Myobrace for Kids: Training Breathing and Jaw Growth Early
In short: Myobrace for kids is a removable, flexible appliance a child wears for an hour or two during the day and overnight while sleeping. Instead of pushing teeth into place, it trains the habits that shape the jaws in the first place — breathing through the nose, resting the tongue on the palate, keeping lips closed, and swallowing correctly — so growing jaws develop the room teeth need.
At Tribeca Dental Studio 4 Kids, 54 Warren Street, we use it as early growth guidance for children whose breathing and oral habits are steering development off course.
Myobrace for kids starts from a different question than braces do. Braces ask: how do we move these teeth into line? Myobrace asks why the teeth are crowding at all — and in a great many children the answer is functional: a child who breathes through the mouth, rests the tongue low, and swallows with a thrust is applying the wrong forces to growing jaws every hour of every day.
No appliance worn for an hour can outwork those forces — unless the appliance's real job is to retrain the habits themselves. That is the idea behind the Myobrace system, and this page explains how it works, who it suits, and what it honestly can and cannot do.
The appliance itself is unassuming: a soft, rubbery mouthguard-like trainer, worn at home — an hour or two of daytime wear plus overnight — in a series of stages that progress as habits and arch form improve. There are no brackets, no wires tightened monthly, and nothing to wear to school.
What it asks of a family is consistency, and what it offers in return is a chance to guide growth while growth is still happening, often reducing how much corrective treatment is needed later. Below: the habits it trains, the stages, the daily routine, the evidence-minded parent's questions, and the factors that shape cost.
The habits Myobrace trains — and why they shape the jaws
A child's jaws are not pre-formed; they are sculpted by function. The tongue resting up against the palate applies gentle, constant outward pressure that widens the upper jaw as it grows. Breathing through the nose keeps that posture possible, with lips closed and the tongue up. Swallowing correctly — tongue to the palate, lips still — reinforces the pattern hundreds of times a day.
When those habits are right, the arches tend to develop wide and roomy, and teeth erupt into space that was made for them.
Now reverse the pattern. A child who mouth-breathes keeps the tongue low and forward; the upper jaw, missing its internal scaffold, grows narrower; teeth crowd as they arrive. A tongue-thrust swallow pushes against the front teeth thousands of times a month. Pacifier and thumb habits held too long press in the same wrong directions.
Myobrace is designed around interrupting exactly this: its shape actively encourages nasal breathing, correct tongue rest position, and a proper swallow, while its flexible material gently guides erupting teeth toward the arch form those habits create.
- Nasal breathing with lips closed, day and night
- Tongue resting on the palate, not low in the mouth
- A correct swallow, without tongue thrust or lip strain
- Roomier arch development, guided while growth is active
What the appliance is and the stages of treatment
A Myobrace appliance looks like a soft sports mouthguard with a structured interior: channels that receive the teeth, a tongue tag that reminds the tongue where to rest, and lip bumpers that discourage the overactive lip and chin muscles that distort swallowing. It is worn entirely at home — typically one to two hours during the day, which can be split, plus overnight during sleep.
Nothing is fixed to the teeth, and there is nothing to adjust with tools; progress comes from wear and habit change.
Treatment runs in stages, with each stage's appliance building on the last: an initial, softer appliance focuses on habit correction and getting the mouth closed and breathing through the nose; later stages add firmer material and more defined tooth channels as the arch develops and habits stabilize.
Between stages we evaluate breathing, tongue posture, arch width, and how the teeth are coming in. Most children are in the system for a span of one to two years, with the exact sequence set by their age and how their growth responds — young children in the mixed dentition, roughly ages five to ten, are the classic candidates.
The daily routine: what success actually depends on
Myobrace is honest about its central bargain: the appliance only works when it is worn, and the habits only change with daily repetition. The daytime hours matter as much as the overnight wear, because conscious practice — lips closed, tongue up, breathing through the nose while reading or watching a screen — is what rewires the default pattern.
Families who build it into a routine, such as homework time plus sleep, do well; the appliance left in its case does nothing, and we will say so at every check-in.
Alongside wear, we give simple myofunctional exercises — breathing, tongue, and swallowing practice that takes a few minutes a day — because the appliance and the exercises do different halves of the same job. Parents are part of the team: a chart on the refrigerator beats a lecture, and younger children respond to tracking and encouragement far better than to pressure.
