5 months into the 2 year program for our 9yo daughter. She has a narrow jaw and the teeth are crowded causing an overbite, and the bottom teeth are impacting on the soft palate.
They start off with a simple soft brace just like a footballers mouth guard, and progressively transition through varying braces over time, with each brace pushing a bit more to align the teeth. In our case, we are trying to correct a significant overbite, but the Orthodontist has also identified an issue with the way she swallows which is contributing the the jaw not forming properly (she has a reverse swallow). There is a program of various exercises to correct the swallow that go hand in hand with wearing the brace.
The brace is worn for about an hour in the afternoon when she gets home from school, and every night while sleeping. In our case, it involves a monthly visit with the Orthodontist to check on the progress, and get shown the next mouth exercise. To her credit, she has taken to it quite well. The first week or 2 she complained about it hurting but is pretty good with it now. Took her a few weeks to get used to sleeping with it.
The cost = friggin expensive. It was $1000 upfront (part covered by our health insurance), and each monthly visit is $300 (not covered by our health insurance) for 2 years. If we had not gone down the Myo Brace path, she will have definitely needed braces to correct a significant problem. In our case, that is still a likelihood, but the Myo brace will negate the severity of the problem by widening the jaw as it is developing to create a bit more space for the adult teeth.
At about 1/2 of the cost of braces (and far less painful), It's an expense I'm prepared to invest in if it will lessen (or remove altogether) the teenage trauma of braces.
