Preventing Sleep-Disordered Breathing
Dr. Monika Vermani, D.M.D, AEGD is one of only a few doctors in this area trained to offer HealthyStart®, an innovative new system focused on preventing orthodontic related sleeping disorders in children before they become a life-long problem. The HealthyStart® System is a revolutionary departure from traditional orthodontics that treats children early. It is a non-invasive natural way of straightening teeth.
Child Insomnia, Gasping, Snorting, Snoring
Does it ever sound like a freight train is running through your child’s room at night or as they lay asleep in back seat on the way home from a trip? Loud snoring is an indication that your child may have Sleep-Disordered Breathing. Gasping and snorting sounds while your child sleeps may catch you off guard causing you worry. These sounds stem from your child moving from a deeper sleep to a lighter sleep struggling to breathe.
Sleep Disordered Breathing (SDB) is an all-inclusive term for breathing difficulties, ranging from mild snoring to severe airway obstruction during sleep. When your child’s breathing is disrupted, his or her body recognizes the disruption much like choking, resulting in slowing of the heart rate, raising blood pressure, arousing the brain, and ultimately disrupting sleep.
Causes of Sleep-Disordered Breathing
Crooked teeth, crowded teeth, or mouth breathing can cause underdevelopment of the mouth and jaw when your child’s nasal and upper airway is constricted. Your child’s teeth can be guided back into their proper position, expanding and fully developing his or her mouth and jaw.
Common Sleep Disorder Breathing Symptoms Include:
- ADD/ADHD
- Bed-wetting
- Chronic Allergies
- Asthma
- Mouth Breathing
- Snoring
- Swollen Adenoids / Tonsils
- Frequent Headaches
- Teeth Grinding
- Frequently Waking up
- Excessively Sweating While Asleep
- Restless Sleep - Nightmares
- Irritability/ Aggressive Behavior
- Difficulty in School
- Arrested Growth
- Daytime Drowsiness
- Dark Circles under the eyes
Child Snoring and Insomnia Treatment
Pediatric infant, toddler, and pre-teen treatments achieve permanent results when started early. Treatments work naturally with your child's facial growth and development. Our approach is to prevent sleep related problems caused by crooked teeth versus correcting crooked teeth. Your child can achieve a beautiful smile WITHOUT braces or surgery and eliminate orthodontic related sleep problems during their early development years.
HealthyStart® Results from Real Patients
Open-Bite
Open-bite corrected with HealthyStart System
Overbite and Overjet
Overbite and overjet corrected with HealthyStart System for Preteens five years post-treatment
Under Developed Jaw
Under Developed Jaw corrected with HealthyStart System
Benefits of the HealthyStart® System
How Does The HealthyStart™ System Work?
HealthyStart® System works with the natural forces of tooth eruption. The soft, comfortable, removable devices gently guide the erupting teeth into their perfect positions. In addition, HealthyStart aids in the correct growth and alignment of the lower jaw, expanding the arches to ensure that incoming permanent teeth have enough room to erupt straight.
Depending on the age of your child, the system uses a series of appliances:
- Habit-Corrector®: The Habit-Corrector eliminates or improves current oral habits that can damage your child’s dental health. He or she wears the Habit-Corrector at night while sleeping. With a design similar to that of a pacifier, your child will become used to wearing a device in his or her mouth every night. This step lasts about 1-5 months.
- Second Phase: Your child will get an appliance customized and sized for your child to wear every night. It aids the incoming teeth into their proper places, corrects jaw relations, and expands your child’s arches for the incoming adult teeth. Your child will wear this device for 2-6 months.
- Final Phase: The final treatment begins with a device that accommodates incoming adult teeth. It begins when your child has at least 4 permanent teeth. This phase is extremely important because his or her adult teeth are forming and the gum tissue fibers are starting to attach the teeth in the mouth. HealthyStart works perfectly to ensure the teeth erupt into proper alignment.
Dr. Vermani and her staff work to deliver cutting-edge dental technologies.