Bill HangDental Practitioner, Lecturer at OrthO2Health

The Case For Proper Rest Oral Posture - William M. Hang DDS MSD

19 Feb 2013 · 2 min

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1:37

In this segment Dr. William Hang explains how modern altered oral posture—typically a habit of keeping the mouth open—causes the maxilla and mandible to shift posteriorly from their ideal positions. This posterior displacement leads to a cascade of facial changes: the lower facial structures fall back while the nasal bone remains unchanged, resulting in a bent-down cartilage region and an overall retruded facial profile. He illustrates the concept with a vivid anecdote of a mother who photographed her son in a car rear‑view mirror, showing the child's open‑mouth posture and its impact on facial development. The talk emphasizes that these changes are widespread across all malocclusion classes (Class I, II, III) in contemporary society.

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The maxilla and the mandible back from an ideal location. Virtually all people in modern society, irrespective of Class I, Class II, or Class III. Changes are the result of altered oral posture. Now the whole face starts to fall back. Now our drawing here is a little bit off. In that this part does not fall back, but from here on down, this part changes. The nasal bone will stay the same from here up here, and from here where the cartilage is here, this will bend down. Now, how many have seen people that have a profile like that? There are a couple of those around, aren't there? I haven't looked real carefully, but maybe there are a couple in this room. Oh, I wouldn't want to do that, would I? This picture's really cool. This is from a gal in New York. She's driving her SUV and took a picture of her son in the rearview mirror. I'm not kidding. That's her son with his mouth hanging open.