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808 THE DEVELOPMENT OF ESTHETIC FACIAL CONTOURS.

with a perfect correction of a vciy unliappy facial (lefonnity. (See
Fig. 8 43.) Fig. 844 is from a photograph taken three years after the
completion of the operation.
In dental orthopedia we possess the great advantage over general
orthopedia of applying force directly
Fig. 844.
to the bone itself, through the medium
of the teeth, without the intervention
of the soft and sensitive tissues.
The teeth imbedded in the alveolar
process, that in turn is firmly united to
the true bone, may be considered, when
in the grasp of a regulating machine,
as an integral part of it, firmly and di-
rectly attached to that part of the bone
we desire to move, and capable of
exerting the quality and direction of
force the machine gives to them.
This force being applied unitedly to a number of teeth standing side
by side, the surrounding and contiguous bone—w^hich is largely a can-
cellated structure—is carried bodily in the direction of the force ; not
by the fracture of its substance or to any great extent by a metamor-
phosis of tissue, but by the bending, condensation and elongation of its
cellular structure ; the whole adapting itself to a new form, in which
position the immediate interstitial tension of its particles is soon relieved
and brought to equilibrium by Nature—though it may require to be
held in that position for many months before there is an entire relief
from the inherent tendency to return to the primary position.
In contemplating the treatment of a dental irregularity a careful
study of the physiognomy in different attitudes of expression should be
made, with the view of determining the relative position of teeth and
facial contours. The value of a careful preliminary facial examination
and comparison cannot be overestimated, for it is often the only guide
to correct treatment.
For instance, since it has become possible to expand or retract the
anterior portion of the upper apical arch with the surrounding bone in
which the moving roots are imbedded, we are no longer confined to the
possibility, and frequent questionable propriety, of permanently moving
the lower jaw forward or backward to correct a facial deformity which
pertains exclusively to the upper maxillae and middle features of the
face.
n. Principles of Facial Orthopedia.
The portion of the human face that it is possible to change with a
dental regulating apparatus may be said to lie between two diverging