Bill HangDental Practitioner, Lecturer at OrthO2Health

The Case for Facial Height Proportion - William M. Hang DDS MSD

5 Jun 2013 · 2 min

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1:43

In this lecture, Dr. William M. Hang presents his soft‑tissue diagnostic guidelines focused on the lower third of the face, emphasizing that orthodontic treatment can actively modify lower facial height—a capability many clinicians believe is impossible. He explains that while orthodontics can easily lengthen the lower face, it traditionally cannot shorten it without surgical or invasive approaches. Hang introduces Biobloc orthotropics as a non‑surgical method that can conservatively reduce lower facial height, particularly in patients with long faces and open bites, which he describes as some of the most challenging malocclusions. He stresses that earlier intervention yields better outcomes, and he illustrates his points with a clinical example of a patient who underwent conventional orthodontics that straightened the teeth but left the facial proportions unchanged, underscoring the need for treatment protocols that address both dentition and soft‑tissue aesthetics.

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All right, so let's talk about the next soft tissue guideline. All the things I'm giving you now, all the soft tissue guidelines that I use in diagnosis. And we're able to affect the face from here on down. That's our turf. From here on up, we're not going to affect it much, but this doesn't change very much. Pretty standard. But from here on down we can affect it and most people think in orthodontics you cannot affect the lower face height. You cannot make it— you can easily make it longer which is rarely what you want to do but it's impossible to conservatively make it shorter. We will show you how you do that and that's one of the key wonderful things about biobloc orthotropics is that you can do that. The less attractive faces and all the worst malocclusions are all in the long faces. The open bite patients that nobody knows how to treat. And the fact is that we can traditionally, with what we do, reduce the lower face height. The BioBlock orthotropics, the earlier we're able to treat, the better our chances of success in dealing with this kind of thing. Here's someone with a classic long face who's had orthodontics. And my point here is that this is— there's nothing wrong with this. This would be shown in a journal easily, and someone would be fine and happy to show that the teeth are straight. Let the, you know, the face just comes along for the ride.