Orthotropics

[Nataliepryor]

Has anyone heard of, or know someone who has had treatment with Orthotropics?

Used in children for early intervention of jaw growth problems.  I just wonder long term ...a jaw can continue to grow until a person is 23 and how they prevent relapse??

[backward lowerjaw]

Michael mew

[molestrip]

I've looked into this quite a bit. My daughter is only 5 and already has a malocclusion and open bite. Orthdontists have different opinions here. Some I've heard:

- No different than traditional orthodontics. Results from moving teeth, not skeletal changes. Reverse pull headgear
- Snake oil. Makes false claims. Certainly some practitioners don't smell right.
- Works but compliance is unreasonable
- Why torture a child like this?
- Research suggests that if you fix the bad oral habits, the skeletal deformities disappear too. That means focusing on opening up airways, removing pacifiers, good prenatal nutrition, etc

One orthodontist had a good point about my daughter. Orthotropics can't fix an open bite so she's likely headed for surgery anyway. Relapse isn't much of an issue I think. As with jaw surgery, a stable normal occlusion will always hold. You run into trouble with movements that aren't accommodated by soft tissue.

[Nataliepryor]

Sounds a bit dodge, friend of mine was looking at it for her young children.

[PloskoPlus]

I do wonder if pre-teen orthodontics are a good idea at all.   I definitely think that extractions, trying to force/stop jaw growth with weird looking appliances are a form of child abuse.  If it's skeletal - wait till the child stops growing, 12 months of braces, jaw surgery, done.  I remember back in high school seeing other kids wearing braces seemingly forever.  It really looked like torture.  I'm sort of glad my parents could not afford braces when I was a kid.  The closes thing I had was a plate I wore for some months at the age of 7.  I think it was meant to expand my upper jaw (and cure the underbite?).  Anyway, if it managed to expand my jaw in any measurable way, it had to be undone during surgery last month for my bite to fit.

[Nataliepryor]

Agree Plosko.  Though I wish I had expansion as a child, I really needed it!

It is torture, before my son is braced I will be looking for a guarantee that he won't end up in my situation (round two in braces!) he can definately have upper expansion when he turns 8, he is the same as me and I needed it before my DJS.