Break the Matrix

I would like to add my 2 cents here.
I have tried face pulling as outlined in Plato's site and I've tried the crane headgear.

Also I have been expanding my palate using biobloc (Dr. Gibbs patient from Grand Rapids, MI).

Also the whole time I have been performing self-NCR on myself as taught by Ben of this site.

What I now realize was that as a kid I had blocked nose a lot so I was probably mouth breathing often, especially while I slept.
This was the root cause of crooked teeth, and my maxilla falling downwards and not growing horizontal. This is evident when I view my side profile.

I stopped using the crane because I was only wearing while I slept, and I felt it was too unstable to use while I slept, was worried that it was pulling on the maxilla with uneven forces.

Also Plato's facepulling technique gave me some noticeable results at first, like my cheekbones becoming more pronounced. however I stopped seeing changes after a while. this technique seem to slightly bring the whole face forward, not just the maxilla.

With face pulling technique I felt most pressure on the cheekbones during treatment, so it wasn't necessarily bringing the maxilla up and forward in the face, it was pulling on the whole face more.

I was doing all of these technique before I learned about the importance of correct tongue posture...

My current understanding is this, what I need is for my maxilla to come up and forward in the face, because it had dropped back and down as a kid since I resorted to mouth breathing often, this is evident by the fact that I had clogged nostrils a lot.

2 months ago I finally go the biobloc out and I went into light wire braces to align the teeth. I had expanded the palate considerably (for 1.5 years), and reopened the extraction spaces that had been closed by previous orthodontics.

What I am learning now, is that since I expanded the palate, I now have larger nasal passage way, so my nose is way less clogged, this allows me to train to make nose breathing the habit and always keep my mouth closed. Also because of the expansion, I now have the room to rest my tongue on the roof of the mouth.

Gram for gram I read the tongue is the strongest muscle in the body, so I am now using the tongue to push the maxilla up and forward in the face. I am beginning to see subtle results already with this. My guess is that If I continue to habitualize proper tongue posture and become a nose breather, and also as an daily exercise push the maxilla up and forward with the tongue, over time this is how I will get proper maxillary protraction. Also my new tongue posture will stabilize the expansion of the dental arch I gained.

As a kid I never learned to rest my tongue like this, so it will be interesting to see how adopting new posture of the tongue will affect my face at a later age. (I'm 24), As an experiment, through out the day I use my tongue to push on the alveolar ridge to encourage/drive the maxilla up and forward.

Also I am still continuing self-NCR on myself, this treatment may be helping this process a long as well.

Although even with self NCR I feel that I am seeing better results after I became conscious of the importance of keeping mouth closed and tongue on the roof of the mouth. It could be possible that when I first began self NCR 2 years ago,, I was still leaving my mouth open often and it was hindering my progress greatly.

This article below was a big eye opener for me:
http://www.jfdental.com/pdf/article-horizontal-growth.pdf

Dr. Mike Mew in your Craniofacial Dystrophy: Modern Melting Faces presentation you mentioned that your face has become better looking over the past 7 years as a result of adopting proper oral posture which is mouth closed with tongue on the roof of mouth.
and your assistants as well have been seeing positive facial changes as a result of adopting these new postures.

Are you saying that before, you and your assistants used to leave your mouth open as well?

Did you just adopt mouth closed, and tongue on roof of mouth as practice just to see positive facial changes? or were you doing other things? like chewing exercises? since you mention one of the issue is we eat foods that are too soft.

if angle of mandible is slanting down, could an adult reshape the mandible at late age to more horizontal mandible, by adopting proper posture?

for example, did you see changes to your mandible as an adult ? since I see that your mandible is pretty horizontal...

Like you said, if so much can go wrong at late age due to conditions like muscle dystrophy, then by using the muscles of jaw and tongue, we should be able to re-shape the bones to the more ideal design. since I believe bone is more like clay that is moldable.

So if our ancestors had well developed mandibles because they chewed a lot more, then if I was to begin doing a lot more chewing, will I be able to change the bone of lower jaw itself towards more developed jaw? for example, chewing more could cause more bone deposition in the lower jaw and actually make the bone bigger over time? Do you have any experience or insight in this, I'd very much like to see your viewpoint on this.

thanks.

good to hear you're making steady progress, you seem to have gotten a handle on the therapy pretty quickly, looking forward for the picture.