Man takes picture of daughter for 14 years video, does it show possible effect of braces on lengthening face?

One of my readers showed me this time lapse video of a girl going from baby to 14 years old in 4 min. Apparently the father took records of his kids every week since they were born… some commitment.

It is a great opportunity to study facial development.

It’s worrying in the beginning as I thought the baby was leaving her mouth open too often. But some clips with mouth closed, so its hard to tell what is the resting posture most of the time. maybe the baby is opening the mouth often as part of their expression not their resting posture. but clips like the middle it seems she is leaving the mouth open…

By age 2, her baby teeth has come in but there is no gaps between them, this means her palate is already a bit narrow at this point, and the adult teeth will come in crowded, as seen in the after picture. The lower teeth is crowded.

Note to parents: The ideal time to notice first signs of trouble is when the baby teeth is out, there should be gaps between them (esp the front two teeth). It is best to correct/intervene as early as possible before adult teeth comes in, using orthotropic premise, this means treating as early as 3-4. or oral muscle training.

• Her narrow palate might be due to having some form of infantile swallow.
• Leaving mouth open too often.
• or not enough chewing, weaker jaw muscles.

I imagine its combination of all 3. Although it seems like her lip seal posture improved at around age 6 and perhaps many children improve in this way when they become socially aware.

(or did she already have good lip seal as a baby but babies just open their mouth often… its hard to say)

She grows up as an attractive child, overall. She has her mouth closed and lip sealed when not speaking so this explains her relatively normal development.  But like most modern children not perfect as some dental crowding exist which shows her maxilla is not ideal. But almost nobody is ideal given modern diet.

Perhaps her pallet is a bit narrow at this point.

Far left is before braces, middle and right is after braces are put on. Possible signs of facial lengthening?

above picture of her before braces I think the face looks better. (shorter and broader)

And I don’t think its just growth that causes faces to get longer, because we have adults like below with short, broad attractive faces.

I believe main difference being these girls enjoy chewing and do plenty of it growing up. Maybe they love carrots or something? The wide face with square jaws tells us they have strong muscle tone.

Why I believe braces always increase vertical growth

here’s the current theory on the likely causes of vertical growth as braces are put on.

• the most obvious one being braces’ nature to retract teeth back especially if there’s extractions involved, when teeth are pulled back in some ways the maxilla is also pulled back and it doesn’t simly go back but swings down and back, which increases the vertical.
• braces extrude teeth as the teeth are moved.  the tooth’s roots do not move as easily as the body, so when moving teeth there seems to be some extruding of teeth. as teeth extrude the lower jaw will not be able to close as far and this increases vertical.
• braces causes sore teeth which discourages heavy chewing and patient are asked to stick to soft foods, which will gradually weaken the masseter muscles leading to longer face. If open mouth posture develops from the weaker muscles the result would be even more profound.

I think its combination of all three. Obviously if things like headgear is used to pull the teeth back further, the facial lengthening is worse.

Orthodontists believe you can simply pull teeth back but it’s not quite so simple, because teeth is connected to your facial bones. By pushing the teeth back, the maxilla has to swing down and back, which is always damaging to the face.

Result is flatter cheekbones, more prominent nose, thinner face, weaker profile.

Health concerns could be less airway, sleep apnea, TMJ, psychological as the major ones.

Is it worth straightening teeth by taking a hit to facial beauty?

Conclusion

I understand the topics I am bringing up in this post could sound quite offensive but my intention is to study and inform the readers about the underlying causes of dental crowding and the mechanics of facial development, so its important to be critical of even the smallest signs but at the same time its challenging to not come across the wrong way.

Most will see that her development was great, but the braces later in life tells us it was not ideal.

While I agree that she grows up as quite the pretty girl, imo there’s still some early signs of facial dystrophy (vertical growth) as is normal with the modern population, although we’re not talking about a severe case. Maybe because they are from Netherlands, similar to the Danish, they may have tougher foods than other parts of the modern world.

I think some of the early signs are some open mouth posture, baby teeth with no spaces, adult teeth coming in crowded, some darkness under the eyes. It all indicates that her maxilla is still a bit down and back from ideal.

IMO early intervention to expand and bring the jaws forward at 6-9 years old would have done some wonders, since the signs were already there. Instead of getting braces at 14, which in the long run may not have been the best thing for the face.

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