In this presentation, Dr. William M. Hang, an orthodontist with practice dating back to 1972, argues that a deep understanding of “restoral posture” is essential for modern dental practice. He traces his own discovery of the term in 1990 and explains how it interrelates with airway changes, altered oral posture, unbalanced facial growth, and sleep apnea. Using vivid anecdotes—Mark Twain’s unexpected dental school background and the death of a large actor from the film The Green Mile—he illustrates how neck circumference and airway obstruction can precipitate serious health events like heart attacks. Hang emphasizes that recognizing these connections allows dentists to address underlying postural and airway issues, ultimately improving patient outcomes beyond mere tooth alignment.
Chapters
I'm from the Midwest, and I will always be from the Midwest. I'm not from Missouri, where Mark Twain is. What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure that just ain't so. And I never knew that Mark Twain went to dental school. But apparently he did. And he was one of the few then who asked questions because the rest of us were like me. I sat in the back and just wanted to be the good student and learn what I needed to do and cough it up on the test because I wanted to be a dentist. Connecting the dots between airway changes, altered oral posture, Altered restoral posture. Restoral posture is a term that I learned in March of 1990 after practicing orthodontics since 1972. And you'll say, wow, you didn't know about restoral posture? No, I knew about straightening teeth. I didn't know about restoral posture until then. It's a term that I first heard then, but it's taken me Well over a decade, and only in the— even in the last few years have I really come to grasp and understand what it really means. And the longer I go at this, the more I really understand exactly what that means. So if you're able to learn and understand what restoral posture really means, this will impact everything you do in dentistry, whatever you're doing in your practice, in a very unique way. Unbalanced facial growth. And sleep apnea. You say, golly, you talk a lot about sleep apnea. Yeah, I do. How many of you saw the movie The Green Mile? It's a movie, it was a great movie, I like that movie. How many remember the big guy who just died this week? Right, 6'5, 300 pounds, 50, 54 years of age, heart attack in July, and he dies. Now, why do you think he died? He's too fat. He's too fat, right. Big dude, one big guy. I thought he was a great actor, I loved that movie, and when I saw that he died, there was only one thing that came to my mind, sleep apnea. Heart attack, sleep apnea. Now, anyone with a, a male with greater than a 17-inch neck is at risk for sleep apnea. And this guy has, what, a 20-inch neck easy? I don't know, big guy. Most people who are dealing with sleep would think, okay, it's because he was overweight. Yes, it has something to do with it, yes. But what we're gonna talk about is, is the other dimension, not just that lateral dimension.
