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Orthotropics for Adults

Adult orthotropics is a field of dentistry that focuses on improving your oral posture and correcting malocclusion to improve your overall health. Orthotropic treatment for adults can be done to achieve different goals. The most common reasons adult patients seek out orthotropic dental treatment are to: 


  • Correct jaw alignment issues 
  • Improve facial appearance 
  • Relieve sleep apnea symptoms


While orthotropics are more often used to guide facial growth in children to prevent issues like malocclusion, adults can still benefit from orthotropic treatment.


At Breath of Life Dental (BOLD), Dr. Maryam Seifi will create a custom orthotropic treatment plan to address your oral health needs. Call us at (301) 818-2653 to schedule your consultation for adult orthotropics today!

The Importance of Correct Oral Posture


Your oral posture impacts your overall health. By oral posture, we mean the position of the lips, teeth, and tongue at rest. Correct oral posture means: 


  • Your lips are closed when you’re not speaking or eating (which means no mouth breathing either when awake or asleep).
  • Your teeth are in contact with your lower teeth behind your upper teeth to maintain proper jaw alignment.
  • The tip of your tongue is resting against the roof of your mouth, right behind your upper front teeth


When you grow up maintaining this posture, it’s more likely that your teeth and upper and lower jaws will grow forward, which is what you want. Forward facial growth helps ensure your permanent teeth have enough room in your mouth. It also prevents obstructive sleep apnea by increasing the size of your airway.


What If I Grew Up with Bad Oral Posture?


Just as it’s never too late to start exercising, eating healthy, or standing up straight, it’s never too late to work on improving your oral posture. Adult orthotropics is designed to help you learn the correct way to hold your lips, teeth, and tongue when at rest to improve your oral health. Dr. Maryam Seifi can prescribe a custom oral appliance to teach you how to maintain the correct posture until you can do it on your own.


Improve Your Facial Appearance without Surgery 


Adult orthotropics is a holistic treatment, which means that Dr. Maryam Seifi will not just look at one problem area, such as crooked teeth, and fix it. Instead, she looks at all the connected areas to improve each one as needed. This is because holistic practitioners like Dr. Seifi understand that many parts of your body are connected, and achieving good health depends on addressing each area.


For example, crooked teeth are often corrected with orthodontic treatment such as braces or aligners. While this does give you straight teeth, it doesn’t address what caused your teeth to grow crooked in the first place, which is usually related to the shape and growth of your jaws. Holistic treatment would look at the connection between your jaws, lifestyle habits, nutrition, and other areas as they relate to your teeth in order to improve all of those areas of your health.


During your consultation, Dr. Seifi will look at the structure of your face to understand exactly what is causing your malocclusion, sleep apnea, etc. This will let her see:


  • How your jaws align.
  • Whether your teeth are crowded or not.
  • The size of your airway.
  • The shape and position of your upper jaw (your maxilla).
  • The shape and position of your lower jaw (your mandible).
  • How strong or weak your facial muscles are.
  • Whether or not you tend to breathe through your mouth.


Once she has this data, Dr. Seifi will create your custom orthotropic treatment plan. By using custom oral appliances, she can help you learn to hold your lower jaw in the correct position and improve your oral posture without the need for invasive surgical procedures.

 

How Does Adult Orthotropics Work?


There are three main steps to orthotropic treatment, though there may be some variation in your treatment plan depending on your specific needs. For most adult patients, the steps are as follows:

  • Expansion

    First, you will need to wear an oral appliance to expand your palate and upper jaw. This will increase the size of your airway and provide more room in your mouth for your tongue to rest properly. If your teeth are crooked, expanding your jaws will also ensure your teeth have enough room for effective orthodontics without the need for extraction. 

  • Posture Correction

    Second, you will wear an oral appliance on both your upper and lower jaws that has small plastic guides that extend downward. These guides encourage your lower jaw to move forward at rest and trains you to keep your mouth closed when you aren’t eating or speaking. This step also strengthens your facial muscles which can help improve your overall facial appearance. As part of this step, Dr. Seifi may give you exercises to do to improve your body posture as well, which is part of the holistic treatment plan.

  • Active Retention

    Third, you will wear an oral appliance to bed that is similar to a retainer or mouthguard. This will help you maintain your newly learned good oral habits. Once you have fully completed your orthotropic treatment, you will not need to keep wearing this appliance.

Benefits of Orthotropics for Adults


Improving your oral posture with adult orthotropics is a great way to improve your appearance and overall health. By approaching your oral health issues from a holistic perspective, Dr. Maryam Seifi will create your custom orthotropic treatment plan so you can achieve these great benefits:


  • Proper jaw alignment
  • Better quality of sleep
  • Improved facial appearance
  • Reduced risk of sleep apnea
  • More orthodontic success without extraction
  • Proper breathing technique


The best part is that you can achieve these benefits without the need for a surgical procedure. Simply follow your treatment plan, wear your custom oral appliances as prescribed, and you’ll be on your way to improved health and beauty.


Are you ready to experience the life-changing results of orthotropic treatment? Then call Breath of Life Dental (BOLD) at (301) 818-2653 to schedule your consultation with Dr. Maryam Seifi today!

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