The Habit-Corrector™ is a soft plastic removable one-sized appliance that is designed to eliminate or improve oral habits which can be detrimental to dental health and the occlusion. Among these habits are improper tongue positions during rest and swallowing (suck as tongue thrust) as well as thumb and finger sucking, any one of all or these habits can cause open-bites, excessive overjets and flared upper teeth. These problems can best be corrected in young children from 6 to 10 years of age before these habits become entrenched. Overjets without an overbite are usually also an indication of the presence of abnormal tongue posture requiring correction.

There can also be other accompanying problems directly related to poor tongue posture such as mouth breathing, upper arch constriction, cross-bites, and speech problems (lisping). Most of these problems arise as result of adverse forces that the tongue places against the dentition when it functions abnormally.

Appliance Design and Function The unique shelf design in the Habit-Corrector™ encourages patients to elevate their tongue and train them to place it against the palate, which is the normal position. In the abnormal position, the tongue rests in the lower half of the oral cavity, which can result in the problems mentioned above. This shelf divides the appliance in half allowing room thro the tongue in the upper half while restricting adequate space for the tongue in the lower half. There are also projections in the upper portion behind the central incisors to prevent the tip of the tongue from advancing forward either during swallowing or at rest.

The appliance is soft so that it can be stretched easily over the upper incisors in order to retract these teeth and close spaces. There are also lower lingual tabs to encourage mandibular advancement to correct an excessive overjet if present. One, therefore, should avoid using the appliance in cases with mandibular protrusion (Class lll) and skeletal open-bites where there is a steep mandibular plane angle weight and excessively long anterior face height. It is also important to rule out airway interferences such as enlarged tonsils or adenoids or a deviated nasal septum in cases of habitual mouth breathers.

The Habit-Corrector™ comes in two types and open and closed version. In the open version, the upper and lower arches are separated in front and are hinged in back. The open-type appliance is used initially for mouth breathers and is gradually replaced with the closed version as the patient becomes accustomed to the appliance. After about 2 months the patient should wear the closed version during the day and after about one more month should wear the close one also while sleeping. The closed version forces the patient to breathe through their nose. For those patients who normally breathe through their nose, the closed version is worn from the start of their treatment.

The Habit-Corrector™ can also be used to stop thumb or finger sucking. Every time the child wants to suck their thumb, he or she is instructed to put their appliance in the mouth instead. From the clinical research, it has been found that 20% of children will stop their habit with this procedure. For those children not successful in braking their sucking habit, particularly during the day, it is recommended that the fixed anti-sucking appliance be cemented to the upper arch. The Habit-Corrector™ is the worn in conjunction with the fixed thumb appliance in order to continue the correction of overjet and tongue problems.

CARE OF THE HABIT-CORRECTOR™ APPLIANCE

The appliance should be cleaned after each use with toothpaste and a toothbrush and rinsed with water before and after each use. The appliance should be keep in its box when not in use. Keep it away from dogs.

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