Diet, Allergy and Airway
What Causes Malocclusion?
Our modern lifestyle encompasses a diet that is replete with packaged and processed foods, refined sugars and highly adulterated staples that are a far cry from our ancestoral diet. The result is exposure to foreign chemicals, additives and excess sugar which have multiple negative effects on health. The allergic and/or inflammatory reaction to this diet produces nasal congestion.
One of the most common findings among our children is a significant lack of nasal breathing. Congested, inflamed and non functional nasal tissues create a shift to mouth breathing in a child with a rapidly growing face. Studies have shown that the majority of 6yr olds do not nasally breath consistently. We are all meant to be obligate nasal breathers. The result is a corruption of the genetic expression of facial growth as intended and a corruption via a gene environment influence. This is the main etiology of altered jaw growth which precipitates crowding and deficient jaws. Dr. Buck believes the earlier he can screen children for breathing problems and evaluate whether the jaws are growing properly, the better the opportunity to correct and re-establish proper growth leading to fully developed jaws, straight teeth and facial beauty.
The left side is very characteristic of an adult who has suffered from altered facial growth related to a lack of nasal breathing during childhood. The right is an example of an adult who has greatly benefitted from proper nasal breathing during childhood growth of the face. She has great jaw development and a much more attractive face. This speaks to the principle that the genetic blueprint for facial development is corrupted by a diet and/ or environment that induces poor nasal breathing, rather than the conventional notion that you inherit your under-developed jaws from your parents and have to live with it for your entire life.
