The Importance of Respiration and Mastication in the Etiology, Diagnosis and Treatment of Malocclusions in Preschool-age Patients
The didactic courses and clinical training opportunities required for this author to have successfully completed a Master of Science degree in Human Nutrition at Michigan State University in the early 1980’s, were mainly focused upon providing information about the molecular structure and biological functions of myriad biochemical nutrients (e.g., proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and other trace elements) that are requisite to modern-day (post-industrial) human survival and thriving. Historically, until approximately 300-400 years ago, the human diet had been mostly derived from structurally-firm, fibrous and fresh edible plants, and raw, or minimally-cooked, animal product sources. Prior to actual food ingestion and digestion, nutrients are made more biologically-available by various forms of external (mechanical) food processing (e.g., cutting, grinding/milling, cooking, etc.), followed by internal (biological) processing (i.e., chewing, bolus formation, swallowing) by the hard and soft tissues comprising the masticatory complex (i.e., jaws, teeth, tongue, muscles of mastication and salivary glands, etc.). However, little academic content at all had been offered during this author’s graduate training regarding how the aforementioned essential nutrient-containing food sources should (i.e., in accordance with what the human genome is best adapted) be biologically-processed (chewed/masticated) prior to their assimilation (digestion, absorption and distribution) into vital tissues. Largely because Biological Anthropology and Evolutionary Biology are not, as of now anyway, considered as being similarly useful to healthcare professionals’ (HCP's) educations as are other life-science subjects such as Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics and Microbiology, etc., most HCP's will struggle at best to evaluate modern diseases from an evolutionary perspective.
Serving as a proxy in this presentation for how food sources had been biologically-processed (i.e., chewed) for hundreds of thousands of years, will be what still is being practiced by extant (still in existence) traditionally-living people such as the Hadza, Aka and Khoisan et al. Upon arrival to the gastrointestinal (g.i.) tract, nutrient transit (absorption) into the bloodstream and delivery to tissues via the hepatic portal system, will eventually result in their metabolism by trillions of individual cells to support growth, development, repair and maintenance of homeostatic equilibrium.
Learning Objectives:
- specific skeletal malocclusion traits, such as mandibular retrognathia (class II malocclusion), maxillary skeletal transverse deficiency (with or without a posterior dental crossbite) and excessive lower facial height (high angle), are usually discernible before age 6 (72 months old) and will seldom, if ever, self-correct and will usually persist and become more complex (i.e., worsen) into later adolescence and adulthood if left untreated
- as the craniofacial complex is intimately connected to the adjacent respiratory complex, suboptimal dentofacial development in childhood can also negatively impact respiratory health and related problems, co-morbidities, with sleep, general systemic health and quality of life (QOL).
- similar to the concept of lifespan, which is defined as how long a person lives from the day of their birth, health-span is defined as how long a person avoids becoming afflicted with chronic disease(s) as they age into their senior years.