Thursday, December 15, 2011

Is your child's chin receded (weak) in appearance? This is a challenging orthodontic problem.

Suprisingly, when the lower jaw is receded (backward), the upper jaw and teeth are also usually retruded (backward).  A retruded upper jaw can sometimes be recognized by the angle between the upper lip and the uperside of the nose being greater than 90 degrees.  If the child's bite requires it, the lower jaw can be advanced with an orthodontic bite advance.  Before the lower jaw is advanced with a permanently-attached orthodontic device, it may be necessary to advance the upper teeth with braces to a normal position first, which makes the overjet worse temporarily.

If an overbite is corrected in a growing child, it can make an improvement of half an inch in the forward chin position of the adult.  Tools used to correct short chins include various combinations of braces, elastics, jaw expanders, and semi-permanent orthodontic bite advancers.  Sometimes jaw surgery is warranted, to advance the lower jaw.

Weak_chin