Page 828 - My FlipBook

826 THE DEVELOPMENT OF ESTHETIC FACIAL CONTOURS.
of the case in occlusion. The patient was placed in charge of a dentist
Avho attempted the correction of the irregularity without removal of the
first bicus})ids : Fig. 877 shows the result two years afterward.
It will be seen that the incisors were forced forward to a decided
labial inclination, for the purpose of crowding the canines into align-
ment ; and all the anterior teeth are turned on their axes so as to
occupy the least possible space. Fig. 878 is from the model of the face
of the patient at that time.
That a mistake was made in the plan of treatment pursued is evi-
denced by the following considerations : First, the protrusion of the
crowns of the upper anterior teeth produces an unhappy expression
of the mouth that is equivalent to a deformity, and one that could not
be remedied in this particular until certain members of the dental arch
were removed. Second, if it were a case in which the maxillary arch
Avas too small, with a depression of the overlying features of the face,

Fig. 877. Fig. 87S.

the decided labial inclination of the teeth could be overcome by an
enlargement of the apical zone, which would have permitted a slight
retrusion of the occlusal zone with a partial, if not complete, regulation
of the dental and facial deformity. But this was not the condition,
and therefore could not be considered. The third and most effective
argument is one which should never be overlooked in all cases where
the crowns flare outward. The conical shape of the teeth permits them
to stand in perfect alignment though with a decided labial inclination,
but in this position the interproximal spaces so necessary to the preser-
vation of the teeth are so completely closed as to cut off the union of
interproximal gum tissue, which must ultimately result in the resorp-
tion of the gum and alveolar process and all the dire consequences that
follow.
Had the first bicuspids been extracted, many difficulties in the regu-
lation of the teeth would have been removed ; and what is of far