Posting pictures and logging activities as I progress.
Newsletter for updates (approx weekly): https://gushogg-blake.beehiiv.com
Summary
I discovered jaw expansion in early 2023 after knowing I had bite-related issues for a long time (at least as early as 2015) but not knowing the cause.
- ~2002 4 premolars out due to no space for wisdom teeth. no ortho, gaps allowed to close (age ~11)
- 2023, April – age 32 – initial remote consult with Apex Dental (Dr Mindy Richtsmeier) gave good overall diagnosis
- 2023, June initial in person consult with Face Focused, recommend MARPE and poss MMA
- 2023, September MIND with Dr Coppelson (TBI) and MARPE install (FF)
- Now in Invis in prep for surgery and uprighting 3rd molar, paused about 2/3 through
I was aiming for MMA but I’ve gradually come around to a more posture/function based approach for a few reasons. Firstly I think even if I do get MMA I want to max out advancement and correction from postural/function first.
Secondly I think it may be possible to get significant advancement from mewing, breathwork, myofunctional therapy, and possibly thumb pulling. See Oscar Patel for example.
I’m currently walking the new King Charles III England Coast Path. Newsletter: https://buttondown.com/kciiiwildcamping.
I’m also convinced we should be advocating for this as patients – basically we’re at a kind of craniofacial health/wellness version of the “doctors not washing their hands before surgery” period and it just feels important to be on the right side of history. In a way it actually feels lucky to be one of the first people realising this stuff, when John Mew published The Aetiology of Malocclusion (tropic premise) in 1981 and the extraction debate was going on well before then (18 or 1900s I think).