Help your child avoid braces with these 5 simple tips!
Let’s talk about some simple ways to help your child avoid braces. It seems like braces have become a right of passage and it is expected that everyone will need them at one point or another.
Almost every child is growing up with crowded and crooked teeth. There just doesn’t seem to be enough room for all of the adult teeth coming in!
What’s up with that? Why would we have all of these teeth if there isn’t room for them?
We should have room for all of our teeth, including our wisdom teeth. So what’s going on? Why are so many children growing up with small mouths and crooked teeth?
Simply put, our children aren’t getting the nutrients and proper oral function they need to grow a healthy jaw and teeth.
Below I’ll share 5 ways you can ensure your little one’s diet and oral habits are working to develop a healthy jaw that has room for all of those adult teeth to grow into and help your child to avoid braces.
1. Get enough fat-soluble vitamins
I’m sure you know that your child needs plenty of calcium to grow healthy teeth and bones, but is your little one getting enough of the nutrients required to actually use that calcium?
What are the fat-soluble vitamins?
If your child is not also eating foods rich in vitamin D, A, and K then that calcium may not be getting absorbed into the teeth or jawbone as well as you thought.
Without these nutrients, their jaw will not have all the tools it needs to fully develop and house all of their adult teeth without crowding.
What do the fat-soluble vitamins do to help my child avoid braces?
- Vitamin D helps the body to absorb and transport the calcium we eat.
- Vitamin A helps the body use calcium to grow and repair structures like teeth and bones.
- Vitamin K2 helps to make sure the calcium carried by vitamin D and A gets dropped off at the right place. In other words, it is necessary in order for calcium to get absorbed into the teeth and bones and not dumped into places like our blood vessels or as tartar on our teeth.
How do I make sure my little one is getting fat-soluble vitamins?
Good food sources of vitamins D, A, and K2 include eggs, organ meats, yogurt, and butter from grass-fed, pasture-raised animals. Another great food source of vitamins D and A is cod liver oil.
Our bodies also naturally produce vitamin D when stimulated by sunlight, but most of us don’t get enough sun to produce all of the vitamin D that we need so it’s important to get it from the foods we eat.
Making sure your child is getting the right nutrients to develop a healthy jaw is a great way to help your child avoid the need for braces.
2. Balance the microbiome
Bacteria gets a bad wrap, especially when it comes to our mouths.
The narrative has always been that bacteria is bad and needs to be eliminated completely if we want to avoid dental decay and disease. And so we take measures to sterilize and sanitize our mouths.
But science is now finding that we NEED bacteria to avoid dental decay and disease! More specifically we need the “good” and “bad” bacteria in our mouth and body to be balanced.
What happens if our microbiome is unbalanced?
It is actually the imbalance of the bacteria in our mouth and body that lead to dental decay and disease. We are better off if we focus on feeding and fueling the good bacteria rather than obsessing over eliminating any “bad” bacteria.
When the bacteria in our bodies are out of balance, it can lead to dental decay and disease in two ways.
The first bacterial offense happens locally in the mouth. When we eat simple sugars we are only feeding the “bad” bacteria and leaving the beneficial bacteria with empty plates and bellies.
So what happens?
The harmful bacteria quickly outnumber the good bacteria and create an overly acidic environment in the mouth. Over time and with extended exposure to these acid attacks, the teeth get demineralized and cavities form.
The second way that bacterial imbalance leads to decay and disease happens on a much larger and more long-term scale in the form of nutrient deficiencies.
How does a balanced microbiome help my child avoid braces?
We have “good” and “bad” bacteria all over and inside of our bodies, including along the lining of our gut. The balance of these bacteria in our gut affects how well nutrients are absorbed by our body, and in turn what nutrients are delivered to our developing teeth, jawbones, and surrounding tissues.
You could be eating all the right foods all day, every day. But if you are not able to effectively absorb the nutrients you are offering your body, it won’t have the impact you are hoping for in growing a strong and healthy mouth.
The bones and teeth just won’t have the building blocks that they need in order to grow completely and as intended leading to a small jaw and crooked teeth.
How to help balance your child’s oral microbiome:
- Stop sanitizing your mouth with alcohol based mouth rinses and “anticavity” fluoride toothpaste. Instead, opt for hydroxyapatite tooth paste and ditch the mouthrinse all together.
- Add back the beneficial bacteria with fermented foods like active cultured yogurt and cheese or take a probiotic supplement.
- Feed the beneficial bacteria with fibrous vegetables, fruits, and nuts. Try to offer the rainbow!
It’s so important that your little one get’s all the right nutrients to grow a healthy jaw. It’s even more important to make sure they can be absorb those nutrients if you want to help your child avoid braces in the future.
