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When most people think of orthodontics, they think of
someone getting their teeth straightened to make their
smile more attractive... and that's it. While it is true
that orthodontic treatment does improve the patient's
appearance, this is only a small part of the orthodontic
experience. We not only believe that a beautiful smile
can brighten your life and help you feel better about
the way you look, but
we also know for a fact that a properly positioned jaw
and teeth are essential to your overall good health.
While
a much more attractive smile is indeed a wonderful benefit
to the patient, we feel that this benefit is far less
important than what we believe to be the truly best
reason for individuals to consider orthodontic treatment:
their oral health.
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While our
first priority as an orthodontic practice is oral health
and not the patient's appearance,
there is one more aesthetic benefit to our Full Face Functional
Orthodontics that we would like to mention before we discuss
the health benefits of our orthodontics: Beyond just straightening
teeth, our orthodontic approach often provides significantly
improved overall facial balance to our patients.
Because we do far more than simply
straighten teeth, we are often able to actually enhance
the position and proportion of the chin, cheek bones,
jaws, and nose in relation to each other. We often hear
from our patients, "I never dreamed braces could
help me look this good!"
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GUIDING
A CHILDS GROWING FACE
If left unnattended,
poor oral habits can distort a child's "natural"
facial development causing their appearance to
become far less attractive than it could have
or should have been.
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Age 6
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Age 9
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Before
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After
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Compare the before
and after profiles of the patient above.
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The
study above very objectively illustrates what can and
often does happen to many children today because their
parents neglect functional orthodontic treatment. While
this example is a slightly more extreme than most, no
parent wants a breathing problem or destructive childhood
oral habit to prevent their child from looking their
very best. As you can see in these photos, this child
was not born unattractive. Her appearance changed over
the next several years because her myofuntional habits
were neglected. This child ended up appearing much differently
than she could have or even should have. This doesn't
have to happen to your child. Dr. Nieten can help you.
(The
comparrison study above was conducted by Dr. Mew of
the UK. Dr. Mew became aware of this child's poor oral
habits at a very early age and realized if these habits
were left unattended that they would have destructive
effects on the child's facial development. This illustration
show just how correct he was.He decided to record the
childs facial development over the next several years,
and the outcome is clear.)
Make
sure that you give your child the best start in life!
Contact
us to find out how to prevent this from happening to
your child!
Still
not sure?
Click
here to see more examples
of the functional orthodontic difference for yourself!!
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We frequently see how a new and
improved beautiful smile can brighten the live's our
patient's by helping them feel good about the way they
look, but what
really motivates us is knowing that properly positioned
jaws and teeth can improve the patient's over-all health
in ways that they never expected. Our
patients frequently say to us things like,
"Wow, that popping
sensation and stiffness in my jaw has gone away. That
has been bothering me for years!"
or, "I
noticed that several months after I got braces, I started
getting far fewer migraine headaches. Is this a coincidence?"
or even "My
wife says that I've been snoring far less lately. Could
this have anything to do with my orthodontics?"
These are just a few
of the comments we have heard from patients after or
even during our treatment. Read
on to learn more about specifically how and why our
orthodontics can benefit you.
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There are
two serious conditions that we wish to address that
plague many Americans everyday, but the symptoms are
all too often tolerated or ignored until serious damage
or pain ensues.
These
conditions are TMD
and Sleep
apnea. TMD
is a disorder of the joint connecting your jaws that
if left unattended can develope into a very painful
condition in which the damage can be permanent.
The
key to avoiding this condition is prevention, not correction.
Click
here to
learn more about the signs and symptoms of TMD (temporomandibular
disorder).
Sleep Apnea, on the
other hand, is the medical term for the abnormal breathing
usually indicated by snoring. Snoring is typically thought
of as simply bothersome and embarrassing to the snorer,
but
recent studies have now shown snoring to be far more
than that. Snoring is now viewed in the medical world
as an indication of a potentially life threatening condition
called sleep apnea. A
direct link between sleep apnea and strokes has been
discovered.
Click
here to
learn more about the dangers of Snoring.
While
seemingly unrelated, TMD
and Sleep Apnea have one major commonality: both conditions
are 85 - 90 % of the time caused by poor lower jaw position.
Only by correcting this
poor lower jaw position can the TMD or Sleep Apnea conditions
in these cases be eliminated.
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Orthodontics
also commonly improve speech and over-all body posture.
We have both observed for ourselves and heard testimony
of improved speech and body posture in both children
and adults after our orthodontic treatment It
is quite common for a patient with a poorly positioned
jaw to unconsciously attempt to compensate for the strain
in the joint
and muscles by hanging their head lower and slumping
their shoulders, causing poor posture and a host of
other problems like shoulder and back pain.
It is simply amazing to us still
how bringing balance to the teeth, jaws, and faces of
our patients can impact their health and their lives
in so many ways!
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