Call to Action

Industrialised populations are suffering from high rates of crooked teeth, jaw joint disorders, and sleep-disordered breathing:

• Crooked teeth affect 39% to 93% of children and adolescents: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8534899/

• Jaw joint disorders affect 31% of adults and 11% of children & adolescents: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33409693/

• Sleep apnea affects 9% to 38% of adults: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27568340/

Many of these disorders can be explained in terms of poor craniofacial development. Compared to our ancestors, and to contemporary hunter-gatherers, our faces are increasingly growing downwards and backwards. This leaves less space for the teeth, less space for the airway, and puts the jaws out of their normal functional relationship.

The impact on our health and wellbeing is profound. Jaw joint problems can cause constant pain, and sleep apnea comes with a significant reduction in life expectancy and life enjoyment.

Current diagnostic standards routinely overlook these issues, and treatment standards in orthodontics can even cause or worsen them, by removing healthy teeth and further reducing the size of the mouth. This can lead to breathing issues and serious, in some cases debilitating, jaw joint pain.

Dr. Mike Mew described this trend in his 2014 article, Craniofacial dystrophy. A possible syndrome?. Recognition has been improving rapidly since the 2000s and especially since the 2010s, with the rise of airway-focused dentistry and orthodontics. Still, the signs and symptoms of poor craniofacial development are often missed at the individual level, and no response has been implemented at the public health level.

The result, for many patients, is years of misdiagnosis, inappropriate treatments, and significantly reduced quality of life from what are now easily recognisable, preventable, and treatable conditions.

Mission

The mission of the Arch Project is to:

• Raise public awareness of craniofacial dystrophy, so that people can start taking steps right now to improve their, and their children’s craniofacial development.

• Advocate for recognition of CFD within the health system, so that ultimately the health system can take responsibility for awareness, prevention, and treatment of CFD.

Recognition and action on craniofacial dystrophy will significantly improve the health of millions of people. It’s time to acknowledge and correct the effect that modern environments are having on our jaws and faces, so that more of us can breathe, sleep, and function at our best.

Call to Action

Patients, friends & family: sign the call to action, tell your healthcare providers about CFD, take part in campaigns, and share this message as widely as possible.

Parents: snoring and mouth breathing are often not taken as seriously as they should be. Healthy breathing is exclusively nasal and silent at rest, asleep or awake. If in any doubt, consult an airway-focused dentist.

Doctors and dentists: familiarise yourself with the signs and symptoms of CFD so that you can screen for related airway and posture issues and direct patients to appropriate avenues for further diagnosis.

Campaigns

Mouth Taping

#tapingforcfd

Wear mouth tape in public to raise awareness of craniofacial dystrophy, and to make a physical statement about the importance of proper oral posture and nasal breathing.

Mouth taping is originally a technique to prevent mouth breathing and maintain good oral posture while asleep. We’re supposed to breathe through our noses all the time: the nose cleans, warms, and humidifies the air going into the lungs, and nasal breathing is essential for proper growth of the face during development.

About

Arch is a patient-led project founded by Gus Hogg-Blake.

I’m a 34-year-old male currently planning MMA surgery and tongue tie release. I previously wrote about my experience going to the US from the UK for MARPE/MIND, and created the AirwayList provider database.