Break the Matrix

Dear All,

I am an orthodontist, one of the few third generation orthodontists and son of possibly the most controversial orthodontist in the world, who is wanting to find out what is really happening, in regard to the cause, pathology and cure of malocclusion and its relationship to other problems with the head and neck- TMD, sleep apnoea, glue ear, back and neck problems, sinusitis, deviated nasal septums etc etc......

Over the last 2 years I've visited practitioners all over the world in an attempt to find the best ways to move the maxilla up and forwards- which I feel is an integral part of correcting this problem. More recently talking to Dean Howell. I am very broad minded, and want to seek your help but also want to hear more than just your opinions or hearsay. The era of doctor knows best is truly over, and as I am trying to design the perfect protocol I thought that it might be a good idea to consult people that are effectively experimenting on them selves, since amongst you there is a great deal of latent knowledge.

If you are interested in what I am doing then here are some links;

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Orthodont/
https://www.facebook.com/orthotropics
https://www.facebook.com/YCrookedTeeth
http://www.orthotropics.co.uk/

You will notice that I am using my real name, please respect this and give polite informative responses. At times in medicine we have to agree to disagree, I'm not a novice at this procedure in children and am arguably achieving the best facial changes ever gained in children. Its my mission to improve this and work on adults as well. Your help would be greatly appreciated, my specific goal is to design the perfect headgear and oral appliance, and to work out the best level of wear of the headgear.

Thank you very much in advance,

Best wishes,

Mike

Welcome to the forum Mike Mew!   

We are very happy to see you here!  Looking forward to your posts, and know that many are going to be helped.

Enjoy!

Hello Dr. Mew, very glad and surprised to see you here. Your open-mindedness really makes me feel better about the medecine community.
I have no idea how Dr. Howell's FaceMax Helmet works but I suppose it's very similar to the one designed by Dr. Amir (Located in Putney, London). Also worth noting is that Dr. Amir is also working with Dr. Howell for optimizing symmetry in his patients.

Here is someone going through face-pulling and NCR and sharing their experience on a blog : http://orgoneproducts.org/blog/category/palate-expansion/

Thanks, could anyone give me feedback about there levels of time that they wear their head-braces. In orthodontics we usually think that 8hrs is the minimum for any changes. But many of you are only using these devices for 15min or so, surely if such a short time gained an effect then a heavy meal could also affect facial change. It does not make sense but I am open to what you think?
M

Not sure Mike, but last I heard, Amir was still very active and practicing in the UK.

I've had several patients come to me saying that he is no longer practicing, he would certainly owe them a call if he still is, but he's not responded to anything.
Apart from this, has anyone gained any information on wear times or types of head brace.

I've had several people congratulate me for the effort to trying to ask the membership of this site but i've had almost nothing useful back. As I mention I am very interested in what you as people that tried these things at home, have to say. Please give me some feedback.

Thanks,
M

Dr Mike Mew! What a joy to see you here. You are one of my idols, I'm a member of your Facebook group and I also heard your interview by Dr Steven Park (fascinating). 

I have been face pulling according to jawpain-tmjtreatment.com for 3 months total and the thing that I noticed the most was the bone above my right canine came out. I've also done 35 sessions of "self NCR"/balloon therapy but honestly I haven't noticed a difference big enough that I can be sure is not part of my imagination. I've been wondering how much the age in adults matters. Tyler on this forum has had tremendous results. He is however only 18 and considered to be a young adult. (I'm 36.) Messiah Mews has also had great results where the maxilla came forward quite a bit, but she's having NCR done professionally and with a lot more force. 

Before we move on with the conversation I think we might need to define forward maxillary expansion. To many laymen like myself this term appears quite vague. On one hand there is the maxilla as in Le Fort 1 osteotomy, there's also Le fort 2. What exact area in the skull are we talking about here? And which one of these two, if any, would be the equivalent of face pulling? Of orthotropics treatment? The crane? The ALF doing forward expansion?

On the other hand there's also expansion of the premaxilla. What appliance/technique takes care of this? 

I guess another question would be, can you expand a big part of the maxilla by using an appliance that works from inside the mouth? Or would you need some kind of reverse headgear to do that?

Then there are the actual teeth. People like myself who have had traditional orthodontics often have front teeth that are slanted inwards. It looks like they should be perpendicular to the nose. Face pulling has not addressed this problem in me so far. (It should be said that I'm wearing a lateral Schwarz appliance with a wire over the front teeth 24/7.) Or would that problem take care of itself if the maxilla was moved upwards? 

Why would I stop using the expander when that's the only thing that has helped so far? (I guess I didn't made sense in my last post.) I could stop using it and then try face pulling and ncr but a relapse at this point wouldn't be fun since I've invested a year in this treatment. So far ncr and fp are just theories to me without any proof that they would help me, whereas lateral expansion is very real.

What I'm using is very similar to a DNA appliance. I haven't done any forward expansion yet but I plan to. What Dr. Mew is asking though is whether face pulling for 30 or so minutes a day is helping people. My reply to that is that after 3 months I see very minor changes, if any, but I'm also struggling with understanding exactly what area we're talking about here.