A retrospective of personal craniofaciodental research and clinical practice.

Recent reports have emphasized the need for further knowledge about the growth of bone(s). This is particularly true because an understanding of the normal and abnormal growth of bone(s) forms the basis of early recognition and appropriate treatment of many deformities. It is less well appreciated, however, that the findings in the abnormal may be employed to test and extend our knowledge of the normal. Genetic makeup, as well as various types of diseases and injuries such as trauma, inflammation, radiation, and chemicals, may affect skeletal growth sites and centers, thereby causing faulty growth of bone(s). The degree of the subsequent deformity will depend not only on the type, intensity, extent, and chronology of the noxious agent but also on the site and its particular susceptibility and growth activity. The problem of treatment of craniofaciodental deformities is a difficult one. Over the years, I conceived, designed, initiated, and carried out a series of experiments in regard to bone(s), teeth, and cartilage in both young and adult animals (turtles, rats, gophers, lagomorphs, pigs, dogs, and monkeys). Eventually, I directed my efforts principally toward local surgical experimentation as it related to both normal and abnormal gross postnatal craniofaciodental growth. Because of the wide variety of different structures, their interrelated individualities, and the challenges presented in both its richness of sites of growth and complexity, the skull proved to be a most unusual source of study. The purpose of this selective, organized, and limited review, analysis, and summary of personally conducted experiments is to relate certain aspects of differential growth and change and nonchange to age, sites, rates, factors, and mechanisms. In many instances, correlations are made between research findings and clinical practice. No such similar report as this was found in the literature. This retrospective study brings it all together.