Do you see the bony growth in the center of the roof of her mouth? It’s called a torus.
Sometimes people get these because they’ve been grinding their teeth.
And why do they grind their teeth? Because their airways are narrowed when they lie down, and they slide their lower jaw to try to create more breathing space.
People who have a torus have a higher chance of having malocclusion, which means their bite is off, and they may need orthodontia.
Can you guess who that mouth belongs to? Here's another clue: her as a child!
At this age, she had an overbite. And her teeth were a bit long. Both of these things happen when the forces in the mouth are not properly distributed. And these days her teeth look perfect, so she clearly had orthodontia in the meantime.
She also had some puffiness under her eyes. That plus malocclusion is associated with worse sleep quality.
An orofacial myologist can work with the pressures in the mouth (resting tongue position, how the muscles work during the swallow) and that can change the dimensions of the mouth. Which can prevent relapse when people do get orthodontia, and improve sleep breathing.
If the guidance is provided from the beginning of life, or from a very early age, it can prevent the bite from getting misshapen in the first place.
So orthodontia can fix the appearance of the teeth, but often, there are some telltale signs (like palatal torus) that something suboptimal happened during growth.
Still wondering who she is? It’s Sarah Jessica Parker.
