Healthy Start

Do you recognize any of these concern in your child?

Snoring
Mouth Breathing
Bed Wetting
Difficulty in school
Hyperactivity
Aggressive Behaviour
Chronic Allergies
Swollen Adenoids/Tonsils
Restless Sleep
Nightmares
Crowded/Crooked Teeth
Speech Issues

Your child may be suffering from sleep disordered breathing!

What are the Symptoms of sleep Disordered Breathing?

What is Sleep Disordered Breathing (SDB)?

Without proper tongue placement when sleeping, the jaw drops back, and takes the tongue with it leading to a constriction in the air way while sleeping. This compromises the amount of oxygen reaching the brain while sleeping, which leads to snoring, swollen tonsils or adenoids, tooth decay, bed wetting, restless sleep, delayed or arrested growth, chronic allergies, eczema, asthma, depression, headaches, and the appearance of ADD/ADHD type of behaviour. SDB is also tied by research to crooked and crowded teeth, deep bites, nighttime grinding (nocturnal bruxism), narrow palates, arrested growth and development of the jaws.

What are the Causes of SDB?

Weak tongue and Oral muscles due to soft diet/processed foods.
Poor Oral habits as thumb sucking, pacifiers, tongue thrust
Underdeveloped dental arches and jaws due to limited or no breast feeding.

Airway blockage causes varying degrees of snoring, ranging from mild to loud. In severe cases, it can lead to the child waking up gasping for air multiple times during the night. Enlarged adenoids and tonsils, excess neck fat in overweight children, and neuromuscular conditions like cerebral palsy can also contribute to airway constriction.

Prevent Rather Than Correct!

HealthyStart is a progressive system to improve the health and well being of children by educating and treating root causes of certain health symptoms with a non-invasive procedure that straightens teeth for a lifetime of healthy, beautiful smiles.

Research shows that 9 out of 10 children suffer from at least 1 symptom of sleep-related breathing disorders (SRBD). These symptoms may include the following:

ADD/ADHD
Bedwetting
Difficulty in school
Mouth Breathing
Snoring
Teeth Grinding
Restless Sleep
Chronic Allergies
Nightmares/Night terrors
Daytime Drowsiness
Aggression
Headaches

Benefits of using the HealthyStart system versus traditional orthodontics

Guides incoming permanent teeth, often eliminating the need for braces and life- long retention
Can achieve full correction within 2 – 12 months
Usually costs much less than traditional braces
Promotes proper facial growth and development
Develops arch expansion naturally, avoiding extractions
Removable appliances that make it easy to maintain proper dental hygiene
Can be started as early as age 2
Straightens children's teeth while they sleep with only 2 hours of daytime wear + sleep
Eliminates improper oral habits, mouth breathing, teaches proper swallowing, and addresses the root causes of sleep related breathing disorders
Corrects overbite, overjet, crossbites, under bites, gummy smile, open bites and crowding in 93% of kids when started

What is HealthyStart ?

The HealthyStart™ System helps in promoting the proper growth and development of the jaw and airway optimizing the airflow and promote proper nasal breathing while straightening your child's teeth.

As these areas develop many of the symptoms of Sleep Disordered Breathing disappear. When kids can breathe properly, they can begin to learn, grow, and blossom into their true potential. The HealthyStart™ System is a group of removable appliances resembling night guards that the child wears during his sleeps it aids in the correct growth and alignment of the lower jaw, expanding the arches to ensure incoming permanent teeth have enough room to erupt in straight, and develop proper oral habits. The HealthyStart™ System works with the natural forces of tooth eruption. The soft, comfortable, removable devices gently guide the erupting teeth into their perfect positions it guides the growth of the orofacial system and teeth eruption into their healthy positions.

How Does the HealthyStart work?

Studies show that 3 out of 4 kids have developed a malocclusion e.g. crowded teeth and incorrectly developing jaws by the age of 3 years of age and can tremendously benefit from early interceptive orthodontic treatment in using myofunctional oral appliances like Healthy Start.

Treatment can begin as early as 3 years old. Traditionally, orthodontic intervention has been delayed until all permanent teeth erupt (around age 12-14). However, by this time, 90% of jaw growth is complete, missing the opportunity to correct poor habits and alter a child's growth trajectory. Healthy Start's first phase focuses on habit correction, followed by the HealthyStart Occluso-guide phase, which promotes proper tongue and swallowing posture while aligning teeth. In cases requiring significant expansion, an orthodontic expansion device may be recommended alongside removable appliances.

