An early orthodontic visit is very important for normal facial development, but also for the health of our children. There are certain growth and development factors to be assessed in the first decade of life for each child. And that is why the role of the orthodontist is much more than just to take care of the child’s teeth. He is the supervisor of the healthy growth and development of your child. In today’s article we’ll be discussing about the development of the jaw and its implications for the harmonious development of children.
The purpose of early orthodontic visits is often to simply monitor growth and achieve the following goals: a pleasant figure reaching the ideal aesthetic proportions, a beautiful smile, a functional bite, breathing paths optimally developed for oxygenation, no dysfunction of the temporomandibular joint, and an optimal oral health.
Many parents do not know that 60% of the child’s facial development is completed by the age of eight, and 90% by the age of 12 years. This means that an orthodontic consultation at an early age increases the chances of detecting and correcting possible abnormalities of growth and development.
Facial development
Facial development refers to the individual development of each bone that is part of the facial bone structure. There are a number of influences that can cause unbalanced face development, and this imbalance can affect the health and appearance of the baby. A balanced facial development is the result of more than bone growth. It is the result of efficient muscle function, along with proper nutrition and normal breathing. Scientific literature and studies show that when one of these components is broken down, health and development disorders occur.
One of the most common abnormalities in children’s facial development is caused by obstruction of the airway – that is, the inability to breathe properly through the nose. Children who can not breathe well tend to breathe through the mouth. This triggers a chain of events that can severely affect the health and appearance of a child and, in the long run, the way he will develop as an adult.
The most common causes of ineffective breathing are: enlarged polyps, enlarged palatal amygdala, septum obstruction (nasal obstruction), respiratory allergy or food intolerance, chronic sinus infection.
Causes of poor breathing
Larger tonsils or polyps are by far the most common cause of compromised airways. The polyps are like tonsils located behind the nose. The most recent specialist literature indicates that polyps and tonsils serve to strengthen the immune system during the first two years of life. Children are born with polyps, which are quite small. They grow up with the baby, and at the age of 10-12 they reach their maximum size. From that moment on, the normal polyp tissue begins to diminish by itself.
Increased and hypertrophic polyps block the baby’s nasal passages, resulting in nasal congestion, mouth breathing and snoring. In severe cases, when polyps fully block the nasal passages, they can cause sleep disturbances, such as apnea, when breathing stops completely. The baby will be tired all the time as a result of sleep disruption due to nasal blockages, which usually worsen during the night.
Enlarged polyps are not the only cause of persistent nasal congestion in children. In addition to a history of symptoms, the best way to evaluate the size of the polyps is a 3D tomography or a cephalometric radiography for the head and neck region.
The polyps are hidden behind the nose and can not be seen through a physical examination, so these radiographs show a number of important details: whether the polyps and tonsils are enlarged and how much they are obstructing the nasal passages, whether there have been changes in the development of facial bones and to what extent, and whether congestion of the sinuses is present.
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