Really interesting article on mouth breathing and facial development

[Dmpmercury]

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/...ntilate-about/

I figured after seeing those claims this would be covered on science based meds.

[onegratefulmama]

My DD1 was diagnosed with tongue thrust several years ago with OT visits to address it - referred by her orthodontist. I recall thinking & talking to her dentist about how her bite never matched up but was told not to worry I wish I had. If things don't realign they talked about a need to break her jaw to correct once she's an adult yikes! The TT therapy & diagnosis seemed a bit flaky to me & only 1 person in our large city offers it - makes you wonder. Here's one link about it. It's hard to change!

http://www.bracessandiego.com/about-...ional-therapy/

Sent from my iPhone using DS Forum

[Aubrey<3Gavin]

I am a mouth breather an have tongue thrust. I had braces and then everything shifted because I was never able to fix the tongue thrust. Had to do Invisalign as an adult and now have a permanent retainer on my teeth.

Website seems a little flaky, but I do see a similarity between myself and the profiles on there. I've always hated my profile. I feel like unlock like a monkey or something from the side.

[Tris]

I can't take it seriously with butterflies floating around the screen. The whole thing is a logical fallacy, and the photo "proof" only shows that the skull shape continues to grow and form from a child to an adult, which has nothing to do with how one breathes.

[Kiliki]

While I don't like the site b/c I think it's too "pretty" to take seriously...

I don't think it's fair to say that how we breathe and swallow doesn't have anything to do with how our mouths and teeth grow and develop - and how our mouths and teeth grow and develop certainly CAN change how our faces look. That's just common sense.

Just b/c "modern" medical science hasn't proven something doesn't mean it isn't true. I see this type of argument on here all the time "According to modern medical research blah blah blah" Well, modern medical research is only as good as whatever they are currently researching - which may or may not be biased according to cultural norms and preconceived ideas.

Humans aren't perfect. For a long, long time we thought the Earth was flat. There was a period of time where it was though that a person's appearance could determine whether they would become a criminal. There was a time when we X-rayed all pregnant women. The existence of germs and the idea that they could cause illness was not understood and was even scoffed at for a long time.

So, just b/c "modern" medical science says it isn't true doesn't mean it's not. It could mean there's no good UNbiased studies done on it, or there isn't enough information, or there's no way to test it, or there isn't enough money in discovering the answer....

As far as this particular concept is concerned, I think it makes total logical sense that if you do something out of habit over and over, your body can change over time b/c of doing that habit. When my grandpa died, his thumb was totally curved pointing towards his palm, at a 90 degree angle at the knuckle. Not from arthritis. From him packing tobacco into his pipe over and over and over and over for DECADES using that thumb.

I have a friend who just had foot surgery to correct hammer toes. Which resulted from years of wearing high heels.

Yes, how you live your life, how you sit, how you chew, how you walk, etc CAN and DOES affect how your body changes over time. Is it the only thing that affects it? Of course not. But to say it doesn't or can't affect our bodies simply isn't true.

I had 3 cousins who were mouth breathers. They all looked like the pictures and required braces. I don't know any other mouth breathers.

[VeganCupcake]

Yeah, Comic Sans and butterflies do not a professional website make.

But what came first--the mouth breathing, or the facial and jaw shape? Is it possible that some people have smaller nasal passages and upper jaws, and therefore begin to mouth breathe?

Correlation is not causation.

[aaiya]

Glad to see I'm not the only one to take issue with the butterflies

[songbird516]

Yeah the butterflies are silly...but they didn't distract me from stepping back, thinking about people that I knew that met this profile, and realizing that what the site was saying matched up with what I SEE in front of me.

My brother had terrible teeth and is a mouth-breather. He had 4 teeth removed to get braces and his teeth are still crooked. I used to think that it was funny that people didn't think he was related to anyone in our family because he didn't look like my sister and or my parents, but now I'm starting to think that it's more sad. His face is very long and he has a very narrow palate.
There are other factors, which were identified by Weston A Price. Nutrition during pregnancy and early childhood can also have a big influence on palate size and development of the face, so it makes sense to me that a lack of essential nutrients like fats in infancy can contribute to lack of development of the nasal passages which can contribute to mouth breathing which can further exascerbate (sp?) the problem and make the face continue to develop abnormally.

Either way I think that it's always good to examine a theory in the light of what you see around you, just as much as medical studies which are horribly biased (often) and rarely ask the right questions.

[momtojande]

Originally Posted by VeganCupcake But what came first--the mouth breathing, or the facial and jaw shape? Is it possible that some people have smaller nasal passages and upper jaws, and therefore begin to mouth breathe? Correlation is not causation.

Yeah, this is my thought too. Some of it was very blamy on kids for not following his program and winding up with screwed-up faces. Maybe the ones who kept mouth breathing simply had more trouble breathing through their nose to begin with, and had to mouth breathe?

Also, I wonder if those children or their parents had any idea he planned to publish those pictures like that. I would be severely upset if I found pictures of me as a child on a page essentially saying "don't be lazy like this girl, or you'll wind up with a face like hers!" And if my kids' dentist did that --

[escapethevillage]

That is interesting. I have a two and half yr old daycare boy who is delayed in all speech issues. He also has trouble swallowing foods, or drinking from a cup.

He's strictly a mouth breather, and a full time snorer. He snores all day and night. His face is so elongated, you can't see his neck.

I can't pass this this along to his parents, but it was very interesting.