Crooked teeth and possibly with that craniofacial form
Seems to have changed
relatively dramatically over a relatively short space of time
Few
people's
parents
Had their teeth straightened and I remember when I was at school
there was very few people who had any form of fixed or even removable braces within their mouth and
It was almost unheard of in my parents era
now most people's grandparents era and I
think we can safely say there's been a massive increase in the
Level of crooked teeth malocclusion and with that a certain level of facial change
now
Why it's always a very interesting question. Why now? I believe that
Oral posture and as exceptionally good evidence to suggest that oral posture is a key factor
Within this and of course oral posture tends to go with body posture in general
And if we go back to sort of grandparents and great-grandparents era in Britain
this was the Victorian era and I was asking some colleagues from
Lithuania and Latvia what they called the Victorian era and I was surprised that they called it the Victorian era
so the Victorian era is it seems to be
It was fairly similar. I think in many parts of the world
and
Images like this seem reminiscent of the Victorian era the image of st
Martin's which is a church that would allow people coming in homeless people would come in be given a meal somewhere to sleep
it was part of that church his charitable contribution to the
era it was in and here's an image of everyone sitting there
Bolt upright and the same with these children, you know, that was the Victorian thing you sat that sat upright
What what will interest me in it started this thought process that I'm having was this?
mealtime exercise, um elbows off the table
Chew your food well; eat with your mouth closed
I'm adding the McKenzie chin tuck so sitting up back like that
Basic good table manners, and this is really harking back to this
Victorian good body posture day and good body posture for eating
particularly and I
Really started to interest me and
So I started asking
The parents of the patients that were coming in
I'd get patients from all over the world. And of course England the London particularly. It's very multicultural
So even the patients I have from London have come from all four corners of the world. So I started asking parents
where what their parents were saying, you know, whether it was
Normal this you know elbows off the table sit up straight eat with your mouth closed whether that was normal in the cultures
They'd come from and I've had parents here and I think from easily from all of those continents
I can't say I've had many indigenous people from South for North America or Australia
but
Definitely had people from all walks of life in all of those areas
coming in to see me as patients that I've engaged in within the last year or two and
so far
every single
parent of patient or
adult patient has agreed that
Their parents or grandparents were trying to implement this
simple
Routine sit up straight elbows off the table mouth closed the same mantra was being said
By groups from all of these countries now
stop for a second and think about the significance of this because
People left Africa to travel to all four corners of the world before we had tables and chairs
So how could this?
concept exist unless it's happened since our
culture's diverged
which
Realistically. It must be the best example. I know
of a
Parallel cultural evolution. So the same
cultural phenomena
This sort of the mealtime mantra we could call it
has seen to evolve in all of the countries all the way around the world, uh
In parallel not necessary at the same time, but probably similar times
In relation to the change in culture that was going on
And
It's in French writing. I mean for such a phenomenon to have existed. There must have been a reason
Remember as my grandfather used to I never met my grandfather, but my father tells me my grandfather used to say
There must be a reason for everything. So if you see an abnormality
Look for the reason and that's what I do and that's what's gained me the conclusions. I've gained now
let's take a sideways step for a second because
If we wind back to the sort of pre sixties revolution
That changed society. I think we can look back
the sort of the hippie sixties or six years versus Cultural Revolution
Where the children stood up and said mum and dad
I love you, but I don't necessarily believe in all the things you've been saying or doing anymore and
We've thrown out a lot of dogma that was wrong
But wait, may we have thrown out too much?
so I
see images here of
people putting books and even
Glasses on their heads to increase their body posture and I remember this thing might be all that appeals on their heads as well
I I kind of feel you know from a
Modern era looking back on this this looks a little bit forced a little bit staged a little bit as if we are
You're coercing people to do this whether or not they want to maybe society's coercing them. However this was going on
This was almost normal within some groups definitely normal and people were standing, you know, they were being taught good posture
You know you even had books written this book here
make correct posture a habit
So it was a whole
movement within society to make people stand up well and we have an image here I got from a
Chinese airline that's trying to teach its airline hostesses
Good body posture. I
don't think
You would see this in a Western airline company and there's some interesting. That's an interesting discussion itself
You've also got him around occur stepping out of a car. I mean just
exquisite poise
deportment that this girl's
Displaying here as she gets out the car now interesting. She's another one of these
individuals of notice bought about it in the back in a sort of mixed farming environment where I
Which I just think is very healthy for you. It's just anecdotal
but minders is getting out of this car with absolute exquisite poise and body posture and
There that seems to have been ingrained right up till
Well, I I think the 60s phenomenon when we had dramatic change all of a sudden
You you wanted to be how you wanted to be into Slough to see that became cool
And this is you know, what we're gonna do
You didn't have to wear a tie to go to a meeting. You didn't have to wear a suit at the weekend for the
certain classes and groups within UK things started changing and
We come back to the why why were they there in the first place? Why did
Victorian Britain and the relative
parallel groups all around the world
Enforce on their children and this appears to have gone from right?
Down to the very poorest groups up to the reworked wealthiest groups this idea of good body posture both when you're eating
Both were in deportment when you're moving around
To such a strict level. I mean did people in this era not love their children as much as we do now
Did they not care?
Why were they all being really very strict on their kids, you know? Yeah, I've got some images of um,
army recruits with pins and their lapels to keep them standing up straight and apparently that was
Relatively common within the army and of course not long ago we had conscription. So it was a society-wide thing
What why because there's a reason for everything now I take this
image
circa
1920
From an artist who is depicting the village idiot now?
In many ways what's being described here is an adenoidal face
It's a very downs one faces with a lengthened face. It's someone who's hung the mouth open like this
And I just remember my mother telling me
She would say
Don't hang your mouth open because the wind will change and it will set like that
or she would say
Stop hanging your mouth open or you'll look like you'll become the village idiot
now
Who was the village idiot?
Well, we've got this image here of the village idiot and you've got this long face
Almost an adenoidal face
Your flat cheekbones
But almost certainly a decreased airway size
And of course the idea the the
the inference behind this is that this person is not so intelligent and I mean
fascinated by
Images I got here. We've got Bush and we've got
Obama
You know clearly you've got
Articles written these these four images went with articles both of which articles were particularly unflattering
Giving the impression that both of these individuals were stupid
So they are looking similar to the village idiot this sort of
der and
where did that derh
concept come from
Well, I think the best reason I've come up with so far goes back to these
You know wise traditions and he's wise tradition saying sit up straight shut your mouth
Chew your food properly, um and have good body posture and deportment
Stand straight grow straight and this is this you know, this is this this concept behind yet and I think
That we could probably say there's an element of truth to this. Um
I think we just have some this up with
the title of this book
make correct posture habit
and of course the younger the better get young children engaged and
My mission is is prevention. I genuinely think that with
Some effort
we could prevent craniofacial dystrophy the the cause of crooked teeth and possibly sleep apnea and many other things and
As a society, this is clearly what we should be doing
so
Make correct posture a habit and prevent malocclusion