NEW BOOK: 6 Ways to Design a Face

6 Ways to Design a Face: Corrective Jaw Surgery to Optimize Bite, Airway, and Facial Balance written by Australia's own Dr Paul Coceancig and published by Quintessence is available now.

In this innovative and paradigm-busting book, the author asserts that almost all bad bites have their origin in a small mandible, what he calls anterior mandibular hypoplasia, or AMHypo and further claims that surgical management is the only means to correct it. AMHypo arises because of a small anterior tongue and it leads to dewlap (poor chin-neck contour), dental crowding, impacted third molars, a range of dental malocclusions and retroglossal tongue displacement into the upper airway. Traditional orthodontics often camouflage the small jaw by extracting "extra" teeth that don't fit and controlling growth with various appliances, effectively leaving the patient in the same medical predicament they were in before having their teeth straightened and their occlusion fixed. After all, for every patient with a bad bite, there are three combined, interwoven, inseparable treatment considerations: occlusion, airway, face. In this book, the author outlines the anthropologic underpinnings of the small jaw and then outlines his six surgical methods of designing the face to optimise bite, airway and facial balance: IMDO, GenioPaully, custom BIMAX, SuperBIMAX, custom PEEK implants and SARME. IMDO, or intermolar mandibular distraction osteogenesis, is surgically less invasive than third molar surgery that can expand the mandible by as much as 16.5 mm and effectively bring the tongue forward to eliminate the potential for airway issues down the line, not to mention improve the patient's profile dramatically. The surgeries and protocols in this book will have you rethinking your approach to patient care and asking yourself how you can better care for your patient now AND in the future. The author sees no reason why we should not expect to carry all 32 of our teeth for our adult lifetime in a Class I occlusion and free of crowding or impactions or airway collapse. Do you dare to join him? Available online.