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| HEADGEARS |
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| Headgears are worn to correct skeletal and dental problems to allow the bite to be properly established. Most patients that have severely protruded upper teeth will need to wear a headgear approximately 12-14 hours per day to make the necessary skeletal correction by slowing down the growth of the upper jaw bone so that the lower jaw bone can grow and catch up with the upper jaw bones growth. Therefore, this reduces the protrusion of the upper jaw bone and teeth. Likewise, an underbite can be corrected with a "reverse" headgear that pulls the upper jaw forward and pushes the lower jaw back. |
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| The headgear needs to be worn 12-14 hours in order to make this correction. In a growing patient, the body has 24 hours to grow and if you are only wearing the headgear 8-10 hours per day, then the body has over 14-16 hours to continue to grow and the correction will not be made. Therefore, compliance in wearing the headgear the proper number of hours is required. The teeth within the jaw bones are hooked to the bone by a ligament similar to a rubber band. This rubber band remembers where the teeth were. The ligament however restructures itself as the bone changes and adapts to the moving teeth. This is very similar to how your skin is constantly replacing itself. Therefore, the headgear needs to be worn consistently to allow for this correction as the bone and gum adjust and matures into the new positioning established by the headgear wear. Wearing the headgear is similar to rolling a ball up a hill. You must continue to push it in order to reach the top of the hill. If you stop half way up and relieve the pressure, then the rubber band elastic fibers around the teeth will rebound the teeth back. |
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