CASE STUDY ᕢ “Documented links between prenatal exposure to environ-mental chemicals and adverse health outcomes span the life course and include impacts on fertility and pregnancy, neurode-velopment, and cancer.” 45 ᕣ “Pharmaceuticals pass through water treatment”, states U.S. Geological Survey. 46 ᕤ Hypothyroidism: “an under-active thyroid gland, can slow down nearly every organ.” 47 ᕥ Xenobiotics, as explained in Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats. 48 ᕦ “Breakfast with a Dose of Roundup? Glyphosate Contami-nation in Food Goes Far Beyond Oat Products.” 49 This short, but by no means complete, list helps explain why maloc-clusion, snoring, habitual mouth breath-ing, ADD/ADHD, and obesity are so prevalent. Figures 25, 26, and 27 show the consequences of missing epigenetic factors in orthodontic diagnosis. To avoid “disorder of oral-facial growth” as a root cause of pediatric OSA 50 and oral-systemic conse-quences of Impaired Mouth Syndrome, it’s crucial for orthodontic practitioners become informed on clinical epigenetics to educate parents on these epigenetics blockers: • Hypothyroidism and related delayed eruption • Tongue-tie and tongue thrust • Absence of lip seal from nasal obstruction and tonsils inflammation • Bruxing and snoring • Forward neck, poor posture • Facial-palatal asymmetry Figures 28 and 29 (Red Flags re Your Child's Best Face on page 22) are shorts lists I give to parents interested in nurturing their chil-dren's Best Face. Orthodontically-straightened teeth may be nice to look at, but they often come with Impaired Mouth Syndrome symptoms that are hard to live with. So, what should be the new criteria? 20 Summer 2023 JAOS
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society Summer 2023: Page 20
