So I fell into this orthodontic rabbit hole online: Orthotropics

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Anyone heard of this?  You can see some good videos on the topic if you search either for the orthotropics channel or Dr. Mike Mew.  

Basically, it's the idea that dental alignment issues are all caused by poor tongue and neck posture, most often seen in conjunction with mouth breathing.  Lots of associated issues as well, due to the narrowed airway from lack of facial bone structure growth in a horizontal and forward direction: snoring, sleep apnea, TMJ syndrome, mouth breathing, nasal inflammation and congestion, etc.  

I've spent hours reading and watching stuff over the Easter break and it's actually quite fascinating.  

Anyone else fallen into this particular rabbit hole?  

 

[Amy in NH]

Never heard of it, but I have a hard time believing that my adult teeth all grew in my skull crooked before erupting, one in the roof of my mouth, due to poor tongue and neck alignment.  Does it also explain why two of my permanent teeth were never created by my body at all?

Edited April 22, 2019 by Amy in NH

[TheReader]

I will say that youngest DS had undiagnosed tongue thrust for a long time, and was a mouth breather (as am I), and his SLP was able to make visible changes to the shape of his mouth, his palate, his bite, etc. just with the orofacial stuff she did with him (training him on "tongue posture" I guess you'd call it, keeping his lips closed when at rest, etc.). Enough so that his prognosis for orthodontia went from absolutely, positively going to need a palate expander, to not needing one at all and just doing regular braces. 

So....are ALL dental alignment issues caused by this? Doubtful. Can dental alignment issues that ARE caused by this, be helped by non-traditional means? Absolutely. 

(going to google now and see if I am even talking about the same thing, ha!)

[Pen]

 

Yes.  I delved into that rabbit hole during a breathing trouble time.

I think the monkey experiments clearly show that causing mouth breathing will cause dental / mouth problems.

It does not mean that there cannot be orthodontic problems for other reasons also.

Orthotropics may be able to help with a variety of orthodontic problems regardless of initial cause, but no doubt not “all.”

Edited April 22, 2019 by Pen

[Pen]

 

5 hours ago, Monica_in_Switzerland said:

Basically, it's the idea that dental alignment issues are all caused by poor tongue and neck posture, most often seen in conjunction with mouth breathing.

 

Was “all caused by” actually an assertion?  

That seems backwards.

 

[Ausmumof3]

my son has pretty bad seasonal allergies and the orthodontist strongly recommended getting them under control. I don’t know that it makes much difference once the teeth are in position though.

[PrincessMommy]

Yes, I'd heard about it but I didn't know it had a name.  My son's Ortho strongly recommended that we also deal with son's allergies and mouth breathing in conjunction with dental care.  He has very bad posture too (computer geek),  which makes things worse.  His mouth structure is very narrow  (like mine). I've been thinking about addressing it with him, but I don't want to create issues with self-esteem.  I may look into the videos.   Thanks!

 

[Pen]

2 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

my son has pretty bad seasonal allergies and the orthodontist strongly recommended getting them under control. I don’t know that it makes much difference once the teeth are in position though.

 

It apparently can be influenced far more at a young age while there is still growth.  But can also result in some change even for people who are fully grown.

[Ausmumof3]

4 hours ago, PrincessMommy said:

Yes, I'd heard about it but I didn't know it had a name.  My son's Ortho strongly recommended that we also deal with son's allergies and mouth breathing in conjunction with dental care.  He has very bad posture too (computer geek),  which makes things worse.  His mouth structure is very narrow  (like mine). I've been thinking about addressing it with him, but I don't want to create issues with self-esteem.  I may look into the videos.   Thanks!

 

It’s hard.  It’s easy to say “deal with allergies” but we have not found a long term solution that works.  And mine likes to be outdoors but during the three months of allergy season he turns into a couch potato.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Sorry I'm not quoting the right person, but wanted to say I probably mis-spoke in my initial post: I don't know that Dr. Mew, who is sort of spear-heading this, though he is not alone, ever said ALL dental malocclusion is caused by poor tongue posture.  What he focuses on, almost exclusively, is the narrowing of the jaws and palate caused by poor tongue posture, and reversing that, generally in kids in the ages 6-8 range.  He has lots of videos that also show progress for adults who change tongue posture well after growing has ended.  He regularly uses expansion appliances and tongue trainers and other things besides just tongue position to reverse the damage, but encourages parents of small children to train their kids in proper tongue position from an early age in the hopes of avoiding intervention later.  

He doesn't claim either that tongue posture ALONE can fix things, just that without fixing tongue posture, orthodontics are unhelpful because relapse is usually inevitable.  He recommends expansion and protraction, which is the opposite of the orthodony that was in practice when I was a kid, which uses extraction and retraction techniques to "make room" in mouths that are too small.  His focus is to enlarge the mouth through expansion of the jaw and palate, rather than remove teeth because the mouth is too small.  Removing teeth encourages further collapse of the maxilla and retraction of the mandible, leading to reduced airway space, more mouthbreathing, etc, etc.  

I realize it's really controversial and I'm not saying this guy is 100% right.  But he's convinced me that addressing my own mouth breathing and that of my kids has to become a priority.  I'm repairing my deviated septum and doing constant tongue exercises for myself and looking into the myobrace mouthguards for the kids.  

The hardest part really is addressing and adequately treating the cause of mouth-breathing.  It can be a learned trait (mom mouth breaths, so child imitates) or caused by nasal congestion from inflammation, allergies, frequent illness, etc.  As the child mouth breaths and tongue posture drops down, the maxilla loses the stimulation it needs to widen and advance in the face, further narrowing the airway, leading to a greater need to mouth breath- a vicious cycle.  

Anyway, I'm not giving any sort of advice, just fascinated by this alternate narrative to the extraction/retraction methods of my youth that are still quite often in practice today.