Orthodontics can cause sleep apnea - Class Action Lawsuit

[Janknitz]

Class action suits make a lot of money for lawyers, not much for anyone else, so don't expect to get rich off being a class member. It won't fix the problems or make you whole, it will line the pockets of the lawyers very handsomely if successful.

I had extraction/retraction orthodontics in the 70's. I know it was state of the art then--I have a cousin who was a well-known orthodontist in Boston at the time, and he gave his approval to my California orthodontist's plan.

What's done is done, the damage is there and won't go away.

It would make a lot more sense to go after anyone who is STILL teaching or practicing this type of procedure today. My daughter has the same orthodontic issues (related to our genetic condition) and out of 4 orthodontists we consulted, two of them were STILL recommending extraction/retraction as recently as 7 years ago.

Fortunately, I found a wonderful orthodontist who trained in South Africa, where there was much more emphasis on bone development (NOTE: Every dentist in town sent their kids to HIM). His treatment plan has been virtually painless, very comfortable and easy, including a device to advance the lower mandible, and incredibly effective. I love looking at my daughter's now broad smile and her chin--something I never had. It's a beauty to behold! I had an ENT consult to check her airway, and they said that it is wide open and clear. Mission accomplished.

She is on the last phase of orthodontia to just do the final alignment, then retainers until she finishes growing. This isn't inexpensive. We only somewhat jokingly call it the "million dollar mouth".

If in 30 or 40 years they find that there are better treatment options, I hope she won't try to sue this orthodontist--he's giving her the best state of the art care for this day and time.

[Luthie2006]

I also had many teeth extracted that were good teeth for orthodontics and braces and wore a head gear at night. My question is though, how many people who had these procedures done in the 1960's and 1970s, who do not have sleep apnea? My dentist now said I have a huge tongue and a very small jaw, almost child-like jaw. Did orthodontics caused this by having teeth extracted in the 1960's? I don't know if I can prove that. I do know that before braces I could not close my mouth because my teeth protruded so much.

[DeadlySleep]

Most of the people replying don't understand the OP. He is not suing your orthodontist. This would be impractical in a class action suit.

a class action against orthodontic colleges and/or manufacturers of retractive orthodontic appliances

The science is very clear on these types of appliances. They reduce the size of the airway and cause sleep-disordered breathing in a very high percentage of patients.

It's not a matter that we have learned something new. It's a matter that these colleges and manufacturers promoted major changes to one body part without considering the impact on other body parts. They violated basic medical science by not considering the side effects. This would have been malpractice even sixty years ago.

I hope this lawsuit is effective in bringing widespread attention to orthodontics and the relationship to the human airway.

[avi123]

Go ahead but leave the Endodontics alone.

[TheEdMan]

