I came across a video on Youtube which talks about how the position of the tongue and how we breathe can affect the development of the structure of the face, resulting in a recessed jaw/overbite, and how this effects the health of one's teeth , and how the muscles involved never stop developing, even into adulthood (up to 72 years old). One of the reasons i found it interesting is because it does take into account Dr Weston A. Price's data on how diet has a dramatic influence and is reflected in the health of people's teeth, but brings in the way we eat and breathe as an additional factor.
I've been meaning to post this for a while and I was prompted by a tweet i came across this morning that relates:
The video is called
Attractive Face or Not? It depends on Tongue Posture and it kept appearing my suggested videos so i finally decided to check it out. It's 15 minutes long but a short summary would be:
- Allergies in a boy with a good facial structure resulted in him breathing through his mouth and this led to a recessed jaw.
- Twin brothers who had different dental treatments resulted in different face shape. One was treated with traditional orthodontics, the other with a orthotropics. Orthotropics aims to train the muscles in the face and around the jaw to come forward.
- He shows examples of faces where Orthotropics has been applied successfully by one of the founders Dr Mew
- Certain sutures don't fuse till 72 years old. Maxilla-facial development is key
- lack of muscle tone/muscle disease morphs facial bones
- One simple way to increase and train muscle tone is to rest the tongue at the roof of the mouth, lips sealed for 4-8 hours a day.
- The examples he shows are of those who used dental structures added to their mouth and those who've achieved results soley from the tongue executrices are hard to find. He shows 3 examples but concedes adulthood could have been the cause for the change in these examples faces.
- Resting the tongue at the roof of the mouth should help with achieving a strong dental arch, helping create space and resulting in straight teeth
- If crooked teeth/cavities (caries) isn't genetic, what is the cause? Malocclusion and cavities aren't frequent in pre-industrial peoples teeth
- 2/3 of the US population suffers malocclusion (misalignment) of the teeth, only 5% have a known cause
- Dr Price shows girl from isolated valleys of Switzerland, then modern; Inuit Alaskans before Western diets then following; and again with Native Americans, Samoans, Congo, Aborigine's, Andean Indians - all show a deterioration following introduction of modern diets
- Paleoanthropologist Daniel E. Lieberman reports in his book Evolution of the Human Head reports "Jaws and faces do not grow to the same size that they once used to"
- Faces aren't as broad as they once were, with broad dental arches
- Price highlights fat soluble vitamins were essential - this is true but he's going to focus on how we eat
- Agriculture and cooking vessels made
soft mushy food which required little chewing, this affected cranio-facial development
- Tough fibrous plant foods, tough meat and sinew helped develop jaw muscles
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Skulls found with good teeth, no crowding, are also often found with extensive wear; this is true of hunter-gatherers when compared to farmers
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soft foods early in life and how they affect swallowing patterns
- When you swallow something that isn't mushy you use your tongue to help push it down which exerts pressure whereas mushy food doesn't do this
- The frequent force exerted by swallowing and resting tongue posture effects the shape of the dental arch, preventing the pressure of the cheeks pushing them in
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Dr Eagle Harvald did an experiment on Rhesus monkeys where he blocked them breathing naturally through their nose so they had to breath through their mouths and the deterioration in their jaw structure and dental health was profound
So to summarize/TL;DR, according to this video, mastication/chewing, not eating mushy foods, resting your tongue at the roof of your mouth for 4-8 hours a day (until it becomes natural, i guess), and breathing through your nose with your mouth closed can help with facial muscles resulting in better dental health.
As an aside, it reminded me of something i'd read about children with autism/adhd tend to breathe through their mouths:
https://drmaryanne.com/what-does-mouth-breathing-have-to-do-with-adhd-and-why-does-my-child-snore/ said:
What Does Mouth Breathing Have to Do With ADHD and Why Does My Child Snore?
Aug 14, 2013 |
From Dr Mary Anne
Does your child breath through his mouth more than his nose? It may seem like a harmless habit, but
mouth breathing, snoring and sleep apnea (abnormal long pauses in breathing during sleep) can have a huge impact on health and attention.
Simply getting enough sleep can dramatically improve a child’s behavior and focus. But
breathing through the mouth while sleeping allows the tongue to drop down from the roof of the mouth where it normally rests, to slide back into the throat and block the airway. This can cause snoring and sleep apnea which has been linked to behavioral issues, ADHD, cognitive development issues. Large tonsils are another cause of sleep apnea. Allergies can cause enlarged adenoids and tonsils, making it difficult to breath through the nose.
The body prefers filtered, warmed, humidified air from the nose. Mouth breathing can increase congestion.
Prolonged mouth breathing actually tends to narrow the face, with narrows the sinuses, further increasing congestion and sinus issues. And mouth breathing leads to restless sleep. Kids who have been diagnosed with ADHD may be acting out to stay awake! Mouth breathing is most common between 2 and 6 years of age, but can start as early as the first year of life. 1 in 10 children snore regularly.
[...]
This video of Dr Mew, apparently one of the pioneers of treatments that use the above information, is on Ancestry foundation's youtube channel, i haven't watched it yet, but for anybody who may want to look into this further:
