Why the Long Face? How the Modern World Changed Our Faces, Metabolism, and Breathing-and How to Fix it

Panelist Bios

As a dentist, I can’t just treat teeth and ignore the rest of the patient. To that end, I trained with Chris Kresser in the very first class of his ADAPT functional medicine course. Genetic mismatch is more often the cause of disease. Our genes are optimized for specific environments, and we are no longer in those environments. Look at the difference between the two images. This is not evolution, it is genetic mismatch. Today we will discuss some of the environmental changes that have led to our shrinking faces, especially our jaws.

It is not just apnea. We also have Upper Airway Restriction Syndrome

In order to facilitate the dentist’s role in identifying problems with the craniofacial respiratory complex, we need to keep things relatively simple. The lower right illustration is an obvious example, but there are aa few other quick and simple presentations to consider. Here are a few. Anyone with a little training can spot these problems within seconds. It does not serve as a diagnosis, just a suspicion. Sleep tests are the only way to diagnose Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

This is my Bolton tracing. You can see that my upper and lower jaws are too small, but it is not extreme. I have mild apnea. The only symptom I have is occasional snoring, although being male and over 50 are also risk factors. The teeth are also mine. The left is my before, which most dentists would think are optimal. The top one is overbite, the lower one is arch width. I have brought my jaw forward and widened my arch to get my tongue out of my throat and give it more room.

Saving teeth is nice, but saving lives is better. A dentist did this for her! I am not special. Any dentist can do this.

Some Solutions

We don’t just need dentists. Some of the things on this diagram require other health practitioners.

These are a few things we do:

This is a list of the specialties needed. I am sure there are a few more we can add.

See my post on Class IV Malocclusion for more information.