How long will the skeletal effects by the brace last ?
There is evidence to show that although in the short term skeletal effects can be seen after the brace has been stopped slowly the true genetic pattern takes over, hence if you have a small jaw genetically you will have a small jaw no matter how much treatment you have. The other issue is; should we be subjecting a child to wearing a brace for most of its young life when the outcome is not guaranteed and we can only achieve small long term changes. Maybe it is better to delay treatment until they are 12 and assess the degree of growth change, if the jaw still very small maybe surgery would achieve a more desirable change and have a better long term outcome and in the same way if growth has been favourable, early treatment would have been unnecessary anyway. I am not saying that early treatment is always unnecessary because sometimes even a few mm of extra growth can make a big difference to the appearance of the patient after treatment. This situation would need to be discussed with a