I've been battling sleep apnea for as long as I can remember. I've been using a CPAP machine with mild success for over 8 years now, and have had several corrective surgeries to try and offset the breathing abnormalities I've been suffering when prone or asleep. In the 5th grade or so I had braces applied for which they extracted several healthy adult teeth (I believe 7).
In the 7th grade I got my braces off, but I also underwent the first surgery for the snoring that had become so obstructive that I was enduring the ridicule of by my peers and their families any time I slept away from home. It was audible through several walls and on more than one occasion prompted the adults to drag my mattress into the hallway or lobby and make me sleep there. I dreaded getting invited to stay anywhere over night and had to explain that they wouldn't like my snoring. Each and every time I knew that despite their insistence that they probably wouldn't even notice, I'd still hear all about it the next day. Because of the humiliation I convinced my parents to take me to an ENT who removed my tonsils and adenoids on the pretense that it would make the snoring go away. It barely had an impact.
To me there was no name for what I was suffering from, but I was acutely aware that something was wrong with my sleep. I was getting yelled at by my parents as I tended towards sleeping later and later in to the day to make up for the sleep I wasn't getting at night. By the time I was in high-school people who witnessed my sleeping were either full of laughs about how amazing my snoring and ability to fall asleep anywhere were, or adamant that they were worried I might stop breathing entirely. In high school I became vaguely aware of the term Sleep Apnea from one of those late night commercials and was immediately convinced that was what I had, but with the shortsightedness of youth and the lack of perspective as to how badly it was affecting me kept me from seeking further counseling on the subject.
In college a girlfriend provoked me to see a sleep specialist because she and my roommates were concerned I might go to bed one night and not wake up. It was here that I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. At the time I was having 72 apnea events per hour and had not yet undergone CPAP treatment. For some sense of scale, anything over 5 events an hour is when they start to recommend CPAP therapy, and anything over 20 events an hour falls into the 'severe' category.
The experiences I've had with CPAP over the past decade, both positive and negative could fill a wordy post on it's own, so I won't get in to that too much here. Regardless, last year things came to a head when even while using my CPAP machine, I routinely slept in excess of 12 hours, and was considerably fatigued when awake. On the nights when I would fall asleep without the machine I seriously woke up with the impression that I almost didn't survive the evening. I underwent another sleep study, was informed that my apnea events had risen to 84 an hour and the implications of how dangerous that was didn't really need to be expressed in words.
As a response I pursued corrective surgery and last summer had a hyoid stint, in which the bone in the throat my tongue and other mouth anatomy is attached was pulled down slightly to tighten things up a bit and keep the airway open during sleep. They also did a UPPP which means they attached the uvula to the roof of my throat. Recovery was a difficult 4-6 weeks, but I felt an immediate benefit to my quality of life. After 9 hours of sleep even without the CPAP I felt comparably well rested. Unfortunately the sleep study results weren't as promising as I'd hoped. Since those surgeries I'm down to 52 events per hour, so we saw a calculable benefit of about 30% or so. I'm not off the CPAP but it is easier to tolerate than before and I'm not afraid of dying without it.
Incidentally, my machine stopped functioning last month and because of insurance BS it took a month to get a replacement. The approach that "CPAP should be enough" (which was greatly advocated by the company that sells CPAP machines) was perhaps a real threat to my life and a genuine threat to my already scary health situation.
Story over? I wish. Now that I've changed states I have been seeing a different line of specialists through a different sleep clinic, and I'm getting some new and troubling information. Now they want to restructure my jaw (which incidentally, will require me to get wired up with braces again) because according to what the dental surgeon told me that when I was a kid instead of fixing my jaw they attacked the cosmetic symptoms that were associated with it. Instead they started ripping out teeth and wiring up my jaw.

Sleep apnea has ruined my life; I have suffered severe depression, anxiety, and my unmanageable fatigue levels have consistently stood in the way of my relationships and career. My heart, lifespan, and dental health have all been compromised by this condition and the treatment. It is only now that I am starting to get better that I have developed some perspective on what happened to me. I've finally gained an understanding as to what it is like to live with (comparably) healthy sleep, but I'm still here at the point where I am considering further painful and humiliating procedures to correct for a condition that I am now coming to believe was exacerbated or downright caused by the orthodontics industry.
I have permanent physical scars from these experiences, and indescribable emotional ones. If I go through with the jaw procedure, it will require me to live the rest of my life with a drastically different facial appearance that I cannot see before committing to it. I'm still reeling from the shock and unsure of how or if I'm actually going to proceed, but I am beginning to believe that my parents were taken in by some charlatans who knowingly put my health at a severe detriment to sell them my "nice" smile. I am not a medical professional myself, so I cannot specifically pinpoint them as responsible at this time, but I certainly want it explored for the sake of anyone else who might suffer a similar fate.

[phoebe368]

I too am a victim of the scam that braces are. When I was little I had a severe overjet "buck teeth" they used to say. Adults and kids would always make fun of my teeth so I became very self-conscious and would cover my teeth when I laughed. My mom took me to the orthodontist when I was 13 for braces. They pulled a bunch of upper teeth and pushed my upper maxilla backwards over time with braces. Thus leaving me with a narrow airway and nowhere for my tongue to go but to fall backwards into my airway. Now I know that my lower jaw was actually under developed thus giving me the appearance of a severe overjet. Ever since getting the braces on I suffered from sleep problems, fatigue, cognitive problems, depression, anxiety etc. etc. I got the maxillo-mandibular advancement surgery in 2010. To me, I feel a great change in my appearance which I dislike. My nose is flatter and I already had a flat nose to begin with so I am unhappy about that but people have told me that they don't notice that much of a change. Unfortunately, the MMA didn't work for me I felt that it just created more room for my tongue to fall back in because afterwards, my RDI index was unchanged and I could actually feel my tongue collapsing at night which was quite jarring. I suppose I could have gotten more tongue surgeries but I was fed up with everything not working (including dental devices, cpap, bipap etc. So I finally was given a tracheostomy 2011. Now I finally have my life back. It as a high price to pay but I could not face living the rest of my life with sleep apnea.

