Glossary
Words, defined plainly.
Educational definitions for the terms that appear across the work. Neutral, original, and as honest as we can make them.
Orthotropics
- The study of how the face grows and how everyday posture shapes that growth. An educational framework concerned with biology, observation, and prevention as premise.
Mewing
- The informal name given by online communities to the practice of holding the tongue against the roof of the mouth as a resting posture. Named for the family that has long taught about oral posture.
Oral Rest Posture
- The default position of the tongue, lips, and teeth when the mouth is not actively doing anything else. The posture a face spends most of its day in.
Nasal Breathing
- Drawing air in and out through the nose. Considered, in the educational framework of orthotropics, the biologically intended route of respiration.
Malocclusion
- A descriptive term for a relationship between upper and lower teeth that departs from a textbook arrangement. Treated, in orthotropics, as a sign worth understanding rather than a verdict.
Craniofacial Growth
- The developmental processes by which the skull and face take shape over a lifetime. A lifelong, load-responsive process.
The Airway
- The passage through which air travels into and out of the lungs. Its size and shape are closely related to the structures of the face and jaw.
Prevention
- The orthotropics premise: that the most useful questions about facial growth are about supporting the conditions for healthy growth, rather than about doing something later.