At each visit we check wear honestly, look at the habits and the arches, and troubleshoot what is getting in the way rather than simply repeating instructions.
Who Myobrace suits — and who it does not
The strongest candidates are children in the growing years whose crowding or bite pattern travels with mouth breathing, low tongue posture, tongue thrust, or a narrow upper jaw — the functional pattern the system was built for.
It is also a sensible early step for a child whose parents want to act during growth rather than wait for the full orthodontic picture at twelve, and for children who snore or sleep restlessly where oral habits and airway are part of the conversation we are having with their physicians.
It is not the right tool for every child, and we will name the cases. A child who will not wear it gains nothing; severe skeletal discrepancies and complex bites may need conventional orthodontics, sometimes after a Myobrace phase has improved the foundation, sometimes instead of one.
It does not treat medical airway obstruction such as enlarged adenoids — those need their own care, coordinated with ours. And it is a growth-guidance system, not a promise: we can describe what consistent wear typically achieves, and we will show you your child's own measurements as treatment proceeds, but no honest provider guarantees a specific result in a growing child.
Myobrace before and after: what change looks like
Parents asking about before and after results usually want to know what visibly changes. In children who wear it consistently, the changes we document are functional first: lips closed at rest, quieter nasal breathing, a tongue that sits up where it belongs, and calmer sleep in many reports from parents.
Structurally, we track arch width and the space available for incoming teeth, and photographs and models at each stage let you see the arch form broadening and front teeth aligning as they erupt into better-guided positions.
We keep the framing honest. Before-and-after images — ours come from our own patients, with permission — show what happened for those children, at those ages, with that level of wear; they are not a template your child is guaranteed to match. Growth itself does part of the work, which is precisely the point of treating during growth: the same habits that would have narrowed the arch are instead widening it, month by month.
What we can promise is measurement and candor — you will see the numbers and the photos, and if progress stalls we will say why and what the alternatives are.
What shapes the cost of Myobrace treatment
Families naturally ask what Myobrace costs, and the honest answer is that it is a course of treatment, not a single product, so the fee reflects its components: the number of stages and appliances your child's sequence requires, the length of the treatment span, the evaluation and monitoring visits along the way, and whether it is combined with other care such as an expander or later orthodontics.
A straightforward single-arch habit case in a young child is a smaller undertaking than a longer, multi-stage program — which is why no responsible figure exists before an evaluation.
What we can commit to is transparency: after evaluating your child, we explain the full expected course — stages, timeline, visits, and the total fee — in writing, before treatment begins, so there are no surprises mid-stream. We are out of network for all plans; if you have a PPO plan, your out-of-network benefits may still help, and our team will check them for you before treatment.
If Myobrace is not the right spend for your child's situation, we will tell you that too and explain what we would do instead.
Myobrace at Tribeca Dental Studio 4 Kids
Airway and myofunctional care is a standing part of how we practice at 54 Warren Street, not an add-on: we screen breathing, tongue posture, and sleep habits at regular checkups, because catching the functional pattern early is what makes a system like Myobrace possible at all.
If your child mouth-breathes, snores, has a low-resting tongue, or is showing early crowding in the mixed dentition, an airway evaluation is the right first step — it tells us whether Myobrace fits, whether something else fits better, or whether monitoring is the honest plan.
Call us at (212) 561-5303 to book an evaluation, and mention breathing or Myobrace when you call so we allow proper time. We are open Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 6 PM, and Saturday, 9 AM to 4 PM, and closed Sundays. Parents searching for Myobrace near them in lower Manhattan will find the consultation unhurried and the recommendation measured — including when the recommendation is that your child does not need it yet.
Questions parents ask us
01Is Myobrace the same as a night guard or a mouthguard?
No. A sports mouthguard protects teeth from impact, and a night guard protects them from grinding forces — both are passive shields. A Myobrace appliance is an active trainer: its internal shape guides the tongue to the palate, encourages lip closure and nasal breathing, and provides channels that guide erupting teeth.
It happens to be worn at night like a guard, but its purpose is habit correction and growth guidance, and it is prescribed in stages as part of a monitored treatment plan, not simply fitted and forgotten.
