PaleoFx Presentation: The Shrinking Face Epidemic

Don’t self-diagnose or self-treat. This presentation is for informational purposes and is not designed to diagnose or treat any ailment. If you suspect you have a problem, please see a qualified health practitioner.

I am only telling you what others have figured out!

My audience usually responds 80%.

The Majority.

No amount of snoring is normal. The sleep physician that I send my patients to says all snoring will become apnea.

The average American gets less than seven hours per night.

My kids when they were young. My wife Donna on our wedding day. We got married the first year I practiced.

I am in a unique position to look at the face, jaws, and pharynx like no other medical practitioner.

The yellow lines on the left represent a restricted airway. The white lines on the right show the airways have grown with orthodontic expansion. The blue area shows how the adenoids shrink.

The Bolton tracings were developed by studying children of all ages from 1930 to 1959. The standard was published in 1975.

The example on the left is normal, the one on the right shows jaws that are too small and a long face like most of us have. This is a nice tool to quickly figure out facial growth problems.

Remember, proper tongue posture means the tongue must rest on the palate behind the upper front teeth.

This next eight or so slides contain some useful information.

Grinding is often the subconscious trying to get the tongue out of the airway by moving the lower jaw.

Pain along the gum line is due to abfractions, which are due to grinding. Abfractions are seldom caused by brushing too hard.

This person has their tongue on their palate behind their top front teeth. Notice that their chin is back. They have a small mandible and the airway is closed off.

When the tongue does not have room to sit on the palate, the rugae (the bumps on the palate toward the front) become pronounced.

The bones of the palate are not fused and nursing spreads them. Babies swallow differently. This changes with weaning to hard foods. Since we give mush on spoons, many of us don’t change and the result is a tongue thrust.

Sometimes allergies cause a stuffy nose that leads to mouth breathing and improper tongue posture. Myofunctional therapy helps identify poor tongue posture, incorrect swallowing, and more.

These appliances are out of the box. They correct tongue posture issues and help correct growth issues. They also help with pacifier and digit sucking.

When we catch problems after facial growth is finished, surgery is often required. The surgery is tolerable.

The Aboriginal study, Eskimo, and rural Kentucky studies are only three of many studies that conclude hard foods result in bigger jaws.

Being male, over 50, having a neck circumference of 16 inches, a Mallampati score of 3 or 4, and a BMI of 30 are almost a guarantee of apnea.

Home sleep tests are more and more becoming normal.

The airway is dynamic. When we breathe out, we mimic hypopnea or apnea, and the airway collapses. Pharyngometry can measure this and estimate the jaw position needed to prevent collapse.