Habit Breaking Appliances

These are specific, custom fabricated appliances which can be removable or fixed and are mostly worn inside the mouth to help a child to discontinue a detrimental thumb or finger sucking habit or to improve a bad tongue posture which may cause undesirable teeth position and affect growth of facial bones.

Oral screen

The oral screen is used for the correction of the following conditions

• Thumb sucking, lip biting, tongue thrust.
• Mouth Breathing.
• Milddistocclusion with premaxillary protrusion and open bite in deciduous &mixed dentition.
• Flaccidorofacial musculature.

Tongue spikes

Theseare fixed, pointed metal elements which are usually attached to the inside of the appliance to prevent the tongue from getting stuck between the teeth. If the tongue does get into this position, it often results in an open bite which is difficult to treat and even more difficult to stabilise. Tongue Spikes Braces are a functional-orthodontic method of treatment.

Tongue crib

An appliance used to control visceral swallowing and tongue thrusting ininfants and to encourage somatic tongue posture and function.

Tongue crib

The intraoral spur appliance for modifying anterior tongue rest posture than spurs on incisor bands for the following reasons:

• It allows expansion or reduction in intermolar width.
• It inhibits molar eruption.
• Spurs can be placed anywhere along the arch (which allows correction of both anterior and posterior open bites).
• It permits headgear wear by welding buccal tubes on the molar bands to which the lingual arch is soldered.
• It can arrest finger habits.
• It is inexpensive.

Tongue Trainer : ( blue grass appliance)

Tongue trainers are very similar to the tongue spur, habit breaking appliance but are smaller in size. These appliances are just like brackets placed on the inside of the teeth, generally in the anterior. They serve as a reminder to the tongue not to push forward.

Lip bumper

Removable orthodontic appliance which has ‘U’shaped wire carries a plastic or arylic pad in anterior portion.

USES:

• To increase the mandibular dental arch length,
• To upright mesially or labially tipped mandibular molars,
• To prevent the interposition of the lower lip between, maxillary and mandibular incisors.

DURATION REQUIRED FROM LAB :1 day

REQUIREMENT FOR LAB :: upper and lower models poured with type 3 dental stone without any voids made out of good alginate impression.