02How many hours a day does my child have to wear it?
The standard prescription is one to two hours during the day plus overnight while sleeping. The daytime wear can be split into shorter sessions fitted around homework, reading, or screen time — what matters is the total and the consistency. Overnight wear alone, without the conscious daytime practice, usually produces slower habit change, which is why we track both.
Most families find the routine becomes unremarkable within a few weeks; the children who struggle are usually the ones whose routine never got anchored to a daily habit.
03What ages is Myobrace for?
The classic window is the mixed dentition, roughly ages five to ten, when baby and permanent teeth coexist and the jaws are growing actively — that is when habit correction changes the trajectory of development most. There are appliances for younger children and for teens as well, and we sometimes use a Myobrace phase before or alongside other orthodontic treatment in older children.
The evaluation decides: we look at growth stage, the habit pattern, and what is actually developing in your child's mouth rather than going by birthday alone.
04Will Myobrace mean my child can avoid braces?
Sometimes it reduces or simplifies later orthodontics substantially, and occasionally a child who responds well needs little or nothing further — but no honest answer is a guarantee. What Myobrace does is correct the functional causes of crowding while growth can still respond, which stacks the odds in your child's favor. Some children will still benefit from a shorter, simpler braces phase afterward for final alignment.
We will show you the measurements as treatment proceeds and give you a realistic read on where things are heading at every stage.
05What does Myobrace cost?
It depends on your child's course of treatment: how many stages and appliances their sequence needs, over what span, with how many monitoring visits, and whether it is combined with other care. Because those factors are individual, we do not quote a figure before evaluating — instead, after the evaluation we lay out the full expected course and its total fee in writing before anything begins.
We are out of network for all plans; with a PPO plan your out-of-network benefits may still help, and our team will check them for you first.
06Can Myobrace help my child's snoring or mouth breathing?
It is designed to address the oral side of that pattern: training nasal breathing, lip closure, and correct tongue posture, which are frequently part of why a child mouth-breathes and sleeps noisily. It does not treat medical causes such as enlarged adenoids or tonsils, and if our evaluation points that way we will say so and coordinate with your child's physician or an ENT.
Airway is a team subject; our role is the dental and myofunctional piece, assessed honestly alongside the medical one.
Related care at TDS 4 Kids
Visit us in Tribeca
Tribeca Dental Studio 4 Kids is at 54 Warren St, New York, NY 10007 — (212) 561-5303. We are open Monday–Friday 8 AM–6 PM and Saturday 9 AM–4 PM, with select Sundays. Families visit us from Tribeca, Battery Park City, the Financial District, SoHo, Greenwich Village, the West Village, the East Village, Lower Manhattan, the Meatpacking District, and Hudson Yards.
Areas we serve
Families visit us from all of these neighborhoods. Find yours below — each ZIP code links to local details for your area.
- Chelsea: 10001, 10011
- the Lower East Side: 10002
- the East Village: 10003, 10009
- the Financial District: 10004, 10005, 10006, 10038
- Tribeca: 10007, 10013
- the Flatiron District: 10010
- SoHo: 10012
- the West Village: 10014
- Murray Hill: 10016
- Midtown East: 10017
- Midtown: 10018, 10020
- Midtown West: 10019
- the Upper East Side: 10021, 10028, 10065, 10075
- the Upper West Side: 10023, 10024, 10025
- Hell's Kitchen: 10036
- Lincoln Square: 10069
- Carnegie Hill: 10128
- Battery Park City: 10280
- Brooklyn Heights: 11201
- Clinton Hill: 11205
- Bushwick: 11206, 11207, 11221, 11237
- Williamsburg: 11211, 11249
- Park Slope: 11215
- Bedford-Stuyvesant: 11216, 11233
- Boerum Hill: 11217
- Sunset Park: 11220
- Carroll Gardens: 11231
- Greenwood Heights: 11232
- Fort Greene: 11238
- Long Island City: 11101
- Astoria: 11102, 11103, 11105, 11106
- Hunters Point: 11109
- Edgewater: 07020
- Hoboken: 07030
- Weehawken: 07086
- Union City: 07087
- Jersey City: 07302, 07304, 07305
- Journal Square: 07306
- Jersey City Heights: 07307
- Newport: 07310, 07311