[RogerSC]

Both my daughters had orthodonture more recently, like 10 years ago or so. The results that they had were much better than when I had it back in the 60's. They both had expanders to create more space, I had more of a compression process (but no teeth pulled), so have a more narrow airway, and my teeth are closer together. That was the way that orthodonture was done then. My daughters now have wider jaws, and wider airways, so I'm guessing that they won't have the sleep apnea problems that I have. Hard to say, time will tell on that one.

I don't know, like most people here, how much my orthodonture contributed to my sleep apnea, but if I were to have orthodonture now, which I've considered, the results would be different. Again, whether that would change my sleep apnea situation remains to be seen, but I was glad to see that orthodonture has changed a lot since I had it. And I can't blame my orthodontist or the people that made the braces (orthodontic appliances *smile*), that was the state of the art back then. I would feel differently now if the techniques used then were used now, but times and procedures change as new technologies and techniques are invented and start to be used. And hopefully, the results get better.

[Mabutu]

Hello the Edman

Unfortunately your tragic story is all too common. I don't think the orthodontists/surgeons knew about OSA in the 60's and 70's . If i read correctly I hope your mandibular maxillary advancement restores the diameter of your airway to its rightful size and you sleep well again . Good luck and god bless

Phobe, wow , you've been through too much!! thats awful that you can feel your tongue falls backwards still

Do you just use the trachy or cpap as well?

[TheEdMan]

That's the thing. It wasn't the 60's or the 70's. I was fitted for braces when I was 12, which would have put me solidly in 1995. This is unacceptable. From what I understand the orthodontic schools were, and ARE aware of the connections between these practices and sleep apnea, and continue to apply them. My nephew who is 12 years old just had 3 teeth removed and has worn braces for the 4 months since....I have a feeling this "modern footbinding" is going to be applied to some pre-teen within the hour.

[Mabutu]

then if they do it in this day and age, they should be sued

[Hosehead4ever]

My parents couldn't afford orthodontia for me after my sister's years in braces. I guess now I'm grateful?

[Darth Lady]

I had extraction/retraction orthodontia in the '70s also, with retainer. I was bitterly opposed to having teeth pulled because they were perfectly good teeth, but who listens to an 11-year-old? Now I have a small mandible, a high, narrow palate, a tongue that overhangs all my lower teeth, and a jaw I have to pull back in order to get my teeth to meet (i.e., bite). Also, I've got a "witchiepoo" face because my teeth were pulled back. Thanks a lot, doc.

I'm glad for the sake of kids I know now that the state of the orthodontic art is finally advancing out of the medieval era. Sadly, it's true that nothing scares like a lawsuit, but plaintiffs will have to show that appliance makers/colleges and whoever else they named should have known at the time that what they were doing was likely to have bad effects. I'm not sure they can do that, especially since there are other factors, including the realities of human evolution, that contribute to our "ability" to have OSA (yep - it's just us and flat-faced dogs that have this issue). Dr. Steven Y Park, an ENT, did some research and found several investigations by dentists, including this:

"Dr. Weston Price, a dentist, traveled the world over sixty years ago looking at isolated cultures that lived and ate off the land.2 He compared their dental health and jaw structures to those who began to eat Western, processed foods. Within one to two generations, these people began to suffer from severe dental caries and misaligned teeth. In addition, people eating Western diets had significant jaw structure narrowing, with major crowding of teeth. In contrast, people living off the land with no Western influences had healthy, vibrant, cavity-free and straight teeth. Their jaws were wide with broad arches, with no crowding whatsoever."

--Park M.D., Steven Y. (2008-09-09). Sleep Interrupted (Kindle Locations 367-372). Jodev Press, LLC. Kindle Edition.

BTW, he cites a different dentist as observing that there was far more palate deformation after bottle feeding (and pacifiers) got popular. Might as well sue your mom.

We're getting more and more evidence about the dangers of a processed diet to many areas of health, and the same for even a heavily grain-based diet in general. There is, for instance, Jared Diamond's famous observation that settled agriculture may have been the biggest mistake humanity ever made. The archeological finds of human remains after the agricultural revolution show decreased stature, unhealthy bone and yes, bad jaws and teeth. Perhaps the best thing we can do healthwise for future generations is to feed them a "real food" based diet with sufficient protein (yes, a reasonable amount of meat) and a very modest amount of grain.

Other observers found similar

[ChicagoGranny]

then if they do it in this day and age, they should be sued

+1

[Darth Lady]

Yeah, me 2

[BlackSpinner]

Have an overbite, should have had teeth straightened and bite fixed. No money at the time - still have OSA.

Oh and I was breast fed.