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Braces and aligners help straighten teeth and create a confident, attractive smile. And those visible benefits are amazing! But orthodontic treatment has an even more important purpose than transforming the appearance of your smile—and that’s protecting and improving your oral health. 

If you’re ready for orthodontic treatment, you know you can look forward to a future of beaming smiles. You can also look forward to healthier teeth and gums and a more comfortable and functional bite. For some people, orthodontic treatment can make speaking and eating easier, and could even contribute to a better night’s sleep.

How can orthodontic treatment from Drs. Hutcheson, Train, Goodall, Lewis accomplish these goals? Let’s set the record straight!

Protecting Tooth and Gum Health

• Lowering Your Risk of Cavities

Perfectly aligned teeth are considered aesthetically pleasing, but there’s a more practical reason to appreciate straight teeth. Crooked and overlapping teeth make it easier for food particles and plaque to stick in between the teeth and harder for your brush to remove them. Straight teeth allow you to remove cavity-causing plaque more effectively and with less effort.

• Promoting Healthy Gums

When plaque and tartar build up around the gums, the gum tissue becomes irritated, which is the first stage of gum disease. When teeth are straight and evenly spaced, brushing and flossing are easier and more effective, and your gums reap the benefits.

Creating a More Functional and Comfortable Bite

A malocclusion occurs when the teeth and jaws aren’t properly aligned—they don’t fit together the way they should when you close your mouth. There are different types of bite problems, and these can impact both your oral health and your overall health depending on the type and the severity of the malocclusion. Once a malocclusion is corrected, patients can experience:

• Stronger Teeth and Healthier Gums

Teeth and jaws which don’t fit together properly put extra pressure on your teeth and gums, leading to problems such as worn enamel, cracked teeth, and gum recession. Protect your oral health by creating a well-aligned bite.

• A Pain-Free Bite

Left untreated, malocclusions can cause problems like temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD), headaches, face and neck pain, earaches, limited jaw movement, and painful chewing. Correcting your bite will protect your temporomandibular joint from harm and will relieve the discomfort and pain caused by a malocclusion. 

Other Possible Benefits of Treatment

For those with more serious malocclusions, orthodontic treatment might improve daily life in unexpected ways:

• Improved Speech

It takes a lot of coordination to produce different sounds. The lips, the tongue, the alveolar ridge which holds our teeth, the hard and soft palates, parts of the throat, and, yes, the teeth all play a part in creating speech. Some kinds of malocclusions contribute to speech disorders such as lisps, which orthodontic treatment can help correct.

• Improved Digestion

Digestion starts in the mouth, not the stomach! As we chew, we break down our food into particles which are easier for the stomach to digest. If you can’t chew properly because your teeth are misaligned or a bad bite makes it too painful to chew food as thoroughly as you should, you won’t be getting the full nutritional benefits of your healthy diet. Orthodontic treatment helps you bite down painlessly and break down foods easily for better digestion.

• Improved Sleep

Bite problems can sometimes lead to sleepless nights. More serious malocclusions may cause mouth breathing, which, in turn, can affect the quality of your sleep. If you’re having trouble sleeping, a sleep specialist can help you discover the source of your problems. If your troubled sleep is caused by tooth or jaw misalignment, orthodontic treatment might be the solution.

Orthodontists offer many treatment options designed to align your teeth and jaws for a healthy, attractive smile. Braces or aligners might be all you need to correct a mild malocclusion. Appliances and headgear can influence the growth and position of the jaw if needed. In more severe cases, surgery, together with braces, can create a proportional, healthy bite. 

Whether it’s a confident smile, healthier teeth and gums, a functional, comfortable bite, or any of the other benefits orthodontic treatment can bring, talk to the dental team at Children's Dental Specialists in Richardson or Carrollton to discover how orthodontic treatment can help you achieve all of your smile goals!

“Non-nutritive sucking behavior”? That’s a mouthful—literally! This term describes behaviors such as thumb sucking and pacifier use, which are generally healthy, self-soothing activities for infants and toddlers. But, if followed too long, this comforting habit can have uncomfortable consequences for your child’s dental health.

When children are nursed or bottle-fed, placing a nipple in the mouth helps trigger the sucking reflex, enabling the flow of milk or formula. This is called nutritive sucking, because nourishment is the goal. The sucking reflex is so essential that it develops even before birth. And while the purpose of this reflex is nourishment, it provides other benefits as well.

For small children, sucking can be a comfort mechanism to help them cope with stressful situations and calm themselves. That’s why you often see your child sucking on a pacifier, toy, thumb, or fingers when feeling overwhelmed or tired. Non-nutritive sucking behavior, or NNSB, refers to these habits: sucking without nutritional benefit.

Such habits are extremely common in young children. Most children stop sucking their thumbs or pacifiers between the ages of two and four, and often even earlier. But if your child hasn’t, it’s a good idea to talk to Drs. Hutcheson, Train, Goodall, Lewis about easing your child away from this familiar habit before the permanent teeth start to arrive.

Why? Because when sucking behavior lasts too long, it can have orthodontic consequences. Just as the gentle pressure of braces or aligners can help shift teeth and jaws into the proper alignment, the pressure from sucking thumb and pacifier can push growing teeth and jaws out of alignment.

• Studies have shown a clear link between NNSB and malocclusions, or bite problems. These include overjets (protruding upper teeth), open bites (where the upper and lower teeth don’t make contact when biting down), and crossbites (where one or more upper fit teeth inside lower teeth).
• As young bones are still growing, prolonged, vigorous sucking can affect the shape and size of a child’s palate and jaw.
• When the teeth are pushed out of alignment, difficulties with pronunciation, such as lisps, can develop.

