Orthodontic practice in Bordeaux

Functional education

Our techniques

Why re-educate the functions?

Ventilation, swallowing, chewing

Restores harmonious growth of the face and oral cavity.

Allows to shorten orthodontic treatments undertaken in adolescence.

Allows a better stability of our treatments.

What are the dysfunctions?

The dysfunctions, are bad habits of the functions of the oral cavity:

Oral ventilation.

Poor lingual posture.

Chewing on one side only.

Overactivity of the lip muscles.

The parafunctions:

Thumb/finger sucking.

Pacifier.

The interposition of the lips under the teeth.

Children with one or more of these bad habits will be more likely to have jaw and face growth disharmony.

At what age should I start?

Before the age of 5, it is difficult to start treatment because of the child's lack of maturity.

From the age of 6, and throughout growth, it is important to help the child acquire good functional habits:

Promote nasal ventilation to improve sleep and facial growth:

  • The child must breathe through the nose and not through the mouth: blow the nose once or twice a day and close the mouth at rest.
  • Do an ENT assessment (nasal obstruction, tonsil, vegetation…)

The interposition of the lips under the teeth.

Encourage a varied diet for effective chewing.

It is recommended to stop using the thumb or pacifier before the age of 4. After this time, changes in the teeth and jaws will start to appear and it will be more difficult to correct them.

Functional Educators:

Functional education with braces aims to correct dysfunctions in young children.

They make it possible to remove the constraints imposed by the dysfunctions.

They allow growth to express itself without constraint. They require time and exercise.

These dental appliance are worn at home and are complemented by exercises.

They are most often accompanied by functional rehabilitation with a maxillofacial physiotherapist or a speech therapist.

Keys to success:

It all depends on the child's motivation; daily rehabilitation at home is necessary, with exercises :

Once the device is properly installed in the mouth, it is necessary to:

Place the dome of the tongue on the palate

Clench your teeth

Joining lips

Suck saliva down the throat and swallow.

The exercise must be repeated.

Do not chew on the dental appliance.

The functional educator must be worn 2 hours a day and every night while sleeping (14 hours/24 hours).

If the dental appliance falls off during the night it is not a big deal. The more it is worn, the more it will stay in place even during the night.

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