Orthodontia and orthopœdia of the face / by Victor Hugo Jackson.

  • Jackson, Victor Hugo.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Orthodontia and orthopœdia of the face / by Victor Hugo Jackson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    when it is crowded upward by the hard palate until it can no longer resist the pressure brought to bear upon it, deflection results. . . . A diagnostic sign of an habitual mouth-breather is a high arch anda narrow, hard palate, associated with deflection of the nasal septum.’’* We also usually find in these cases a projecting forward of the nasal prominences of the upper maxillary bone. Deflection of the nasal septum is important to us, because, first, it is considered a cause of mouth-breathing; secondly, it is generally associated with the saddle- and V-shaped arch. It is estimated that from thirty to fifty per cent. of the European races have more or less deviation of the septum. ‘In the examination of hundreds of specimens of the American Indian, it is difficult to find a case of marked deflection.”” However, in my examinations of a considerable number of skulls in museums, in those from the tribe known as the Flatheads a marked deflection was found; caused, probably, by the external mechanical downward pressure on the frontal and ethmoidal bones. The septum is first seen deflected in about the seventh year, but the two lamellee do not unite until about the age of puberty. Robertson examined one hundred and sixty children, from two to ten years of age, and found only seven deformities of the septum, four of these with a history of injury; but in a total of seventy-two children, be- tween ten and twenty years of age, were found twenty-two deformi- ties. In some districts a much larger percentage of children than this suffer with deformed nasal septi. There is no record in this report of the condition of the teeth and jaws, but it will be seen that the early deformity of the septum appears at about the time of the eruption of the permanent teeth. Delavan states, “ Deflection of the nasal septum proper may be due either to trauma or improper nu- trition, usually the latter,” and ‘‘ Palate deformities come from atmos- pheric pressure, from the occlusion of the nasal passages, creating in them, through the act of inspiration, a partial vacuum, and thus changing the equilibrium of the pressure upon the upper and lower aspects of the roof of the mouth.” To this atmospheric pressure are also attributed many of the serious inflammations of the mem- branes of the nose, Eustachian tube, and inner ear. Deflection of the septum, like the high vault of the superior max-