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I had AGGA for 4 months, and achieved 5mm growth. I have since been in CAB for 5 months. I am now able to breathe better through my nose, my open bite has closed, and my lower jaw has come forward. I am also experimenting with CFR (NCR) and Face Pulling, as per Plato's website.
I will be updating the blog over the course of 2021, and will hopefully be able to provide some better before and after pictures.
All I ask is that you please don't share my photos on other sites 🙂
Thanks for posting! We hear a lot about some AGGA failures, so it's always great to hear some times when it appears to have been successful! Hope you're getting good sleep and breathing ...
I had AGGA for 4 months, and achieved 5mm growth. I have since been in CAB for 5 months. I am now able to breathe better through my nose, my open bite has closed, and my lower jaw has come forward. I am also experimenting with CFR (NCR) and Face Pulling, as per Plato's website.
I will be updating the blog over the course of 2021, and will hopefully be able to provide some better before and after pictures.
All I ask is that you please don't share my photos on other sites 🙂
I have looked through your blog and have bookmarked it for future reference. You're a great writer and I enjoyed reading your insights. I'm currently studying to become a psychologist and I believe the overlap with how it is impacted by breathing, jaws, and overall posture is the future of mental health.
There is certainly a correlation between malocclusion and mental health - I spent 2 weeks in hospital after my first episode, and 4 out of the 5 psychosis patients had overbites, and the other couldn’t breathe through their nose.
It's been a long journey to really understand how everything in the human body is somehow correlated, as I'm sure it has been for many of us. I had mild breathing problems in my late childhood/early teens which caused me to start breathing through my mouth more, following which I started to notice my front teeth becoming slightly crooked. Naturally, I wanted my teeth to be straight so unfortunately had retractive orthodontics in my late teens and I noticed a multitude of problems arise soon after that. I could no longer sing, I would lose my voice constantly just from speaking, I was gasping for air during sleep, I struggled to breathe through my nose (after I discovered how important it was), and I had jaw clicking just to name a few symptoms.
What really helped me realise the correlation between malocclusion and mental health was when I read a few articles about how lack of oxygen during sleep can often lead to nightmares. Then it basically all clicked into place. Even though my breathing is much better today (I'm also currently in CAB), I still take note of my breathing during certain types of dreams. If I have even a slightly negative dream, I often notice that my breathing has been shallower than usual, or that my jaw had been sitting in an irregular position during sleep which led to shallow breathing.
On a slightly different note, how much did you end up expanding forward in total with AGGA in the end, and laterally with CAB?
I have looked through your blog and have bookmarked it for future reference. You're a great writer and I enjoyed reading your insights. I'm currently studying to become a psychologist and I believe the overlap with how it is impacted by breathing, jaws, and overall posture is the future of mental health.
Don't forget the TMJs in all of that. He has since passed, but Dr. Brendan Stack was a pioneer in helping Tourettes Syndrome patients, because he was trying to get the joints into better spots. You can find some videos of some of his patient cases on Youtube if you search around, it's stunning to see sometimes. Here's one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyBbVutYsqg
@eternally12 Absolutely, there is certainly a correlation there - I am now able to breath through my nose and notice I only have nightmares when I breathe through my mouth or sleep on my back. I also no longer get sleep paralysis, which I was experiencing every morning.
I got 5mm forward expansion with AGGA. I’m not sure how much I’ve achieved laterally with CAB, I will update once the treatment is complete.
How much growth did you achieve? And what symptoms did it resolve?
I didn't use AGGA (although my dentist also uses this appliance with some patients). Instead, I used the DNA appliance and got about 7.5mm lateral expansion and 5mm forward (similarly to you). Although, when my mandible is completely relaxed my jaw does like to deviate slightly to the right and so my mid-line is off and there is edge to edge contact still on a few of the front teeth around the lateral incisors. This still sometimes causes tension in my jaw on my right side but it is nowhere near as bad or constant as it was previously.
I mainly went with the DNA appliance because I also had mild sleep apnea, and the DNA appliance is meant to help resolve that. I can say my breathing is a lot better. I also seem to sing better and am less tired when talking for long periods - but because my bite is still not stable (I'm currently in CAB), a lot of that is dependent on a stable bite. I still have an overjet on my left side which the CAB is slowly resolving.
Unfortunately I was also a victim of extraction orthodontics (although my 2nd molars were extracted unusually; most people have their premolars extracted). As a result it impacted my breathing, speaking, and caused a lot of jaw pain.
