How to prevent the use of orthodontics in children: tips and healthy habits of experts

There are many children who throughout their childhood should wear an apparatus to correct a defect in the teeth. The use of orthodontics is also common in adolescence and even in adulthood.

Obviously, there are oral problems of genetic origin that cannot be prevented, but there are also a number of habits that can alter the orofacial development of children and that parents can avoid with due information.

"We have all ever heard that prevention is better than cure, and in orthodontics the same thing happens: prevention is always easier and with lower economic and biological cost to the patient, than treatment."

That's how blunt is Dr. Juan Carlos Pérez Varela, president of the Spanish Society of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics (SEDO), when we talk about orthodontics in children.

And this type of treatment is not usually a "good taste dish" for families, as they say. First for the child, who must deal with a dental appliance and hygiene and special care habits, but also for the parents, due to the high economic cost that it usually entails.

For all this, SEDO offers the following recommendations and advice to avoid, as far as possible, that children have to wear orthodontics.

Opt for breastfeeding whenever possible

Breast suction stimulates the baby's buccal musculature, favors the jaw to advance from its distal position, and promotes proper growth of the lower jaw. All this helps prevent up to 50 percent dental malocclusions and mandibular retrognathisms, and favors a good relationship between the maxilla and the jaw.

"It is shown that babies who have been fed breast milk by breast sucking are less likely to have discrepancies in the size of the jaws than those who were fed only with a bottle. Breastfeeding helps prevent dentomaxillofacial anomalies and dental malocclusions"- clarifies Dr. Pérez Varela.

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Promote chewing

Experts warn that parents take too long to give our children uncrushed food, and this can affect the correct development of the jaw muscles, from mouth, and consequently to speech.

"The type of food given to children today tends to be increasingly soft, easy to swallow and digest, which means that they chew less and less, find less resistance to eating, do not exercise their jaws and so much, they develop less. "

"As the dentofacial bones are smaller, there is less space to house the dental pieces, so the teeth tend to be increasingly crowded and the malocclusions are increased" - explains Dr. Pérez Varela.

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Remove the pacifier before two years

It has been seen that, properly used, the pacifier has many benefits for babies, since it reduces the incidence of sudden infant death, gives them security and confidence and serves as comfort.

However, experts also warn that non-nutritive sucking of the pacifier could alter children's oral development and the natural position of the jaw. To avoid this, SEDO recommends that the size of the pacifier be adapted to the baby's mouth and that its use be abandoned at two years, the age that pediatricians anticipate at 12 months.

Prevent the child from sucking his finger

There are children who suck their fingers help them relax when they are nervous, calm down when they are hungry and fall asleep. However, this habit beyond the baby stage (in children who begin with the final dentition) may be detrimental to the development of teeth, causing significant malocclusions of the bite, especially if they do it continuously or suck strongly.

Removing an older child from the habit of sucking his finger can be somewhat complicated, but we can follow these tips that we recommended long ago and that would also serve to remove the pacifier.

Take proper oral hygiene

Experts remind us that daily tooth brushing is a habit that we must instill in children from an early age. It is essential that learn the importance of brushing your teeth at least twice a day (and always do it before going to sleep), that they use the most appropriate toothpaste and that the process is supervised by an adult (at least at the beginning until the child knows how to do it correctly).

Go to periodic reviews

When they start erupt the first teeth It is time to pay a visit to the pediatric dentist, who is the specialist in oral health care for the little ones.

But at the moment when definitive teething begins (around six years), or even before if the pediatric dentist considers it, we should make a review with the orthodontist who is the specialist in charge of correcting the alterations in the position of the teeth and jaws, taking care of both the dental alignment , how to treat malocclusions.

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Both specialists they complement each other, and they can get to work together The time has come.

"The reviews with the orthodontist are fundamental because although there are pathologies that are obvious to the naked eye, such as dental crowding or some deformities, there are others that can only be diagnosed by this professional" - notes Dr. Pérez Varela.

"With the appropriate controls and an early detection, in case there is a pathology, an early treatment can be done that prevents the problem from going further."

Early dentofacial orthopedics is easier and faster at this stage of growth. In fact, if you wait for adulthood to treat them, surgery may even be necessary.

Correct bruxism

Bruxism consists in doing grinding your teeth or clenching your jaws hard during sleep, and it is something that affects between 10% and 20% of the population, including children.

This habit can have important consequences (enamel wear, oral health problems, pain in the mouth, cervical contractures, headache ...), as well as alterations in the jaw and dental fractures.

There are several reasons that can lead the child to squeak his teeth, and although it is usually a passing habit, it is It is advisable to consult with the pediatric dentist or orthodontist to make an assessment and tell us how to proceed in this regard.

Avoid biting objects and biting your nails

From the SEDO inform us that biting objects such as pencils, pens, bottle caps ... can cause damage to the enamel of the teeth and exert inadequate pressure that could eventually fracture them and even move them.

As for the habit of nail biting, known as onychophagy, it is usually common in childhood (and sometimes also among some adults) and can lead to serious problems as inflammation of the skin surrounding the nail, pain, infection and even in more severe cases the appearance of intraosseous cysts.

But for bucondental health, the fact of nail biting also has multiple consequences such as enamel wear, alterations in the jaw that can cause pain and problems with chewing, as well as gum problems that can end up causing gingivitis or periodontal disease.

"These habits are very harmful to oral health because in addition to damaging the teeth (and even if it is already orthodontic, the device could be damaged), in the long term it can damage the temporomandibular joint, and, if that habit is taken during childhood, even change the occlusal plane "- emphasize from the SEDO.

Parents we must try to prevent this custom from becoming a habit explaining the consequences, trying to understand why they do it and helping them overcome it.

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