How certain factors can change our faces

This is really an interesting topic today. Since I have been working as a Face Yoga Teacher I noticed that my clients have a lot of problems when it comes to their jaw area. For most of them, it is difficult to relax in that area. Malocclusion or “bad bite.” causes a lot of tension in the upper and under jaw. Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder is a common problem.

Factors that influence this are different, but they definitely are changing our anatomy.

Asymmetry in the face is mostly present on every face.

Reasons for this could be:

• Pulling a tooth
• Sleeping on one side
• Having a bad diet
• Accident like whiplash
• Atlas misalignment
• Not having teeth on one side of a face
• Bad posture
• Nerve damage
• Bad dentist
• Some sports, like boxing
• Braces

Braces are so common today with the young generation. It seems like all of them need them. I did notice when it comes to the differences in age, that a young population has more problems with the jaw area than the older generation. I find it unfair to those young people because we could approach this in a different way.

During my practice, I do make people aware of the misalignment, trigger points, bad habits, muscles, bones, asymmetry, stress which makes me wonder why almost every client has a similar problem?

All that stress that all of these factors are causing expresses themselves not only in one area of the face, but it could be a common cause of tension in the neck, forehead, region around eyes, temples… It can be a cause of a headache, nerve inflammation… and much more.

Some time ago I experienced some changes in my jaw area. I noticed that one side of my face was different. I had and I still have asymmetry. The cause was my bad dentist who pulled my teeth.

The consequence was that my muscles on the right side of the face were less developed, they atrophied. The damage was done. I did make some progress and some changes, and it is definitely better than before, but nothing can replace your lost teeth. Why? Because our jaw grows and stays strong only if it can support our teeth. When teeth are being removed then our jaw “thinks” there is nothing that needs my support, so I will not provide or make any bone tissue. The jaw becomes weak, and muscles follow.

Some time ago I came across this wonderful book: Holistic Dental Care: The Complete Guide to Healthy Teeth and Gums by Nadine Artemis, which gave insight and a new approach. I knew there was a better natural way of approaching our bodies. In this case, taking care of our teeth which is immediately in correlation and affection with the whole face and body.

So, I do advise you to check this written chapter about braces and how they affect our facial muscles.

And think twice before you ad ordinary braces into your mouth!

Nadine Artemis writes the following in her book about this:

Braces: Heavy Metal or Harmonized Health

Getting braces is considered a rite of passage for today’s teenagers. If you were like most North American teens, around age twelve you were marched into an orthodontist’s office, and after a few hours of fitting, gluing, and tapping, you walked out with a mouth full of metal brackets, braces, wires, and bands to straighten your teeth. Perhaps even a few of your permanent teeth were removed beforehand in order to make enough room in your mouth for evenly spaced teeth. The medical term for crowded teeth is malocclusion or “bad bite.” Today, most Western children have some form of malocclusion—an overbite, underbite, or crooked teeth—so they spend a few years with their teeth covered in stainless steel, nickel, titanium, and ceramic. There is a story behind modern malocclusion; a few hundred years ago, crooked teeth were an uncommon misfortune, and a thousand years ago, a bad bite was altogether rare.

Why Are We Down in the Mouth?

There are two schools of thought regarding the devolution of our mouths. One school holds that a genetic miscue in our DNA occurred in the last several hundred years that led to underdeveloped jaws and crowded teeth. The other school argues that “new” environmental factors are contributing to the prevalence of undeformed mouths. Scientists in the field often think in terms of millennia, so an issue that’s two hundred to five hundred years old is considered new. Multidisciplinary research conducted over the last few decades tends to support environmental causation—and a major contributor is, of course, our diet. Dr. Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel, an anthropologist at the University of Kent in Great Britain, was intrigued by this de-evolution in human anatomy. She examined eleven sets of ancient skulls and jaws from social groups on each continent. Half of the groups were farmers and half were hunter-gatherers. She noted that farmers had a starchier diet than the hunter-gatherers, and they had shorter and weaker jaws as well. She concluded that as humans transitioned from a hunter-gatherer diet to a domesticated agricultural diet, human jaws and palates shortened, leading to crowded teeth.  In the 1920s Dr. Weston A. Price traveled abroad to study the environmental factors and lifestyles of families in non-Western indigenous societies. He noted that the people who were raised eating their culture; dentition. When people whose traditional non-Western diet had nearly perfect from the same cultural groups were introduced to a Western diet began to develop tooth decay, and within two generations they started having children with malocclusions resulting from smaller jaws with narrow arches and palates. Malocclusion is more than a cosmetic issue; improperly positioned and crowded teeth lead to increased tooth decay, cracking, chipping, and inappropriate wear. A bite that is slightly imperfect can create problems in the head and neck, like temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder, teeth grinding, and headaches. When the upper jaw is narrow, the palate is compressed and forms a deep channel instead of being wide and shallow. The palate is also the roof of the mouth and the floor of the nasal cavity. If this space is compressed, we end up with pinched airways and nostrils that impede good airflow. Restricted nasal passageways force people to sleep with their mouths open to get sufficient air. The rate of sleep apnoea, often characterized by snoring due to open-mouth breathing and an obstructed airway, continues to rise at an unprecedented pace. In the United States, as many as fifteen percent of adults have sleep apnea. Dr. Arthur Strauss, a dentist who specializes in sleep apnea, further validates this thinking by explaining that when the palate is broad, there is more room for teeth and breathing: When you look at the percentage of people in civilized societies seeing orthodontists, and then when you add to it the lack of breast-feeding, which generally is a positive way of expanding the size of the palate, moving the jaw farther forward and having a larger mouth to hold the teeth, it’s not surprising that so many have sleep apnea in a civilized society.