Visits are also made on a monthly basis during ac- tive treatment and then longer intervals once initial correction has been made. Healthy Start has a strong emphasis on sleep related breathing disorders and the signs and symptoms associated with these problems. We monitor these signs and symptoms as treatment progresses to make sure they are improving. When a child is not progressing we may need to refer them to the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) physician, functional medicine physician, or allergist.

Depending On The Age Of Your Child The System Uses a Series Of Appliances:

Habit correction only

This usually involves the use of 1-2 appliances and 6-9 months of treatment. This treatment is best utilized using a myofunctional therapist to aid in exercises to correct tongue posture but many kids will achieve improved tongue posture with the appliance alone. Treatment involves getting records, selecting the correct appliances, and monitoring usage for 3-6 months. Treatment modifications and referrals may be necessary to achieve success with the habit correction.

Complete healthy start system

Habit-Corrector
The habit-corrector eliminates or improves current oral habits that can damage your child's dental health. He or she wears the habit-corrector at night while sleeping. With a design similar to that of a pacifier, your child will become used to wearing a device in his or her mouth every night. This step lasts about 1-5 months.
Second Stage
Your child will get an appliance customized and sized for your child to wear every night. It aids the incoming teeth into their proper places, corrects jaw relations, and expands your child's arches for the incoming adult teeth. Your child will wear this device for 2-6 months.
Final Stage
The final treatment begins with a device that accommodates incoming adult teeth. It begins when your child has at least 4 permanent teeth. This phase is extremely important because his or her adult teeth are forming and the gum tissue fibers are starting to attach the teeth in the mouth. Healthy Start works perfectly to ensure the teeth erupt into proper alignment.

Phase 2 Treatments

After Healthy Start has been utilized to gain proper tongue and lip posture, closed mouth breathing and arch development, a variety of options are available for phase 2 finishing. Finishing means placing the teeth in an ideal esthetic and functional position. Of-ten the teeth are close to where they need to be prior to finishing and in many cases, when the tongue and lips function correctly, no finishing is necessary. However, we cannot and do not guarantee perfect-ly straight teeth after phase 1. Phase 2 can either consist of metal braces or clear aligners. With each treatment we take great care to not undo what was gained during Phase 1 treatment.

Retention And Follow-up

After completing the active treatment phase, we'll schedule follow-up appointments to assess treatment stability and make any necessary adjustments or referrals. The estimated duration of active treatment will be determined prior to starting. Patient compliance and various factors may affect the final treatment duration. Follow-up visits are typically integrated into hygiene appointments or scheduled every 3-6 months. Establishing optimal swallow, tongue, and breathing posture can help minimize relapse. Retainers may be required for some patients, while others may not need them.

How and when dow we Start? What should you consider?

We start with a comprehensive orthodontic examination, photos, PAN x-ray and a digital scan. We may also advise a CEPH that gives a view of the skeletal structure of the head, jaw and spine.

Who Is A Good Candidate For Healthystart?

Most children could benefit from myofunctional orthodontics. If you want to improve your child's growth and development of the head, face and airway it is a great option. Myofunctional orthodontics also aims to treat the root cause of crowded teeth, which means there is less likelihood for relapse (the return of crowding after treatment).

Who Is Not A Good Candidate For Healthystart?

HealthyStart requires compliance from the patient in wearing their appliances, eating the proper food, and sometimes doing exercises to compliment treatment. If you do not think your child can do these things on a consistent and regular basis, HealthyStart may not be the right choice.

There are excellent orthodontic options that provide treatment with wires and brackets that are not able to be removed from the mouth. If there are any questions about which treatment is right for you, we encourage you to get an evaluation.

Finding the right orthodontic treatment is a big decision and everyone (parents, child and the dentist) should be on board with the goals and necessary changes to lifestyle that are required for a successful outcome.

Every Child Deserves a HealthyStart

HealthyStart Pedo Habit Corrector® is for children 4-6 years old. The appliance is worn 1-2 hours a day passively and during the night. Keeping the appliance in all night may take time. Breaking kids of habits such as mouth breathing may also take time. If the appliance is not in the mouth in the morning, the child will need to locate and brush appliance with toothpaste and put back in box. Helpful hint is to explain that every child is different on how long it takes to remain in mouth all night long. Do not get discouraged—it's worth it!