byrd smiles

Dr. Kathryn Clark is an orthodontist at Byrdsmiles Orthodontics and is offering her knowledge with Beltway Bambinos as it relates to orthodontics for children and adolescents. Dr. Talley, another orthodontist at Byrdsmiles Orthodontics shared a post in December about orthodontic care for patients and how the field has progressed and improved thanks to advances in research and technology.

Just as the Colorado River shaped the Grand Canyon, the muscles of your lips, cheeks and tongue work to shape your mouth and the way your teeth fit together.

With normal growth and development, your tongue rests on the roof of your mouth to keep the upper arch broader than the lower arch. Your upper and lower jaws both grow downward and forward as your face matures.

If you suck your thumb or a pacifier, it can reshape your mouth. Depending on the severity and duration of force, it can narrow your upper arch which can lead to a cross bite, where the upper teeth fit inside the lower teeth. This can cause facial asymmetry as you shift your jaw to one side to find a more comfortable place to bite down. The incidence of cross bite increases if a thumb habit persists beyond age 2. Prolonged thumb sucking can also procline your upper front teeth, or tilt them forward. Having your thumb between your teeth consistently can prevent full eruption of your upper front teeth and allow excess eruption of the posterior teeth leading to an anterior open bite, where your top teeth don’t overlap your bottom teeth at all. This can make it hard to bite into food and get the inside part of a sandwich! In the long term an anterior open bite can also increase the stress to the posterior teeth and make them more susceptible to fracture and periodontal issues. Stopping a thumb habit before the eruption of the permanent teeth reduces the chances of a bite problem developing.

Photo: Dental changes seen in a patient with significant thumb sucking habits

There are many ways to help stop a thumb habit. Frequently we’ll show a video of how your teeth can be moved with a prolonged thumb habit and the negative effects associated with it. Understanding why we want the habit to stop is an important part. Next we review options that can serve as reminders to help you stop sucking your thumb. This can include wearing a band aid on your thumb, wearing socks or mittens on your hand, putting an ace bandage on your elbow, or using Mavala Stop nail polish. The workbook What To Do When Bad Habits Take Hold can walk you through the self soothing effects of sucking your thumb and alternative ways to achieve those feelings. We can place an orthodontic appliance called a spinnerball appliance to help. This acts as a reminder whenever your thumb touches it and also provides an alternative of spinning the spinnerball with your tongue. The spinnerball is positioned to act as a target for the ideal position of your tongue at rest and during swallow. If needed, the spinnerball can be placed once the permanent first molars have erupted around age 6-7.

Photo: A spinnerball appliance in place to help deter a thumb habit

If your thumb is frequently present between your teeth, your tongue positions itself low on the floor of your mouth. Some people will thrust their tongue forward between their teeth when swallowing, called a tongue thrust swallow. These can contribute to an anterior open bite. To help combat these things, we frequently work with a myofunctional therapist, a speech therapist who specializes in proper position and function of the muscles of your mouth. The myofunctional therapist will give you exercises to help retrain your muscles to function properly.

At Byrdsmiles, we have been excited about the results we have been able to achieve using Invisalign and myofunctional therapy to help close anterior open bites. In the past, orthognathic surgery was often considered to close anterior open bites. Now often times we can get the anterior teeth to overlap by intruding the posterior teeth with Invisalign and reguiding the tongue to prevent reopening of the bite.

Photo: Before and after photo of a patient treated with Invisalign at Byrdsmiles Orthodontics

By looking at the causative factors in a developing occlusion, we are best able to guide the teeth into their most functional and esthetic position. If you want to find out more about how your oral health can be improved with orthodontic treatment, please visit our office!

At Byrdsmiles Orthodontics we would love the opportunity to get to know you and answer your questions. Please call us to schedule a complimentary new patient exam. You can also find us on Google, Facebook, and Rate a biz.

