About Your Hardware

Habit Breakers

Wear and Care of Habit-breaking Devices

The habit-breaking device is a very important appliance. It is designed to break a habit that is altering the shape of the jaws and the arrangement of the teeth.

The timing is crucial — the longer the habit continues, the more difficult the changes will be to recover from. Breaking this cycle will require a lot of co-operation and endurance, but it WILL be worth it!

watch a short movie about how habit-breaking devices work  The device is cemented onto the teeth, and does not come out until its job is done. It is bulky and will prevent the tongue from coming forward between the upper and lower front teeth.

Please have your child concentrate on keeping the tongue in behind the "cage", especially when swallowing.

The teeth and gums around the device must be kept very clean. Brush and rinse around it carefully. If there seems to be some puffiness in the gums, warm salty water rinses three times a day will help.

Please advise us right away if the habit breaker comes loose.

Habit breaking is absolutely vital: stopping the habit now will save us a lot of trouble later on!