Effects and noneffects of personal environmental experimentation on postnatal craniofacial growth

Genetic makeup, as well as various environmental factors, such as gravity, temperature, disease, 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. Over the years, I conceived, designed, initiated, and carried out a series of experiments in regard to bone(s), in both young and adult animals. Eventually, I directed my efforts principally toward local surgical experimentation as it related to both normal and abnormal gross postnatal craniofacial 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 growth with change and nonchange to age, sites, rates, factors, and mechanisms. In many instances, there are correlations between basic research findings and clinical practice. There is no such similar report in the literature. This retrospective study brings it all together.