Habits and Dental Development

Habits and Development

• Applying finger pressure to move a tooth works if consistently done for 6+ hours daily.
• Playing wind instruments can affect anterior teeth position; playing a clarinet may increase overjet.
• String instruments can cause arch form asymmetries due to specific head and jaw postures.
• The duration of tongue and lip pressures from playing musical instruments is typically too short to cause significant dental effects.

Jaw Development and Habits

• A "sleeping habit" where the head's weight rests on the chin was once thought to cause Class II malocclusion.
• Facial asymmetries were historically attributed to sleeping on one side or "leaning habits."
• These views overly simplify facial skeleton distortion.
• Sucking habits must exceed a time threshold to have an effect on teeth, but even prolonged sucking has little skeletal impact.
• Most other habits have such a short duration that dental and skeletal effects are unlikely.

Tongue Thrusting

• Tongue thrust swallowing is the placement of the tongue tip forward between the incisors during swallowing.
• Despite common belief, studies haven't shown a relationship between tongue thrust and malocclusion.
• Tongue thrust term implies forceful forward movement of the tongue, which isn't necessarily the case.
• Swallowing is integrated and controlled physiologically, not a learned behavior.
• Individuals with anterior open bite malocclusion tend to place their tongues between anterior teeth during swallowing, while those with normal incisor relationships usually do not

Swallow Patterns

• A mature swallow pattern starts in some normal children as early at age 3 but is usually not achieved until around age 6..
• A mature swallow pattern is never reached in 10-15% of a typical population.
• Tongue thrust swallowing in older patients somewhat resembles infantile swallow.
• Brain-damaged children retain a truly infantile swallow, with the posterior tongue having little or no role.
• "Tongue thrusting" in young children is often a normal transitional stage in swallowing.
• This is because the tongue and mandible movements tend to develop before the tongue protrusion disappears.
• The transition from infantile to mature swallow involves muscular activity to bring lips together, separate posterior teeth, and thrust the tongue forward.
• A delay in normal swallow transition can be expected when a child has a sucking habit.

Open Bite and Tongue Position

• Difficulty sealing the mouth's front during swallowing can occur if someone has an anterior open bite and/or upper incisor protrusion that have potentially resulted from sucking habits.
• Placing the tongue between the separated anterior teeth and bringing the lips together is a successful maneuver for an anterior seal.
• Tongue thrust swallow is a useful adaptation if you have an open bite.
• Protruding the tongue is often present in children with good occlusion of the anterior teeth.
• After a sucking habit ceases, the anterior open bite naturally closes, but the tongue position between the teeth remains for abit.
• As open bite closes, an anterior seal by anterior seal remains necessary.
• Tongue thrust swallowing is seen in younger children as a transitional stage and in individuals of any age as an adaptation to the space between the teeth..
• A large overjet (or anterior open bite) conditions a person to position the tongue between teeth.
• Tongue thrust swallows are more likely to be the result of displacement.

Swallowing Correction and Effects

• Correcting tooth position should change the swallow pattern.
• It is neither necessary or or desirable to teach a person to swallow differently before beginnig orthodontic treatement.
• From the equilibrium belief system, pressure by the tongue would have significant effects.
• Tongue thrust swallowing has too short of a duration of time to have a big impact on tooth position due to a short time duration.
• Forward resting posture of the tongue the duration of light pressure could affect tooth position, vertically or horizontally.
• If starting tongue movements are different versus normal, then resting pressures are different leading to likely effects on the teeth.
• Normal posture has no clinical significance.

Open Bite perspective

• Children with an anterior open bite is less versus children also reported to have a tongue thrust swallow.
• A tongue thrust swallow doesn't always mean an altered rest position and will lead to malocclusion.
• With the presence who have have an open bite can have toungue posture as a factor, but not the swallow itself.

Respiratory Patterns

• Respiratory patterns are key factor in the posture of the jaw and tongue.
• The theory that altered respiratory patterns can alter head, jaw, and tongue posture is probably reasonable
• Breathing through mouth lowers the mandible/tongue and extends the head (tilts back)
• If these postural changes were maintained you would expect three effects on growth.
• The Effects on growth would have three parts:anterior face,and posterior teeth etc..
• This form of malocclusion are often related to mouth breathing (similar to the patterns seen from toungue thrust swallows).
• A relationship of mouth breathing, position of the body, and position of the malocclusion is not as clear-cut.
• The amount that a person is theorized to shift to respiration is not always first glance.

Respiratory Pattern Research

• Although are primarily nasal breathers.
• The exchange rates above that are reached in any person leads to a physiological state.
• It is needed for air with an exchange rate above 40-45ml/min by any person on average.
• The rest rate needs less than but the person that heavy thought and conversation leads to an exchange that is higher..
• The partial mouth breathing is still happening in that transition.. and requires an increased air flow.
• It leads to transition while the human is under conditions that give off effort that may affect normal respiration.
• The increased performance for nasal respiration is also an acceptable point with and a small resistance that may effect the efficiency with what they are doing.
• Breathing associated to increased work with nasal means increases to a certain level of resistance to nasal airflow.
• The switching leads to respiration with partial mouthes with certain amount of air.

Blocked Nostrils

• When the person's nose becomes blocked, it is reached usually around the about 3.5 to 4cm mark..
• The response in the mouth is always going to be the same.
• Monkey experiments showed obstructed nostrils showed malocclusion development.
• Total nasal obstruction is rare in humans so important factor is "partial nasal"...
• Some point, total nasal obstruction happens what will clinically be a effect?

Obstructing and Breathing

• It is difficult what the pattern of respiration is at any any given time in any human.
• The face appearance or what is called obstructed is not always an indicator of the mode being respiratory..
• They tend to be equate this with lip separation at rest