Get a Healthy Start with Your Pediatric Dentist in San Luis Obispo

Every parent wants to help their children get a strong start. This is why they feed them healthy foods and try to get them into the best schools. When it comes to their oral health, they do their best to teach them how to brush and floss their teeth. However, if those teeth start to come in crooked, many parents simply choose to wait and see if their child “grows out of it.” Unfortunately, this usually lets the problem get worse, and a child will often end up needing extensive orthodontic treatment. Your pediatric dentist in San Luis Obispo, Dr. James Forester, can now help you prevent this. With the Healthy Start System, he can stop many orthodontic issues before they even start. How does it work? Read on to find out more.

Why Your Child Might Need the Healthy Start System

Many parents see their child’s crooked teeth and think of them as just an aesthetic problem. While this might be true for a few, for many, they can lead to serious developmental issues. Crooked baby teeth are often due to one of the jaws not developing correctly, and this easily leads to crooked permanent teeth. Also, misaligned baby teeth can often cause serious breathing issues, leading to a condition called Sleep Disordered Breathing (SDB). This is an all-inclusive term and can refer to a child simply snoring to one suffering from sleep apnea, a serious condition where a child stops breathing periodically throughout the night. If your child’s teeth are crooked, have an uneven bite, or they suffer from breathing difficulties, the Healthy Start System may be their best solution.

How the Healthy Start System Works.

The Healthy Start System’s main goal is to help the alignment of a child’s baby teeth and the development of their jaw to give them straighter permanent teeth and proper oral function as they grow. To do this, your child will wear a series of custom-made oral appliances while they sleep. These appliances are for different developmental stages as a child grows and are made to fit their particular teeth. This makes them both comfortable to wear and extremely effective. Dr. Forester is one of the few pediatric dentists in the area who is trained to use this system and will always make sure they fit your child in a way that helps their teeth while not affecting their sleep.

The entire system consists of 3 appliances, and your child’s age will determine if they need to wear all of them or just a couple:

• Habit-Corrector:This device is shaped like a pacifier, and is used to eliminate or correct oral habits that might be affecting their dental health. Your child may need to use this device for 1-5 months.
• Second Phase:This will help bring your child’s baby teeth into alignment, aid in jaw development, and gently expand your child’s arches to make room for their incoming adult teeth. This step usually last 2-6 months.
• Final Phase:This step is used after your child has at least 4 permanent teeth and guides their incoming teeth so they will come in nice and straight.

Come Get a Healthy Start!

If your child has crooked baby teeth or is having trouble breathing, the Healthy Start System can help give them a smile that will last for ages. Make an appointment with your pediatric dentist in 93446 today and give your child a healthy start!