Bill HangDental Practitioner, Lecturer at OrthO2Health

The Case for The Snore Button - William M. Hang DDS MSD

6 Feb 2013 · 1 min

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In this segment, Dr. William M. Hang argues that retracting teeth—moving them backward during orthodontic treatment—poses a serious health risk. He claims that pushing teeth back to a certain position will cause the patient to snore, and if retracted far enough, can lead to sleep apnea, which he describes as a 'death button' due to its potentially fatal consequences. He challenges traditional orthodontists by asking whether they know a safe limit for retraction, noting that no such position is known, and therefore any retraction carries the risk of inducing snoring and eventual apnea.

Chapters

Retraction of the teeth, in my opinion, is never a good idea. Where's the snore button? You— that's— I came up with this. You push the teeth back to a certain position, the patient's going to snore. If you get it back far enough, they're going to have sleep apnea. And if you have sleep apnea for long enough, then you're dealing with the death button. So I'd ask people, A traditional orthodontist. So, do you think that if you retract the teeth, there's a position where you might cause someone to snore? If they said yes, I'd say, well, where is that position? Where do you know? Well, I don't know. Well, then how could you retract at all if you don't know where that position is? 'Cause you're taking the chance of causing someone to snore, and if they snore, O'Brien said what? Everyone who snores is gonna get sleep apnea eventually if they live long enough. Mm-hmm.