Sucking habits can be difficult to give up. If your child is still self-comforting with the help of thumb or pacifier past age three, and certainly if you’ve noticed any changes in teeth or speech, there are several gentle, positive steps you can take to protect your child’s dental health.

• Talk to Drs. Hutcheson, Train, Goodall, Lewis about strategies for weaning your child from pacifier and thumb, as well as possible comforting substitutes. Your healthcare team can offer suggestions for making this transition as easy as possible for your child—and for you!
• Discuss recommendations you’ve found in books or online which might be a good match for your child’s personality. Whatever you decide on, whether it’s a gradual phasing out, small rewards, a goals chart, or any other method, use positive reinforcement and plenty of encouragement.
• Set easy goals at the beginning, such as going thumb-free while playing a game, or enjoying a favorite video, or any stress-free activity, to give your child a feeling of accomplishment to build on.
• Be proactive with orthodontic health. One good idea is to schedule an orthodontic visit when your child is around the age of seven—or earlier if you notice problems with tooth alignment, speech, or bite.

Thumb sucking and pacifier use can be important, instinctive sources of comfort for very young children. And, of course, NNSB is not the only cause of childhood malocclusions. Many bite problems are genetically based and/or affected by the size and shape of your child’s teeth and jaws.

But eliminating the preventable oral health problems caused by prolonged non-nutritive sucking behaviors—that’s an opportunity we can’t afford to pass up. After all, wanting to ensure healthy, confident smiles for our children is instinctive parental behavior!

We’ve all learned a lot about staying healthy lately. As a parent, you give good advice about avoiding germs in public places, cleaning things that get touched a lot like phones and keyboards, and learning the best way to wash hands. These small daily habits can have a big effect on your child’s health.

And since you’re already taking care of your little one by making sure they brush at least twice a day, we have some good advice for small habits which can make their toothbrush even cleaner and brushing even healthier.

Brushing Habits

Don’t let germs hitch a ride on your child’s toothbrush before they even begin brushing! Make sure their hands are clean before they start, and rinse off the toothbrush before they put it in their mouth.

After brushing, be sure your child rinses their brush carefully to get rid of leftover toothpaste and bits of food. Also, clean the toothbrush holder regularly to get rid of germs and bacteria.

And while we’re talking about germs, how about . . .

• Flushing Habits

Most toothbrushes live in the bathroom, where we also find—the toilet. Every time we flush, invisible bacteria and particles fly through the air. And while that might not make you sick, it’s still pretty gross. Closing the lid before you flush helps keep your family’s toothbrushes—and bathroom—cleaner.

• Airing? Yes!

Keeping a toothbrush in a dark, wet environment is the perfect way to help bacteria grow. Instead of putting a wet toothbrush in a case, let it air dry standing heads up after use. Give it a shake first for a head start on drying out.

• Sharing? No

We’re not talking about sharing a brush, which you would never do. We’re talking about sharing space. If your child’s brush touches other brushes in a toothbrush holder, it’s probably sharing germs. Toothbrushes shouldn’t be too close to other toothbrushes, no matter how close you are to the other brush’s owner!

Finally, no matter how well your child takes care of their toothbrush, there comes a time when you should let it go. After three or four months, bristles become frayed and worn out. This means the brush won’t remove plaque as well as it used to. And to be on the safe side, it’s a good idea to replace a brush if your child has been sick.

Keeping your child’s teeth and mouth healthy is one very important way to keep their whole body heathy and happy. Talk to Drs. Hutcheson, Train, Goodall, Lewis at our Richardson or Carrollton office to learn more about simple habits for healthy teeth!

As a parent, you know how important a happy, relaxed atmosphere is when it comes to making your child feel at home. We would like to make our Richardson or Carrollton practice your dental home, where you and your family enjoy the best of dental care in a warm and welcoming environment.

What makes a dental home?

• It’s Welcoming

From your child’s first visit, we strive to make you both feel at ease. Our office is designed to be a happy, entertaining, and relaxing place, and our staff is trained in making little ones feel calm and secure. We want to have a lasting relationship, and we want you and your child to feel welcomed back whenever you return.

• It’s Familiar

We recommend visiting our office for the first time by the time of your child’s first tooth or first birthday. Our early visits are designed to make your child familiar with what a dentist does and how a dentist helps keep children healthy. Regular preventative care will keep those little teeth in great shape, and, if your child has a cavity that needs filling or requires any other dental procedure, we will have a history together and a familiar place to experience an unfamiliar treatment.

• It’s Comfortable

We use state-of-the-art dentistry to make sure your child has the best and most comfortable treatment as a patient, and we also consider the psychological aspect of each visit for your particular child. We are experienced in dealing with children who might feel anxious and working with them to overcome their worries. Part of our job is to make each visit a happy one, so your child is always comfortable visiting us.

• It’s Ongoing

We want to establish a relationship that will last through the years. Continuity of care means that we are able to follow your child’s dental development during those active growing years and the transition from primary to permanent teeth. We provide not only dental health education, treatment, and preventive care, but can track any changes or potential problems before they become major issues. In case of a dental emergency, we will be familiar with your child personally, and with a dental history at hand.

Give Drs. Hutcheson, Train, Goodall, Lewis a call to talk about your child and how we can make the dental experience a positive one from the very beginning. When it comes to establishing a happy and healthy foundation for your child’s dental history, there’s no place like our dental home!