 Braces Change Faces

We turn to braces to fix our smiles, and we do so in droves. On any given day, approximately four million people in the United States are wearing braces to correct a malocclusion. While the goal of orthodontic treatment is more than aesthetic, people who take on the discomfort of braces do so with the goal of improving their appearance. A person may have perfectly straight teeth after wearing braces; still, there is more to good looks than pretty tooth placement. The widespread use of braces may mislead us into thinking that orthodontic intervention is a risk-free fix-all. Orthodontists know better; a signed waiver—release form is usually required before an orthodontist fits a person for braces. Outlining the potential issues and risks involved with braces, these waivers include statements such as.

•  Your mouth is a living system, and how it will respond to medical treatment cannot be perfectly predicted.
• Growth patterns affecting the facial structures and the teeth can take unexpected turns and may undermine the goals of treatment.
• Atypical tooth development and unique growth in the jaw may interfere with treatment.
• The mouth is a dynamic system that changes and adapts through[1] our life. Changes that occur to facial bones, teeth, and jaws after orthodontic treatment may affect tooth alignment.
• Forces applied to the teeth via braces stimulate cellular responses in the roots of the teeth, the gums, and the tissues around the roots, allowing the teeth to be moved and adjusted. It is possible that the nerves in a tooth will die in response to these forces.
• Braces may erode the tooth enamel and permanently damage the roots of the teeth, compromising their viability.
• Teeth adjusted with braces may be more susceptible to damage or death in a future jaw or gum Injury.

Scientific justification warrants these statements. It is important to understand the implications, because braces may be a detriment to your health and appearance. Research reported in the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics has shown that the tweaking and torquing of braces on teeth damages and shortens the roots of the teeth. The same journal published a study that demonstrated that up to ninety percent of enamel can be damaged with fixed appliances like braces, and it happens quickly after the braces are applied. Damage to roots and enamel can be permanent. Traditional orthodontics, especially with children, may permanently impair the appearance of the face. Braces artificially constrain or redirect the normal and natural direction of growth, especially of the jaw. For example, the upper jaw is pulled back by braces to fix an overbite, stunting the normal pattern of growth. So instead of growing in a normal pattern, the face grows disproportionately vertical, or long.

Vertical growth from orthodontic treatment

Like Pulling Teeth It is common in orthodontic medicine to extract up to four teeth, plus the wisdom teeth, before applying braces to make enough space in the mouth for the braces to work. Most orthodontists are taught that the size of our facial bones is an inherited genetic trait, and their plan of treatment reflects this belief; if genetics dictates that your jaw is too small for a full, straight set of permanent teeth, then some of your teeth must go, even though, as omnivores, human biology requires jaws wide enough to hold all thirty-two permanent teeth. Each tooth has a role in the efficient metabolism of food and in the alignment of the facial and cranial bones, in addition to creating an expressive, ten-tooth-wide smile. The removal of permanent teeth compromises the symmetry, shape, and overall youthful appearance of the face. The aesthetic changes that occur after extraction are similar to the facial changes that occur in advanced age: a longer, less full face with lower cheekbones, thinner lips, and a nose that is out of proportion to the face. Add these changes to the vertical growth encouraged by braces the result is often a face that is highly out of proportion.

