Don’t Correct. Prevent!
Experience a revolutionary way to naturally straighten your child or teen’s smile with the Healthy Start System™! This system provides the same or better results than traditional braces and other orthodontic treatments, leaving you with your picture-perfect smile. Dr. J. Kenneth Carver is one of the few doctors trained to treat your smile with Healthy Start in Kingsport, Tennessee.
Benefits of the Healthy Start System™
When you are treated with the Healthy Start System™, our dental team ensures that you are treated with the latest dental technology to bring you beautiful, long-lasting results. Not only do you get the results you want, but patients who choose the Healthy Start System™ will receive many benefits throughout their treatment, including:
- Treatments that work with your natural oral growth and development
- Prevention of crooked teeth, rather than correction
- Achieving permanent results without braces or surgery
- Experiencing no uncomfortable treatments
Treating More than Just Smiles
Children with crooked or crowded teeth may experience Sleep-Disordered Breathing (SDB), which is an all-inclusive term to describe breathing difficulties that children may face while sleeping. Most of these problems are caused by an obstruction to the airway. This causes your child’s heartrate to slow down and their blood pressure to rise, ultimately resulting in disrupted sleep. With the Healthy Start System™, Dr. J. Kenneth Carver can provide treatment to children who suffer from SDB.
Causes of Sleep-Disordered Breathing
Sleep-Disordered Breathing is most often caused by an obstruction to the airway. This obstruction can come from crooked or crowded teeth, which can limit how much air your child breathes in from their mouth. Obstruction can also develop from an underdeveloped jaw and mouth, often the result of mouth breathing with the nasal airway is obstructed. Loud snoring, gasping, or snorting sounds may also be indicator that your child may have SDB. With the Healthy Start System™, our dentist can help put a stop to your child’s snoring and airway obstruction by guiding their teeth to their proper position, and by helping their jaw and mouth to develop fully and normally. If you believe that your child may suffer from Sleep-Disordered Breathing, check to see if your child exhibits any of the following signs:
- ADD/ADHD
- Daytime drowsiness
- Halted growth
- Snoring and mouth breathing
- Asthma or chronic allergies
- Bedwetting
- Restlessness or waking up frequently
- Nightmares and excessive sweating while sleeping
- Irritability
- Difficulty in school subjects, especially Math, Science, and Spelling
- Headaches
- Swollen Tonsils/Adenoids
The Healthy Start System™
When your child is treated with the Healthy Start System™, there is a series of appliances and treatments based on their age. No matter their treatment, however, the Healthy Start System™ works in the same way for each patient: by working with their natural tooth growth. By using comfortable and removeable appliances, Dr. J. Kenneth Carver can guide your child’s teeth into their correct positions and assist in making sure that their jaw alignment is correct and that the arches develop normally. Ultimately, this allows your child to have enough room for their permanent teeth and can prevent future oral problems.
Depending on your child’s age, the Healthy Start System™ will use different oral appliances. The different phases of treatment are as follows:
- Habit-Corrector: the habit-corrector is a pacifier-like oral appliance that your child wears while sleeping. By wearing this appliance every night for 1-5 months, it can help to improve or eliminate current habits that can be harmful to your child’s oral health.
- Phase Two: for 2-6 months, your child will wear a custom-made appliance that comfortably fits inside your child’s mouth. This appliance will prevent incoming teeth from moving out of their proper place, correct jaw alignment, and expand your child’s arches to ensure there is enough room for all permanent teeth.
- Final Phase: this step is extremely important because it deals with your child’s permanent teeth. When adult teeth form, the gum tissue starts to attach to the teeth. If permanent teeth are not kept in place with this final oral appliance, they could erupt incorrectly. With the Healthy Start System™, we can ensure that your child’s teeth erupt properly.
Why the Healthy Start System™
Our dentist and team at Kingsport Dentistry offer only the safest and most accurate treatments to our patients. The carefully researched and designed Healthy Start System™ is adaptable to each patient’s needs, allowing Dr. J. Kenneth Carver to provide your child with a unique treatment that works with their specific growth patterns. When you bring your child into our practice, we can help determine if the Healthy Start System™ is right for your child. We strive to give all of our patients beautiful smiles that contribute to their overall health and self-confidence. Call us today to schedule your consultation with our dentist, and give your child a Healthy Start!
