Jaw Development Orthodontics™ Park City, Salt Lake City, Midway & Heber City, UT
An underdeveloped jaw is a developmental problem facing a majority of people. Jaw underdevelopment can lead to a variety of oral health issues, most notably temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD), malocclusion and obstructive sleep apnea. The complications associated with TMD range widely from headaches and migraines to sleep apnea, while malocclusion causes teeth to become crowded and aesthetically unappealing. And, an underdeveloped jaw reduces the room for the tongue to rest while asleep, creating an obstruction to breathing. Attending to the root cause of these issues entails jaw development orthodontics. Through further development of the jaw, stress at the temporomandibular joint is relieved and space is created for teeth to occupy so that they are less limited in room where they may grow.
Developmental Orthodontics
One of the common disadvantages of traditional orthodontics is that, during the process of realigning a patient’s teeth, the alignment to the face is lost or can’t be corrected. An ideal smile and oral framework is contingent on the layout and anatomy of each patient’s face. The Developmental Orthodontics Treatment System reimagines the way orthodontics treats jaw development and oral care in general. Utilizing tools absent from traditional orthodontics, the Developmental Orthodontics system used by Dr. Peterson offers patients improved outcomes and less intrusive treatment procedures.
What Are Developmental Orthodontics?
Traditional orthodontics can sometimes require unnecessary invasive procedures, such as tooth extraction, to basically straighten the teeth in a narrower space. Developmental Orthodontics addresses the jaw and spacing issues first, before it moves the teeth. This makes the final result match the patient’s facial characteristics, along with providing a beautiful, straight, aligned smile.
How is Developmental Orthodontics different than traditional orthodontics?
One of the standard strategies implemented in traditional orthodontics is tooth extraction. Tooth extraction, while sometimes initially successful fails to address the larger problem at hand. Instead, it aims to work around the problem through unnecessary invasive procedures that focus on covering up the problem instead of addressing it directly. These unnecessary, invasive procedures involve things such as removing perfectly healthy teeth in order to make room for the others that have become crowded when other avenues of treatment were possible. Tooth extraction basically straightens teeth in a narrower space instead of providing more space. Dr. Peterson takes the opposite approach and instead focuses his treatment on the jawbone, where the real structural issue begins, to make more room for teeth.
Developmental Orthodontics addresses the jaw and spacing issues first. By addressing spatial constraints first before teeth are removed, all possibilities of treatment are considered prior to unnecessary extractions. Doing so contributes to an improved final result that more beautifully develops each patient’s facial characteristics and provides a beautiful, straight, aligned smile.
How Is the Developmental Orthodontics System Different Than Traditional Orthodontics?
Developmental Orthodontics provides patients with these benefits compared to more traditional systems of orthodontics:
- Focus on the patient’s oral foundation
- Avoids unnecessary procedures
- Works to stimulate jaw growth first and only relies on traditional procedures as a secondary method of treatment
- Benefits a more natural positioning of teeth
- Better suited to handling and preventing conditions such as TMD and sleep apnea
Developmental Orthodontics begins with jaw alignment and positioning. With the focused goal of getting the jaw into its natural, genetic alignment, this approach usually results in the preclusion of tooth extractions for Developmental Orthodontics patients. Developmental Orthodontics handles the physiologic development of the arch before the teeth are straightened. This ensures that all of the patient’s future dental work is built on a stable, healthy foundation resulting in higher quality results as well as improved patient satisfaction.
Dr. Peterson uses 3-D imaging technology to plan and map the ideal oral structure for his patients by partnering with Oral Maxillofacial Radiologists. Through his partnerships with radiologists that specialize in the research and development of facial growth, Dr. Peterson is able to provide cutting-edge analysis for his patients which lends itself to the proper development of the face, head, neck, airway, and joint for each and every patient.
Does Developmental Orthodontics Treatment Hurt?
As with all dental work, there can be some unavoidable aching. However, the pain typically experienced with this system is comparable to that of traditional orthodontics. The main difference is duration. Because bands used in Developmental Orthodontics Treatment are needed for one-third less time, any pain associated with treatment lasts that much shorter, contributing to less pain experienced overall.
How Does Developmental Orthodontics Adjust My Teeth?
The Developmental Orthodontics system employs large lingual arches to gain molar expansion and then uses archwires to expand the arch. Next, the top and bottom jaw are moved forward to a more natural position. If the patient’s diagnosis reveals that more development is needed, functional appliances can be used in conjunction with Developmental Orthodontics techniques.
Schedule Your Consultation
Advanced Cosmetic Dentistry proudly provides Park City, Salt Lake City, Heber, Midway, Duchesne, Vernal and their surrounding areas in Utah with Jaw Development Orthodontics services. Call today for your consultation at 435-503-8841 or complete a Contact Form here to learn if Jaw Development Orthodontics are right for you.
