Eight years after the ADA mandated that all dentists screen for airway issues, I am not aware of a single dental school with a comprehensive curriculum that teaches students how to recognize and treat airway problems.

In a perfect world, every dental school would have an entire curriculum dedicated to preparing dentists to become the center of health care, grounded in facial growth, airway development, and how to optimize both.

The ADA essentially handed dentistry a gift-wrapped package that, to this day, remains unopened.

Innovation Rarely Starts in Dental Schools

During my lifetime, I am not aware of even one major positive change in dentistry that originated in a dental school.

Historically, innovation begins in private practice, driven by dentists who want to help their patients.

Those dentists are often criticized or even vilified for doing so.

Don’t believe me?

Please identify the dental school that developed implants or veneers and then introduced them to practicing dentists after years of research.

You can consult Dr. Google and let me know what you find.

Decades of Real-World Airway Experience

We have been practicing and innovating in the airway arena for several decades.

For nearly thirty years, we have taught methods to optimize forward facial development in order to improve airway health.

Along the way, we have learned a great deal.

We have also had failures — and learned from them.

Thomas Edison once said that his first ten thousand attempts at developing a light bulb failed.

Fortunately, our successes came with far fewer attempts.

Why We Waited Before Teaching Primary Dentition Treatment

We have been treating in the primary dentition for well over twenty years.

Few realize that orthodontists in the early 1900s treated children in the primary dentition to prevent mental retardation.

With the mobile device in your hand, you can verify that history in minutes.

We did not begin teaching or recommending primary dentition treatment until we had long-term records on our earliest patients, many of whom were already in college.

I refuse to fall into the trap of “see one, do one, teach one,” which happens far too often in our profession.

Have you ever unknowingly become a beta test site for something new and revolutionary?

I have — and later learned the hype fell far short of reality.

We do not teach that way.

Honesty About Success, Failure, and Reality

We have experienced success.

We have experienced failure.

We have been surprised and elated by outcomes.

We have also been disappointed when even the best available treatments, delivered perfectly, fell short of truly improving a patient’s healthspan.

We live in the real world.

We teach with transparency and honesty.

We recognize that not everything will work optimally when we are working against an airway pandemic driven by lifestyle factors.

Why This Is Still Not Taught in Dental Schools

Perhaps one day what we teach will become part of a dental school curriculum.

Just a few years ago, arrangements were being made for me to lecture at a university-based orthodontic program.

Everything was going well until my name was mentioned.

The response was a single sentence:

“Dr. Hang will not lecture at ________ University.”

What We Promise — and What We Don’t

We do not claim to know everything.

We also understand that we do not know everything.

What we promise is simple.

We teach only what we currently believe represents the best approach, based on decades of experience, reflection, and results.