Braces, wonky teeth, dentists, Myobrace and young children

[asharah]

My DD age 7's dentist recently said that my daughter is almost certain to need extractions and braces once all her second teeth are through (hubby and I had 4 out and full railtracks). Friends in the Netherlands have used something called Myobrace with their kids.

They sleep in them and do exercises as their second teeth emerge for a year or two, (cc age 7-10) and it apparently alters the palate, straightens the teeth and avoids the need for extractions and braces later on.
If legit, it sounds great, as the chances of free orthodontics later on are slim, and I like the idea of doing this as the teeth come through, rather than suffering as I did at the tween / teen stage.
I've only found 1 place in the North of England that does them, (its at an NHS dentist near Halifax, but not available on the NHS) and am really not sure if the approach is legit or not. Do any other mums in the UK have experience of Myobrace or know consultants?

No but watching with interest. Have one with braces at the moment & 2 others likely to need them

Forgot to say, the cost over the two years of treatment is £2.5K. Seems a lot, but cheaper than what friends are currently paying for teen braces, as the NHS seem available now for only for very extreme cases, and is likely to be even stricter by the time DD reaches her teens.
Any advice welcome

My son has a myobrace at the moment - it is a bit like a gumshield - he has to sleep with it in and wear it for an hour or so during the day. Takes a bit of getting used to, but if it prevents having to have a metal brace, I am all for it!

I work as an orthodontic therapist. It's impossible to say at this age how severe your DD case is as she'll still have a lot of baby teeth, but generally if they're crowded hee adult teeth will be too. If your dentist feels that she would benefit from extractions she's likely to be a more severe case and therefore is also likely to be eligible for treatment under the NHS. We currently assess people's eligibility using IOTN. You can google it and you'll see that moderate to severe cases are eligible. Although often a parent or patients perception of what severe is is different to what IOTN places it at.

I wouldn't worry about DD "suffering" braces as a teenager, lots of her friends will have braces, and plenty of our prospective patients WANT braces when they attend for assessments. Patients even leave in tears when they're told that they aren't eligible for them free under the NHS and the parents dnt want to pay privately.

I wouldn't tie yourself up over a lot of ifs, buts or maybes. If we do advise extraction of teeth it can sometimes be heavily filled teeth with a poor long term prognosis anyway. Many patients feel this is better than having crooked, heavily filled teeth.

All of this should be discussed with you in 3 or 4 years time when you're referred to your orthodontist when your child's adults teeth are through. The orthodontist will assess your child's teeth and make recommendations based on their individual needs instead of pulling generalised things off the internet.

If you're really tied up about it you could always pay to have an assessment now, but I'd be cautious over new and rarely used techniques v tried and tested widely accepted ones that have stood the test of time, not just in their initial results but long term and throughout the patients life.

Sorry, one other thing!

You have to consider how your child would feel going through treatment very few/none of her peers are going through now v going through treatment a lot of her friends are going through and are very familiar with later .

You could also go for Myobrace now, decrease the severity of her case and then she may not be eligible for nhs treatment that she previously would have been as she's no longer in a severe enough catagory. Does that make sense?

Anyway as always you know you daughter best! Hope that's been helpful! X

I should say I can see improvement in my son's overbite after wearing the myobrace.

Dd teeth were not that bad , looked quite straight to me (untrained eye!) but she qualified, had both canines extracted. She's 11 and they're moving very rapidly!

It's not really about the money for me, just keen to achieve the best possible outcome with the minimum risk and discomfort, and I know lots of teens struggling with their braces at what's already a tricky time (I was a late mum among peers).

Can fully understand tears if teeth aren't straight but not bad enough for nhs and treatment can't be afforded.

Suspect that teens with perfect teeth are glad not to have braces though.

Will keep digging, and any more info / advice / direct experience of myobrace very welcome

DS1 is 10 yo now, but had orthodontic treatment between age 7 and 9yo.

Not Myobrace, but a small removable wire brace that gently guided the growth of his narrow palate to expand it. He also wore headgear at night to help "draw out" his underdeveloped mid face (you wouldn't have noticed unless you knew what you were looking for)

His high narrow palate was caused by a posterior tongue tie, so he had that lasered before he started the treatment. Within a couple of months, I could see his cheekbones emerging, his snoring and apnoea stopped, his mouth breathing stopped and he was overall a much happier kid. You don't mention any of these problems, but I mention it because there's more to having good orofacial structure than straight teeth.

Anyway, without this treatment, he would definitely have been looking at multiple extractions and problems with his bottom jaw. Mouth breathers tend to have a longer lower jaw because the growth is affected by the mouth being open all the time.

Fast forward to now and he is no longer wearing his braces and the orthodontist has said that he might not even need fixed braces, but we need to see exactly how his adult teeth emerge. If he does need fixed braces, it will be a very simple job with no extractions required.

I would recommend seeing John Roberts at the Cote Royd Dental Practice in Huddersfield. He did ds1's tongue tie for us, but not the orthodontics because we live 200 miles away!

I cannot emphasise enough how glad I am that we did this for DS1. In our case, his sleeping, eating and breathing were being affected and it made a world of difference for him.

My DD is having solar treatment to mawbroon's DS but without the night time head gear. She was referred when she was 8. 5 months in and we are alr day seeing a Gretna difference,measpecially as more of her adult teeth are arriving. In my opinion, worth an early consultation. She is the only one with braces in her year but has had no teasing and just got on with it ( unusual as she is incredibly entities and anxious) the. Long them goal is enough for her, I hope!

Omg, must learn to preview! Not solar,similar. Not Gretna, great. Not entities, sensitive! Sorry!

My DD (10) is having something with a similar aim- remediation treatment to expand her palate/ jaw to make a bit more room for her adult teeth prior to braces, otherwise she'd have to have a significant number of extractions. It's a plastic mound shaped to the roof of her mouth and joined in 2 pieces- every week we expand it a bit more, and it slots in over her teeth with a wire. The wire is visible but not intrusive.

I was sceptical at first, but we've been expanding it regularly for a while, and her overbite is better and two adult teeth that were impacted because there wasn't room for them to come through are arriving.

Total treatment cost about £1400 all in. Could be a middle ground for you?

Great, thanks for the advice. Getting the impression myobrace is pretty rare in the UK

My son is going to toothbeary in Richmond - they suggested the myobrace. Long way from you though?

My DS started the Myobrace programme July 15 when he was 11 years old, at the dentist near Halifax. The results have been amazing, both top and bottom set were over crowded and are now almost fully in line. His over bite has been corrected and we aren't 12 months into the programme. DS is very compliant with exercises and wears the brace every night to bed. He would never show his teeth when smiling because he was so embarrassed, not now though he readily flashes his pearly whites! Yes the programme isn't cheap and it does take some commitment but so far I have to say for my DS it has been well worth it.

Great - decided to go for a consultation. Have been told £50, then full programme (Inc the consultation) will be £2,500. Sounds OK. Does this match experience of others?

Yes that's the same price I was quoted. I paid a lump sum and then a monthly charge. the programme addresses the cause of the wonky teeth i.e mouth breathing, incorrect swallowing etc. So it takes some commitment but as I say it's been worth it for my DS, he would have been a classic case for tooth extraction using the traditional method, but not using the Myobrace.

Just to say, we were offered the Myobrace today, as an addition to DDs current brace. Well .to use Myobrace at night and normal in the day. So glad I had read about It on here! Aiming to start tomorrow.......

sorry, that's no knowledge

Where is Myobrace available in the UK?