[Retraining in dento-facial orthopedics. An orthodontist's viewpoint]

Abstract

In dentofacial orthopedics, rehabilitation concerns the performance of the orofacial functions. Orthodontists will therefore speak of rehabilitation of functions, or functional therapy. Orofacial functions seem to obey a hierarchical system in accordance with their physiological importance; the impact of their disorders on both muscular behavior and facial morphogenesis, proportionally to their physiological importance. Therefore, priority will be given at a very early stage to the rehabilitation of respiration: restoring nasal ventilation is indeed an essential condition to obtain balanced oral functions because oral ventilation conditions both muscular posture and the performance of other functions. A little later, affective immaturity symptoms closely linked to various persisting bad suction habits will be looked after. At last, the rehabilitation of phonation and chewing both affected by the previous dysfunctions will participate in acquiring correct lingual position. The age for intervention will before all depend on the dysfunctional etiopathogeny. The morphological context, the importance of the malocclusion, and some orthodontic appliances also play a role in the the dysfunctional requests and the alterations of oral behavior.