Orthodontic and Orthopedic Treatment during Craniofacial Growth

“Every human being has a tendency for a malocclusion, either a Class II or a Class III. Everybody.
It is probably impossible for all counterpart relationships to be at a zero value. All of us have a tendency
for Class II or Class III. It may be slight or extreme, but it is there. It is part of our evolutionary heritage.
The body itself has compensations during development to lessen the severity of a malocclusion, but it is
still there. Orthodontists and surgeons can correct them, but they are still there. And they are Skeletal.
Malocclusions are actually normal, and the compensations have made them functional. I do not believe
there is actually a zero counterpoint balance in the human skull. Accepting human malocclusions and
tendencies as normal, our perceptions of beauty and ugliness are based mostly on our soft tissue facial
mask. It develops on a skeletal base, and almost all skulls are nearly identical, but with the dolicho
and brachy variations caused by phylogenic distortion. Facial variations beyond the dolicho/brachy
diff erences are caused by variations in the soft tissue draping covering this skeletal base. The soft
tissue variations are genetic and are heritable, but their formation is not based on skeletal variations.
To demonstrate this, a talented artistic can sculpture a beautiful or ugly faces made of clay on any skull.
The artist can create any kind of face on any human skull. Herein lies the opportunity for the clinician.”
Donald Hugh Enlow