dr amanda with straight smash solutions street smilesolutions.com and today we're going to talk
about twin blocks specifically twin block design mcnamara twin blocks versus standard string twin
blocks and i have a couple other videos on twin block designs filling out the lab slip on your
twin block if you want to see more you can go to my youtube site not your youtube site go to your
youtube site put in straight smile solutions in the search bar which will bring you to my
youtube site which has a green banner once you're there you can scroll down the homepage and we
have a variety of different playlists there's one for phase one interceptive that is where
you'll find everything you need to know on twin block design how to write a lab slip and if you
can't find that video you're welcome to email us at info straightsmilesolutions.com or visit
our website at straightspinalsolutions.com send us a message and i'll be glad to send you that
video i know where all my content is it takes me one second i'm so super super glad to help you so
let's talk a little bit more about twin blocks i just did a video on invisalign with ma which is an
alternative to twin blocks twin blocks is kind of the og product before invisalign with ma came out
it works very very well there's nothing wrong with the twin block it has its limitations
so let's talk about the benefits um the risks what you'll see what to expect what it's like
please watch all my other twin block videos i talk about all different aspects of them
um so twin blocks are the og appliances to help to grow a lower jaw and you can get them all pretty
and decorated and they work really really well in the littler kids the six sevens eights and nines
maybe tens maybe 11's now we're pushing it of course of course of course you need to
know if your patient is still growing if your patient is not growing it's not going to work
so you need to do your own research and i'm not going to go into that because i just went to that
in the previous video and i have tons of content around growth and if you want to know more you can
feel free to contact us and we will explain more on how to know if your patient is still growing um
so case selection is key obviously you probably want to have a cef you want to get baseline
numbers how can you prove your patient group if you don't have baseline numbers how do you know
if your patient needs to grow a job if you don't have baseline numbers again not going to go into
snaps because i have tons of content on seth's it has its own playlist on my home screen don't freak
out if you don't have a seth machine there's a zillion workarounds don't freak out if you
don't know how to interpret it that's something we can help you do or there's lots of content
about that if you don't want to pay for things and anyways let's go into the mcnamara versus regular
twin block so a regular twin block has no screw okay so this is regular twin block this is
mcnamara twin block or at least that's what i call it um that's usually what labs will call it if you
say you want a mcnamara twin block they should know what that is but of course you should really
i heard a lot of mixed messages from a lot of my clients who have ordered twin blocks from various
labs especially smaller labs a lot of people don't know how to do it so you should stick
with the more standard labs my favorites of course are olendorf or specialty appliances but you know
you can just call your lab and find out if they do twin blocks of course they're all going to say yes
but find out how many twin blocks they've done and if they know the difference between a mcnamara and
a regular twin block mcnamara twin block of course mcnamara is super super super into arch expansion
which i love mcnamara twin blocks so it's going to have one or more screws here of course you can do
all kinds of variations you can make turn it into a sagittal you can upgrade molars you can push out
the pre-maxilla this is your standard mcnamara twin block which is going to help if you have a
crowding case where you need to grow a jaw that's what mactameric twin block is for crowding cases
in the mixed dentition where you need to grow a jaw so you are not putting braces on it but
you are expanding the arches at the same time that you grow the lower jaw so you're killing two birds
with one stone which is nice you're still going to need to do some type of braces or aligners at the
end just to find two things but it's really nice in the mixed dentition when you could expand the
arches because often when you make the space they come in kind of straight to begin with
okay so and sometimes you get lucky and you never even need to do phase two braces or aligners
that's pretty rare but at least it's a lot easier than it was at least you don't need surgery you
know hopefully and other stuff like that and you reduce the likelihood of having impactions
or needing premolars out or anything like that so that's the benefits of doing these appliances
so that's pretty much it now you know the difference between a mcnamara and a regular
twin block um it has to be worn 22 i'd say 24 hours a day if possible if they can eat
with any even better bare minimum has to be 22. if they only wear at nighttime it's not
going to work at all do not bother it's not going to do anything you're wasting your time
so that's why i said it's better on littler kids because a lot of big kids are not going
to wear these kind of chunky appliances 22 hours a day at school they're going to take them out
and they're not going to wear them and the parents aren't going to know and you're going to see no
change and then everyone's gonna get upset so you have to be crystal clear on case selection
mom this is only going to work if worn i say 24 hours a day i prefer they actually leave them in
while they eat i mean obviously a very responsible patient can take them out put them in the case
brush and put them back in but more often than not that doesn't happen i have kids so eat with them
in come home mom takes them out brushes them kid brushes teeth put them back in so twice a day mom
brushes them eat with them in works way better and you'll get better outcomes if you do that
so that's pretty much it you will often see a posterior open bite that develops
because you're wearing it for about a year so that's normal once you discontinue them
the bite will fix you put on the braces to fine tune it no problem but you often need
to chase these with braces or invisalign or a liner so it's this is just fixing the bite and
making a little more space it is not idealing you're dealing making it ideal okay so don't
don't be shocked if you have a posterior open bite it's pretty normal um and you get the same
thing with invisalign with mma so i'm just used to it at this point i don't get upset
all right that is about it hopefully that was helpful but yeah great appliance and you know the
benefits are it's a lot cheaper than invisalign with mma it's about a third of the price
so but invisalign with ma is actually idealizing the teeth and straightening
the teeth at the same time as growing the jaws here saving a heck of a lot of time
and the compliance is way better because it looks like invisalign by the from the front it
feels like invisalign from you know everywhere so the patients aren't as embarrassed about wearing
because they're not going to talk funny in them so i think you get better compliance all right thanks