Braces? Nah, this Alexandria dentist believes in a different kind of dental hardware

A dentist in Alexandria is using a different kind of retainer that he says gets to the root of crooked teeth and poor sleep.
It’s called a biobloc and it’s part of orthotropics, a field founded in the ’50s by a British dentist named John Mews. It’s based on the belief that crooked teeth are a symptom, not a problem, to be treated.
“Once you start learning about doing orthotropics, you start realizing how you were doing orthodontics wrong,” said Dr. Daniel Babiec, a dentist with the Alexandria-based Bradlee Dental Practice, which has been practicing orthotropics for the last two decades.
An former army reservist trained in dentistry at Tufts University, Babiec, 64, founded Bradlee in the ’80s. He said that over time, he’s seen more and more cases of crooked teeth and sleep apnea, a disorder that causes irregular breathing. Biobloc hardware, Babiec said, treats these problems by correcting the posture of the tongue.
“The most powerful orthodontist out there is the tongue,” he said.
Improper “oral posture,” as it’s known, changes jaws, which causes a range of oral problems, Babiec said.

Once you start learning about doing orthotropics, you start realizing how you were doing orthodontics wrong.

Bioblocs are a progressive set of retainers custom fitted for the inside of patients’ mouths that help keep a healthy oral posture: tongue to the top, mouth closed, breathing through the nose. For children, they’re one way to prevent braces, but prices are generally comparable to the ubiquitous mouth hardware. (Read: they’re costly.) For adults, they could treat sleep apnea.
Still, orthtropics isn’t that widespread: only two dentists in the D.C. area, including Babiec, are certified in the field, according to a map from the International Association of Facial Growth Guidance. Outside of D.C., you’d have to travel to New York or New Jersey to see a dentist certified in the practice.
Improper oral posture later in life can reverse Biobloc treatments. It’s something Babiec knows all too well because it happened to his own son.
After a successful orthotropic treatment, his son’s teeth separated in high school.
“His [top teeth] wouldn’t touch the bottom,” Babiec recalled. “So the first thing I asked was, when did you break your nose?”
His son had begun breathing through his mouth after a minor sports injury to his nose that went unnoticed. Surgery to his son’s nose fixed the problem — no braces needed.
“By senior year [in college], his teeth had gone back together again because he could breathe through his nose,” Babiec said.