In this testimonial video, a mother recounts her lifelong commitment to early orthodontic care, stemming from her own experience with braces in first grade. When her 8‑year‑old daughter Tori was diagnosed with a small mouth and a severe overbite, the initial orthodontist recommended extracting permanent teeth to make room for jaw alignment, which the mother rejected due to concerns about facial structure and the irreversibility of losing permanent teeth. A friend referred them to Dr. Hang, who offered a non‑extraction solution using a BioBlock appliance that expands the jaw and aligns the bite while preserving all permanent teeth. The treatment also incorporated speech therapy to correct articulation issues caused by the appliance. The mother describes the logistical coordination required—early school dismissals, travel to Westlake, and flexible scheduling—and praises Dr. Hang’s punctuality, accommodation of holidays, and overall willingness to work with families. The narrative emphasizes the benefits of preserving permanent teeth, the effectiveness of the BioBlock, and the supportive network that made the treatment feasible.
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I always took my children in early to an orthodontist because I had that— my mother had done that for me, and I was probably one of the in the '60s, one of the earliest children to ever have braces on in the first grade. And it was because of my breathing that my teeth were really more protruded than normal. And also, adenoids removal, tonsil removal, and braces in first and second grade in Atlanta, Georgia was pretty unusual. But it probably saved me down the road in a lot of ways with my teeth because— of just teeth meshing. You know, if they're off-center, you get cavities. You get, you know, your teeth don't work right. And because I had that experience, I made sure my daughters were checked out early on for orthodontics. My 2 older daughters basically just had protruding teeth that they could put braces on and line them up. When we took Tori at age 8, They looked at her mouth and said her mouth is too small. In another year, we'll pull out those permanent teeth that are coming in and make room and then push her jaw back. And I said, well, what happens to her face if you take out permanent teeth at this age? Plus, I didn't want to lose any permanent teeth. They said, well, you know, if the cheeks concave, we can always do plastic surgery later. on her cheeks. And that pretty much didn't work for me. So I had a friend who was already going to Dr. Hang out here because her daughter had a small mouth and had the same issue as Tori, and her— she did not want to pull her daughter's permanent teeth. So I got an appointment, and the rest is history. Dr. Hang had no desire to pull any permanent teeth whatsoever and said with the BioBlock And with removing these baby teeth that were blocking her permanent teeth anyway, then he could make the BioBlock bring the jaw forward and even her teeth up so that her smile would be normal and not lose permanent teeth. And that was the answer for us.
What I looked like before I had the BioBlock and the braces and everything, I had a huge overbite and like my top, the top of my mouth was farther than the front of my bottom teeth. And so their goal was to bring my jaw forward on the bottom so it would be like equal to each other. And they gave me a BioBlock, which helped bring my jaw completely forward.
I didn't research it because my friend was already there. I trusted her judgment. Her referral came from an endodontist out here in Calabasas who he had used Dr. Hang. So I was totally convinced that all it took was one appointment to figure out I wasn't going to be pulling permanent teeth and ruining her cheekbone structure. I was sold. She was still with the Bio-Block, and he wanted— he wanted her speech and her enunciation to be clearer. She was still slurring a little bit with certain vowel sounds and certain words. So he found somebody on my side of town for me who is a speech therapist who works with him or had been to his workshops, and Tori met with her, what, every 2 weeks? And worked with buttons and tongue depressors and all kind of things to make her use her tongue correctly. I think pulling teeth that you can never replace is not good. It's your teeth. You don't get another set. And you use them your whole life.
Yeah, I had— I went to my sister's orthodontist before I went to Dr. Hang, and he wanted me to remove 6 permanent teeth, and that wasn't okay because then I would have to get plastic surgery and everything, and my mom did not want that. So my friend recommended me to Dr. Hang.
You just do it. It just didn't matter to us. And he wouldn't— even if I had to borrow money, I would have done it for her. I would not have wanted her to start braces at 15 in high school with crooked teeth, an overbite that didn't match up with a jawline that was crooked. I couldn't do it. And I would just find a way. I mean, parents find a way to get those kids to basketball games, soccer games, football games, and buy all that equipment that it takes for that. And that's not an inexpensive proposition either for parents today. So people can do it. They find a way. Tori is in a school where when we got this BioBlock, we went to her teachers and the administration and told them that we would be leaving early once a month to drive to Westlake and that she would have speech problems in the beginning with this BioBlock. She had to relearn how to talk again with it. They were very supportive, and they— we would get out of school at 2:20, which is an hour early in our school, and if I could get on the freeway by 2:30, I could be at Dr. Hang's by 3:20. He would see me. He was always on time, and I would be out the door in 20 minutes, back on the freeway, 10 to 4, no problem. They work with us. They work with us on the traffic. He works on days— my kids had different holidays off sometimes, so it was always easy for us to get here. It was never— I don't mind driving. It's not the drive. It's just making it work with the schedule, and they were always accommodating.
