Myofunctional appliances are specific orthopaedic appliances for facial skeleton to bring about desirable changes in position, shape and size of jaw bones in a growing child. For example, if a child of 11 years has got small lower jaw giving him an appearance of bird face, a custom fabricated removable myofunctional appliance called an activator or a twin block can be given to child to wear on teeth and jaws, which delivers natural , mild and painless forces to the growing lower jaw through jaw muscles to make it grow more and in proportion to the upper jaws.
Removable:
These appliances can be worn and removed by the patient easily and should be used for specified number of hours as instructed by the orthodontist.
Fixed:
Fixed myofunctional appliances are fixed directly to the teeth or to fixed braces and can not be removed by the patient. These are used when the child is about to finish his growth spurt and has only few months remaining to complete his/ her growth. These are can also used in non cooperative children who do not wear removable myofunctional appliances as per instructions.
Mouthguards
Protecting your smile while playing sports is essential when you have braces. Mouthguards help protect your teeth and gums from injury. If you participate in basketball, boxing, hockey, football, gymnastics, lacrosse, martial arts, racquetball, rugby, track and field, skateboarding, skiing and snowboarding, skydiving, soccer, surfing, volleyball, water polo, weightlifting or wrestling, it is recommended by the Indian Association of Orthodontists that you wear a mouthguard.
Headgears
Headgears are external appliances which are used to deliver orthodontic / orthopaedic forces to teeth /jaw bones. Headgears take support of external surface of skull bone / neck to apply desirable forces. Headgears generally are used for a specified number of hours per day and can be removed / worn easily by the patient.
Space maintaner
A milk tooth serves a very important function of preserving space for the permanent tooth which takes it’s place. Sometimes an early loss of a milk tooth causes drifting of adjoining milk / permanent teeth and space required for the subsequent permanent tooth reduces / closes completely, causing it to stay impacted inside the bone or erupt in an awkward position. Hence, if a milk tooth sheds or has to be removed before the permanent tooth below is formed and is ready to erupt, a SPACE MAINTAINER appliance is given which holds the space required for the permanent tooth till it is ready to erupt in mouth.
Habit breaking appliance
Habit breaking appliances are specific, custom fabricated appliances which may be removable or fixed and are mostly worn inside the mouth to help a child to discontinue a detrimental thumb or finger sucking habit or to improve a bad tongue posture which may cause undesirable teeth position and affect growth of facial bones. These appliances are worn until the child completely stops a particular habit. These appliances can be used separately or along with fixed braces.