Location: 4110 River Rd. NW Washington, DC 20016
Phone: (202) 686-2108

Dr. Sonia Talley is a board-certified orthodontist at Byrdsmiles Orthodontics. Dr. Talley is going to offer her knowledge with Beltway Bambinos as it relates to orthodontics for children and adolescents and we are so pleased to share this information with you. Her first blog post is about orthodontics and how the field has progressed and improved thanks to advances in research and technology. The following post is written by Dr. Sonia Talley.

Dr. Sonia Talley and Dr. Kathryn Clark with the Byrdsmiles Team

Our Philosophy:

At Byrdsmiles Orthodontics we provide orthodontic care for patients of all ages. From a first phase of treatment that can begin around age 8 to a more comprehensive treatment to resolve crowding and misalignment in adults. We love treating the whole family!

Our philosophy is to take a conservative, research-based, preventative approach to orthodontic care. Each patient has a customized treatment plan developed. The plan takes into consideration the patients dental anatomy, skeletal structure, facial proportions and smile. It is through careful planning that we can set our patients up for a lifetime of excellent oral health.

What’s changed in Orthodontics?

Advances in technology have changed the way we drive, cook and even make phone calls. Life wouldn’t be the same without a rear view camera, an Instant Pot and Facetime. Forward strides of similar magnitude have changed the field of orthodontics, making your children’s orthodontic experience more comfortable and easy.

In order to move teeth a consistent force is needed, teeth don’t mind whether that force comes from a clear aligner such as invisalign or from braces. With the advent of Invisalign we as orthodontists have more tools to provide our patients with happy healthy smiles.

Do you think your experience with braces is a great way to prep your kids for their first orthodontist visit? Think again! Much has changed since the days where stainless steel wires were used that exerted high forces on teeth causing none too easily forgotten pain and soreness. Research has shown us that these traditionally used high forces were not ideal for the health of the teeth so they’ve been upgraded to gentle, consistent forces. With the advent of nitinol; a memory form wire, teeth are gently guided into better alignment while minimizing discomfort.

Before and after photo shows what a difference orthodontic treatment can make

Why early treatment?

Ever wonder why age 7 is when the American Association of Orthodontists recommends a child have their first orthodontic exam? This is an age when children are in the early mixed dentition i.e. they have some baby teeth and some permanent teeth. At this visit we typically procure a Panoramic x-ray from your child’s dentist. This x-ray contains a wealth of information, it can tell us if the adult teeth are developing properly and on a good path of eruption, if there are missing permanent teeth or if there is crowding of permanent teeth in the bone that we cannot see with the naked eye. Using this imaging we are better able to determine if early treatment is indicated or if it’s best to monitor growth and development.

Panoramic x-ray of a patient in the mixed-dentition. Note the missing permanent lower left second premolar.

There’s been a shift in the way we, as orthodontists, approach treatment. Forty years ago it was typical to wait for all the permanent teeth to erupt before initiating treatment. Often times, crowding was so severe that the teeth struggled to erupt and in cases of severe crowding, extraction of permanent teeth was recommended. Nowadays, we take a more proactive approach and create a harmonious skeletal structure through growth modification. The key is to initiate treatment at the quintessential time, when the permanent teeth are at the ideal stage of development and the skeletal structure is still in formation. This occurs in pre-pubertal children, where the bones of the jaw are not yet fused.

8 year-old patient after getting her braces at Byrdsmiles

In this small window of opportunity with the use of partial braces, expanders and space maintainers we are able to create more space and preserve existing space to alleviate crowding and allow the developing teeth to erupt. I liken this as needing to create a parking space for each tooth to pull into, similar to a car in a garage. By setting ourselves up for success in this way, teeth erupt into healthy bony and soft tissue support. While not every child needs a first phase of treatment, when indicated, it sets us up for success and lifetime of healthy teeth.

We at Byrdsmiles Orthodontics would love the opportunity to get to know you and answer your questions. Please call us to schedule a complimentary new patient exam. You can also find us on Google, Facebook, and Rate a biz.

Location: 4110 River Rd. NW Washington, DC 20016
Phone: (202) 686-2108

Growth and development with thumb sucking, how orthodontics can help

Byrdsmiles Orthodontics in Tenleytown provides orthodontic care for patients of all ages