, a cold, or small nasal passages. When this becomes a habit it has dire consequences. The body and brain don't get enough good oxygen causing behavior problems, and the tongue rests in the wrong place in the mouth causing poor jaw growth and crooked teeth. Healthy Start appliances are designed to work with nature to give kids good nose breathing habits, good sleep, and all the other benefits of good oxygen to the brain. And at the same time they promote good tongue position, good jawbone growth and straight teeth. Starting as early as age 3-4 the Healthy Start appliances can put growth and development of your child's brain, mouth, jaws and teeth back on the right track. At Alexandria Dental Clinic in Alexandria, Minnesota, Dean Anderson, DDS, and the team offer the Healthy Start® System to prevent orthodontic issues before they begin. The Healthy Start System works to correct sleep-related orthodontic and behavior problems, so your child can rest easy. Call Alexandria Dental Clinic or book an appointment online to learn more.
What is the Healthy Start System?
The Healthy Start System is an orthodontic treatment that doesn’t rely on braces or conventional therapies. Instead, Healthy Start uses a comfortable, removable device that guides your child’s jaw into the correct position for proper teeth and jaw alignment.
Created specifically for sleep-disordered breathing, the Healthy Start System can help your child get a better night’s sleep while preventing crooked teeth. Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), or sleep apnea, is a condition in which the airways become blocked. As a result, children with SDB struggle to get the airflow they need to breathe properly while sleeping.
What are the benefits of the Healthy Start System?
There are many causes of SDB in children, but the most common include enlarged tonsils, crooked teeth, and mouth breathing. If your child has SDB, the Healthy Start System can help them breathe more comfortably and reduce loud snoring.
The Healthy Start System can also help prevent symptoms of the following conditions in children:
- Snoring
- Getting up at night
- Daytime tiredness
- ADD/ADHD
- Bedwetting
- Chronic allergies
- Asthma
- Mouth breathing
- Swollen tonsils or adenoids
- Headaches
- Teeth grinding
- Excessive sweating
- Restless sleep
- Nightmares
- Daytime irritability and drowsiness
- Dark circles under eyes
- Difficulty in school
With the Healthy Start System, your child can achieve permanent results without the cost or discomfort of braces later in life.
How does the Healthy Start System work?
Unlike traditional orthodontic treatments, like braces, the Healthy Start System works with your child’s natural facial growth and development. This gentle device leads their erupting teeth into a straighter position while carefully pulling their jawbones into their right relationships.
The Healthy Start Sleep Breathing Ortho works in three phases:
Habit correction The habit-corrector is a device that your child wears at night to minimize unhealthy oral habits, such as tongue thrusting and teeth grinding and nose breathing. This step is essential in preventing for good growth and development. Depending on your child’s age, this step can last between 2-24 months.
Second phase During the next phase, the team at Alexandria Dental Clinic creates a custom-made oral appliance that guides erupting teeth into the right position, expands your child’s arches, and corrects jaw misalignment. Children typically wear this device for 2-6 months.
Final phase Once your child has four or more permanent teeth in each arch, the team creates a device that can accommodate their incoming adult teeth for perfect alignment. With good cooperation these appliances can completely eliminate the need for braces and give superior results.
To find out if the Healthy Start System is right for your family, call Alexandria Dental Clinic or schedule an appointment online today.