When a child presents to a dentist with a high and narrow palatal vault, often an expander is recommended to widen the face and allow for the correct spacing and positioning of the adult teeth. But the Gillespie Approach attempts to dig deeper to explore the root of the problem.
A three-month-old presented with an odd head shape. Her occiput was extended, and mom wanted me to evaluate her.
The birth was at home without vacuum extraction. She breastfed well even though her IBCLC mentioned she had a tongue tie.
She also told mom that her newborn had a high palate. When I looked at her face, her head was narrow and, of course, her face and palate followed suit.
Mom said she also had digestive issues. To get to the root of the problem, I asked myself, “Why was her face so narrow?”
On examination, her brain cycle was ten seconds, far short of the optimal 200 seconds. So I knew that the fascial web was holding the craniosacral fascial system somewhere in her body.
Her web felt free except in her digestive area. I spent the entire session there, as her brain cycle opened to 90 seconds. The critical aspect for dentistry is that a narrow palate is not an isolated oral problem, but a full-body craniosacral fascial issue.
The fascial restriction in the digestive system was apparently holding the cranial bones and other tissues tight. My strong expectation is that, with continued therapy, her head, face, and palate will naturally widen in time.
Fast forward to that orthodontic child now going through palatal expansion. S(he) may still have digestive or other issues, and no dentist on the planet will connect those dots in space (from the digestive tract or other areas of the body to the mouth) and time (back to birth).
This phenomenon may explain why so many children have orthodontic relapses as adults, even while wearing retainers to unnaturally hold their teeth in place. Their untreated full-body fascial strains almost certainly pulled the teeth back into their original position.
I believe that children need to be strain-free before going through orthodontics to optimize their outcomes. Gillespie Approach Training is needed for all birth providers so that every newborn can become strain-free.
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