Extraction is particularly problematic for children who are still growing and maturing. The Metal Mouth Forum, a public forum on braces offers a warning  “Extracting teeth from children can result in less-than-optimal facial aesthetics. In other words, your child’s face may not wind up looking as good as it could have because it will grow longer and flatter instead of fuller. An orthodontic journal, recognizing the vertical growth pattern caused by orthodontia, conducted an experiment where members of a panel assessed the attractiveness of facial profiles. The panel concluded that longer profiles are considered less attractive.

Face First

Dr. John Mew said, “Straight teeth do not create a good-looking face, but a good-looking face will create straight teeth. Functional orthodontics (FO) is a new and growing field that harmonizes its methodology with our biological plasticity to improve the overall look of the face, which also makes space for evenly placed teeth. The chief goal of functional orthodontists is to protect and promote well-shaped faces with good facial structure and balance. One method used in this practice is inserting an appliance in the mouth that gently expands narrow arches, palates, and jaws so that the teeth can grow straight from the beginning or greatly reduce the length of time that braces must be worn. Rarely do functional orthodontists resort to removing permanent teeth. Merle Loudon, a dentist and renegade thinker, noticed that many of his youngest dental patients suffered from chronic ear pain and other development issues, including temporomandibular dysfunction and an overbite. He designed an effective solution to these problems called primary molar buildup. The child’s primary (baby) lower molars are built up in height with composite crowns that are cemented to the top of the tooth. The crowns stay on until the permanent molars grow in. As the permanent molars erupt, the crowns encourage the lower jaw to grow forward, correcting the overbite and widening the dental arch so that the permanent teeth have plenty of space. Frequently, primary molar buildup will prevent the child from needing braces later in life.

This procedure does not require anesthesia, and in most cases, it causes little interference with eating. Before you agree to this procedure, it is important to find out the content of the composite. Porcelain and plastic composites leak toxins into the mouth. Accept only biologically safe composite material.

In 2003 the Australian television news program 60 minutes produced a fascinating segment on functional orthodontics. Host Peter Overton interviewed functional orthodontists and a few of their patients to examine the difference between traditional orthodontic methods and functional orthodontia. In one dramatic case, Everton talks to identical twins, one treated with traditional orthodontia and one with functional orthodontia. Before treatment, the boys were identical. It is easy to tell them apart after treatment. The young man who was treated traditionally with extractions and braces has a noticeably smaller chin and a weaker jaw.

Graze for a Beautiful Face

The research of Von Cramon-Taubadel and Price revealed that diet is the primary determinant of healthy development. The processed, refined, and industrially grown food consumed in the standard American diet has proved to be less than ideal for health, and it is devoid of the critical nutrients needed for bone development. In Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Price notes that none of the people with perfect dentition in indigenous cultures that he studied were vegetarians.” Their diets were high in fat from both plants and animal sources. Our contemporary low-fat, high-carb diet craze is exactly the opposite of what worked for our ancestors. Their diets comprised a combination of grass-fed muscle and organ meats, raw milk and butter, fish, eggs from free-roaming chickens, cod-liver oil, fermented foods, soaked nuts, and freshly ground grains along with a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Their diet supplied the specific nutrients, vitamins, and minerals required by our bodies to feed our bones and to allow for the proper development and growth of infants and children. The standard American diet inadequately meets those requirements.

Watch Your Mouth

 We are born obligate nose breathers. Over time, a variety of environmental conditions can influence us to breathe through our mouths A mouth that hangs open constantly to pull in air changes craniofacial development, especially in childhood. When children breathe through their mouths, the roofs of their mouths assume a deep and narrow shape and the lower jaw may be pulled back and down, producing malocclusion and a vertical growth pattern in the face. Also, when the mouth is open the tongue does not spend enough time in the roof of the mouth to mold a wide palate. The Buteyko methodi6 is a simple breathing therapy technique. If you or your child are nose breathers, this technique can retrain you to nose-breathe naturally. Our facial bones and teeth are alive, and their health and positioning remain flexible throughout our lives. If you proceed with braces for yourself or your children, be sure to seek several opinions and carefully consider all of the options, including functional orthodontia. Ask the orthodontist how the braces and other treatments may impair or improve your facial aesthetics. Request before and after profile pictures of former clients so you can see the change for yourself. To find a functional orthodontist, contact the International Association for Orthodontics (www.iaortho.org) or the International Association of Facial Growth Guidance (www.orthotropics.com). We may be able to avoid braces and orthodontic treatment entirely if we give our bodies the nutrients needed to thrive and we can help our children and our future children grow beautiful faces that will have plenty of space for a full set of evenly placed teeth. It is also important to rethink our definition of a perfect smile. Free yourself and your children from the cookie-cutter paradigm of beauty promoted by “beauty “magazines and embrace the authentic beauty of your own smile and your children’s smiles.