Underdevelopment in the Midface

In the second video we reached the point that modern human lifestyle affects our midface development, and then this resulted underdevelopment affects the rest of our body.

Now, let’s see how this underdevelopment looks in the midface which is the primary affected site.

Let’s start with the palate.

As you see in this picture, if we look at the palate from the front, the palate is a plate which separates oral and nasal cavities.

If the palate forms above its proper position, which is called deep palate, the nasal cavity becomes smaller.

If it comes down, creating a shallow palate, the oral cavity will get smaller.

In the next videos I will explain why these conditions happen.

Now, if we look at the palate from below, you will see if we have a wider and longer palate, we will have a larger alveolar ridge to be occupied by our teeth.

The bigger this arch, the more space the teeth have to sit.

Bear in mind that jaw sizes are affected by the lifestyle, the number of teeth, and sizes are not affected by environmental changes.

So, we can draw this conclusion that the smaller jaw, the more crowding we face with the teeth.

Let’s see what has happened to the size of the palate in the past ages.

The fossils found from the first species of humans from two million years ago, have the palates about 38 mm wide.

This width is similar in cases from then to about 20 thousand years ago.

Later, this width started to become shorter. So, the current average width is something about 31, and in some severe cases it is measured even less than 25 mm.

Now let’s consider the palate length and its position in the back and forth direction.

If we look at the palate from the side, we find that the less advancement in the top jaw position we have, the more distance between the tip of the front teeth and the tip of the nose we have.

Please remember that when a bone grows, the adjacent bones need to follow it. For example when we stimulate the top jaw bone to grow, the cheek bones will follow as well, and larger cheeks will be noticeable.

At the same time this point below the nose comes forward pushing up the tip of the nose.

Conversely, when we have a more underdeveloped top jaw, this point goes back, pulling down the tip of the nose, resulting in a nose hump.

Now let’s study crooked teeth.

In skulls from 10 to 15 thousand years ago, only 5% of cases had some sort of problems with misaligned teeth, but today, for the modern human it is something close to 95%.

5% has been turned in to 95%.

In a nutshell, there had been a balance which is broken today.

The top jaw and the cheeks have become smaller and we have problems with crowded and crooked teeth with unerupted or out of the arch top canines.

Unfortunately, the problems are much more than what I have discussed so far.

In the next video, we will consider the parts below the top jaw to see what problems this underdevelopment has caused there.

See you soon.