In this recorded conversation, two dental professionals share personal experiences and professional insights about BioBlock Orthotropics® therapy. They recount treating a child named Georgia (and a son) with an expander followed by BioBlock therapy, emphasizing the critical timing of intervention during a growth spurt to reshape the skeletal structure of the jaw. The speakers outline a hierarchy of treatment goals—structural correction first, functional occlusion second, and aesthetic alignment third—explaining that once the bones are properly positioned, teeth alignment becomes straightforward. Airway health is highlighted as a core concern; an open airway and proper tongue posture are presented as essential outcomes of the therapy. The discussion also delves into ethical considerations, with one dentist expressing a strong aversion to extractions, preferring to add teeth whenever possible, a stance inspired by Dr. Bill Hang’s teachings. The conversation is emotionally charged, with both speakers expressing gratitude, excitement, and relief at seeing the children’s facial development improve without surgery. They also mention a desire to further study Dr. Hang’s methods, underscoring the educational value of the BioBlock approach.
Chapters
I just couldn't get it out of my mind that I knew I had a daughter whose profile had a retruded chin, and I didn't want her going through life with that appearance.
Many years I struggled with the thought, what can I do to help him? Knowing what I knew about orthodontics, I knew I need to wait, and my heart wasn't saying that that's the wrong thing to do, but I just didn't have an answer. What can I do for him? And I was so excited that the timing was right and the course was there and you guys were willing to teach me so many things. I learn every single day regarding him, regarding me, and regarding the treatment, but I'm just so excited about it. I'm so thankful for that. I look back at my son's face and just, I'm ready to cry each time when I look at him because I know it's happening. He's developing, he's growing. It's amazing. He's just becoming a perfect man, a perfect profile, perfect face, smile, breathing well as well, and he's just looking the way a child should look instead of having his jaw all the way back and not being able to breathe well and look funny and have his teeth sticking out and not knowing what to do for him. But now he's different. He's changing. A lot of things still to do for him, but it's exciting that I know what we can do for him.
Georgia started with an expander, and then we moved into the BioBlock therapy. We also had a little bit of braces on the upper front teeth just to get some alignment, and that, you know, that kind of helped us just mentally appearance-wise, but really I'm not so concerned about Getting the teeth straight as I am getting that profile right, because I know that getting the teeth straight is really easy in the end. So it's very important to catch that growth spurt, if you will, when the bones are forming in the jaw at a critical point. And we— I think we arrived just in time. So we got Georgia started with the BioBlock therapy at the right age, and we're thrilled with the results so far. She's been in BioBlock therapy for about a year, and we're going to do a little bit more BioBlock therapy just to really bring in the final touches for that profile.
If we can help develop the jaws, then we don't have to just align the teeth, and that's, that's all what it is about the BioBlock, is the timing to be able to let the body grow on its own and fit those teeth without just trying to To straighten them up, and that's the difference. If it's too late, that's just too sad.
There's structural and there's functional. So Dr. Hang really deals with structural. I mean, we're talking about the skeleton with Dr. Hang, and we're talking about getting the bones formed in the right, right location. Then there's function, functional. The function really comes in with the teeth and how they occlude together. That's actually almost— that's the easy part. The hard part really, and that's actually the BioBlock therapy, is the structural part of it. And then the functional part is, well, we can put some braces on the teeth and just get them tipped in the right location so that they're functioning up and down together. And then there's, you know, the aesthetic component where we're really making the teeth look good. That's the least important, and it kind of goes in that order. It's sort of the skeletal part, then there's the functional part, and then there's the aesthetic part, and it really has to go in that order.
Well, I know what happens to the face when it's pushed back, and again, I can relate to the knowledge that Bill taught us through all that year, knowing what happens to the face, knowing what happens to the jaw and the airway. It's a big part of me that believes that airway has to be open instead of closed. Just the mechanics of it, closing the The garage door and letting the tongue fall back. I can't do it. I just can't.
When teeth don't function, they break down. The bone breaks down, the tissue's not healthy, everything falls apart. So things have to be aesthetic, but more importantly, they need to be functional. So, and that's what my practice is all about. I'm not an orthodontist. That's why I seek an expert. However, I am considering taking some courses from Dr. Hang.
I don't do extractions for my clients for a long time. Probably just slightly a little bit earlier than I've met Bill because I was looking at the faces that would come back from orthodontics and my heart was aching for those children. When I've seen Bill showing on the lectures that we can add teeth instead of taking it out, I got so excited about that. I do know that sometimes maybe somebody can reason it that the tooth needs to come out, but I always feel that I won't be the one who will do it. I tell them, you know what, if that's all everybody wants to do it, for as long as you understand that the implications of it, you've got to find somebody else. I can't touch them anymore. I can't. I think after coming from my ACA meeting, I did my— I had to do that last extraction and I was crying while I was doing it. And never since then I've touched another tooth for purposes, for orthodontic purposes, and I never will. It's just not something that I will do it. I know it's a lot of fight about it, a lot of thoughts and a lot of thinking, knowledge or not, but I just feel that it's not what I'm going to do.
If you skip over the skeletal structural element that we're talking about, there are ways to get to that end component and get to that foundation, if you will, But it's surgical. So it's really nice when you don't have to bring in surgery. In my daughter's case, because she's at the age that she is, we didn't have to do surgery, and we can do it with BioBlock therapy. So for people who still have that retruded lower chin, we can move the chin forward and correct things skeletally with surgery, but it's still not as good. The end result can be as good, But there's still some situations where it's probably not as good as had we done it at a young age with the BioBlock therapy.
It is all connected. The body cannot be sectioned in small squares and divided in toes and feet and legs and teeth. It's, it's the body as a whole and we have to watch for it and be respectful of it, I guess.