3. Eat crunchy and fibrous foods
How do crunchy foods help my child avoid braces?
All of the joints and muscles in our body need exercise to grow and function properly. Resistance and pressure are actually beneficial in helping bones and muscles to grow and retain their health.
Our jaw joint and surrounding muscles are no different!
You’re not likely to find a gym that has weights or machines for targeting the jaw muscles. Luckily that’s not necessary!
Food is nature’s gym when it comes to the mouth, but not just any food. Crunchy, fibrous, and tough food. The way it is usually found in nature.
It’s so important to provide food options that give your child the opportunity to work their jaw muscles and jawbones to encourage proper growth.
What crunchy foods are best to offer?
What does that look like in day-to-day life? Crunchy vegetables like carrots and celery. Fibrous fruits like apples. Or tough foods like meat.
So much of the food we can find at grocery stores for our little ones is processed to be super soft and pureed. If you offer just one food that is crunchy, fibrous, or tough with each meal you will be helping them to strengthen those little muscles and develop that jaw.
Getting the right nutrients will help to grow a healthy jaw and eating crunchy fibrous foods will help to maintain that health.
4. Ensure Correct Tongue Posture
The tongue is kind of the unrecognized hero of facial development. It plays such a critical role in making sure that the entire lower half of your face and airway develop properly and functionally.
How does it do this?
Simply by molding the shape of and encouraging the growth of the palate, or roof of the mouth.
What does proper tongue posture look like?
- The entire tongue will be in contact with the roof of the mouth
- Lips will be closed
- Teeth gently touching
How proper tongue posture can help your child avoid braces:
By resting along the roof of the mouth, the tongue promotes the outward expansion of the jaw, creating a nice and wide u-shaped arch. This ensures that there is plenty of room for the adult teeth to grow in without crowding.
When the tongue rests up against the palate, it provides counter support for the teeth against the cheeks and lips. Otherwise, the inward pressure created by the lips and cheeks would push the teeth inward, creating a narrow palate and crooked teeth.
And guess what, the size and shape of your upper jaw, have a huge effect on the development of the lower jaw and airway!
So the tongue is not just preventing crooked teeth. It is also determining how the upper and lower teeth bite together as well as how much oxygen you are getting.
How can I tell if my child has poor tongue posture?
Take a look at your child’s tongue posture when they are at rest. A good time to check is when they are sitting in the car seat, watching TV, or sleeping. What do you notice?
- Is your little one’s mouth gently closed? Or does it always hang slightly open?
- Are they resting their tongue between their teeth instead of up along the roof of their mouth?
- Do they have a tongue-tie that you are aware of?
- Do they suck their thumb or always a have a pacifier in their mouth?
What to do if your child’s tongue is not resting in the right place
Talk to a myofunctional therapist If you have any concerns about whether or not your little one’s tongue is in the right position. They can evaluate the tongue function and recommend any necessary exercises.
It’s so important to take oral habits like tongue posture into account if you want to help your child avoid the need for braces.
5. Focus on nose breathing
The way you breathe matters!
It is so important to breathe through your nose, with your tongue properly resting along the roof of the mouth.
How nose breathing can help your child avoid braces:
Breathing through your nose ensures that you are getting and absorbing the most oxygen possible. While breathing through your mouth can leave your body chronically starved of oxygen.
When oxygen is pushed through the nasal passage, rather than the mouth, it gets filtered, warmed and humidified, and mixed with nitric oxide. All of these things help to increase how much oxygen is actually absorbed once it reaches your little one’s lungs.
When you breathe through your nose, you are helping to shape your face and encourage proper development of the palate. Which we know from above affects the development of the lower jaw and airway as well.
Breathing through the nose forces air through the nasal sinuses and the pressure that builds up there actually pushes down on the palate from above. This works together with the tongue to broaden and expand the palate.
By focusing on nose breathing you are helping to develop your little one’s jaw, airway, and decrease the need for braces!
Make sure that your child is breathing through their nose, both day and night!
If you find that they are breathing through their mouth do not despair!
What if my child is breathing through their mouth?
There are simple breathing exercises that take just a few minutes a day to help train your child to breathe through their nose. This will ensure that they are getting all the oxygen they need and give them the upper hand in their facial development.
If nighttime mouth breathing is the issue, something as simple as mouth taping combined with a xylitol nasal spray can help to train nose breathing.
Are braces in your little one’s future?
Braces do not have to be an inevitable expense and experience for your little one.
There is no magic wand you can wave to ensure your little one’s jaw develops perfectly. But you can help your child avoid braces by making simple changes to diet and oral habits. You can help your child grow a healthy jaw that not only provides space for all of their teeth but also sets them up for lifelong overall health.
