Possible Orthodontic Solutions for Adults With Airway Problems – (11/16/21)

Date: November 16, 2021
Time: 7:00pm-8:00pm (EST)
Speakers: Dr. Bill Hang

Description:

Possible Orthodontic Solutions for Adults With Airway Problems …doing what you’ve been told you couldn’t or shouldn’t do!

The new airway paradigm which is mandated by the ADA in 2017 requires us to rethink everything we were taught in dentistry and orthodontics in particular. The goal becomes optimizing facial balance and the airway with the teeth is a convenient handle to the jaws, face, and airway. James Nestor’s book, Breath, has raised public awareness about all things related to breathing and sleep. The public is now more aware of these problems than the dentists who should be treating them.

If we are to offer our patients what are hopefully long-term solutions for breathing and sleep issues we must understand what is possible. Orthodontics can often help the airway compromised patient. Treatments include expanding the upper and lower arches (even though there is no midline to the mandible), re-opening previous orthodontic extraction spaces, adding extra bicuspid teeth where no teeth are missing, advancing anterior teeth all in appropriately selected cases, and surgically advancing both jaws when nothing else will work.

We owe our patients a full menu of possibilities to help them select and potentially be as healthy as they decide they want to be.

Dr. Bill Hang graduated from the University of Illinois College of Dentistry and the University of Minnesota Orthodontic program where he briefly taught orthodontics.  After about 7 years of having a traditional orthodontic practice, he became dissatisfied with the faces he was producing and set out to learn and develop techniques that would produce the best facial balance.  Bill then became aware of the significant positive effects some of his treatments had on the airway.  This opened up a whole new aspect of orthodontics – maximizing the airway for ALL orthodontic patients and specifically treating patients with sleep-disordered breathing or obstructive sleep apnea.  

Bill has lectured locally, nationally, and internationally and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the AAPMD for his work on optimizing the airway in patients of all ages.  Passionate about teaching others about the benefits of OrthO2Health (pronounced ortho -2-health) where the airway is always the first consideration, Bill has launched two mentorships:  The Hang E.C.H.O. (Early Childhood Health-Centered Orthodontic™) Mentorship and the Hang E.R.R.S. (Extraction Retraction Regret Syndrome™) Orthodontic Mentorship.