Putting treatments into context
Dentosophy and BalancerThe right question, a different approach
Are you looking for an approach that influences teeth and jaws through function, and have you come across dentosophy and the Balancer? Here you will find out where the device comes from, what the exercises aim to achieve, what studies show about it and why we train breathing, swallowing and head balance without a bite block between the teeth.
Does this sound familiar?
Dentosophy in focus: What applies to you?
What applies to you?
Tap whatever applies to you.
If two or more points apply, it is worth taking a close look at what actually happens in the mouth. We share the basic idea. The difference lies in whether there is a block between the teeth or whether the rows of teeth remain free.
What a block between the teeth changesBalancer and FaceFormer comparedThe key points at a glance
- Dentosophy is a method that originated in France and aims to influence the teeth, jaws and body through function. Its tool is a soft activator, the Balancer, which lies between the rows of teeth. The device goes back to a rubber activator from the early 1950s.
- We share the basic idea of “function shapes form”. In our view, however, a block between the teeth works against function: it lowers the lower jaw, turns lip closure into a holding effort and replaces tooth contact with material contact.
- In our view, the method lacks a physiologically sound rationale, and there are no controlled studies (PubMed, as of 30 September 2026). FaceFormer training starts with swallowing with tongue reference position, nasal breathing and head balance, and the FaceFormer lies in front of the teeth.
Video
Crooked teeth, narrow jaws: what chewing explains and what it does not
Das Video lädt erst nach dem Klick. Dann werden Daten an YouTube (Google) übertragen.
The method
What is dentosophy?
Anyone searching for “dentosophy” is often looking for a gentle, holistic approach for their child’s teeth or for their own.
The name combines the Latin “dens” for tooth with the Greek “sophia” for wisdom. The method was developed from 1984 onwards in France by a group of dentists around Michel Montaud and Rodrigue Mathieu. Montaud describes it in his book “Dentosophie. Unsere Zähne, ein Tor zur Gesundheit” (Dentosophy. Our teeth, a gateway to health)4. There, the mouth is understood as a mirror of the whole person, which includes breathing, posture and emotional well-being.
The information leaflet of a dentosophy practice describes the procedure as follows: the Balancer is worn for about an hour a day and, after a period of getting used to it, also at night. In addition, there are short exercises: sit upright, lips closed, breathe in strongly through the nose, press the tongue against the palate, swallow and alternately make gentle, springy chewing movements on the device. This is what users mean when they say you should “actively bite on the Balancer”.
What do you think: where are your teeth right now, while you are reading this text?
What we share
Function shapes form: the right question
Many people who come to dentosophy have made a good observation. Teeth and jaws do not develop in a vacuum. How a child breathes, where the tongue lies, whether the lips are loosely closed and how the head balances shape over years how the palate and jaws grow. We share this view without reservation. Where the tongue belongs is explained in the article Tongue resting posture and tongue reference position.
Experiments on young monkeys show how strongly function determines form. When the nose was blocked, the animals kept their mouths open; some held the lower jaw lower, partly with the tongue pushed forward. Over time, all of them developed a different face and a different bite from the comparison animals6. The authors conclude that devices in the mouth act not only through force, but also through the stimuli to which muscles respond.
The question is the right one. What matters is which pattern the device teaches the mouth.If muscles respond to stimuli, what counts is the position into which a device brings the lower jaw, tongue and lips, hour after hour.
Origin
The Balancer is older than dentosophy
The basic principle comes from French orthodontics. In the early 1950s, Professors René Soulet and André Besombes presented a prefabricated activator made of soft rubber, a double channel that encloses both dental arches12. The museum of the French orthodontic society describes it as very soft, very simple, but not very precise1.
- 1952
Activator according to Soulet and Besombes
A prefabricated rubber device for both dental arches. It was initially intended as a holiday solution to maintain results achieved with fixed braces1.
- 1955 to 1969
- From 1984
Dentosophy
In France, a separate doctrine emerges around Michel Montaud and Rodrigue Mathieu that combines the device with a holistic view of the human being4.
- Today
Elastodontics and Balancer
In Italy, among other places, similar silicone devices are further developed and studied as elastodontic appliances, mostly in children with malpositions9.
Anatomy
At rest, the teeth do not touch
To classify a bite block, it helps to look at what the teeth actually do in everyday life.
is the average gap between the rows of teeth at rest, evaluated in 27 studies5
is the range in healthy people. The rest position is a range, not a fixed point5
to a thousand a day. Each swallow brings the teeth together briefly12
Tooth contact is therefore brief and tied to tasks. Shortly before the swallow starts, the lower jaw rises, the back teeth meet, the lips are closed, and the tip of the tongue lies at its reference point. Afterwards, the teeth move apart again. Otherwise, longer contact occurs mainly with clenching and grinding, and that puts strain on the masticatory muscles and the jaw joint.
Our view
What a block between the teeth changes
In our view, the limitation of the Balancer lies in the tool itself, more precisely in the position it imposes on the jaw.
A block between the rows of teeth increases the vertical dimension. The teeth are held further apart than in the rest position, and the incisors can no longer glide along their usual path. The lower jaw remains in the lowered position dictated by the material. Only the lower jaw can give way, because the upper jaw is firmly connected to the skull.
The lower jaw sits lower
The block holds the rows of teeth apart, and the gap is larger than at rest.
The tongue sinks with it
The tongue is coupled to the lower jaw via the floor of the mouth. The distance to the front of the palate becomes longer.
Lip closure becomes work
The lips no longer rest on each other by themselves. They have to be held actively.
The holding effort breaks off
As soon as attention wanes, especially when falling asleep, the mouth opens.
The mouth becomes the airway
An open mouth gives the air the shorter route. Mouth breathing is encouraged rather than reduced.
A familiar example of the same principle is the dummy. If an object lies between the rows of teeth, the lower jaw and tongue sit lower, and the lips no longer close loosely. The image shows this relationship in side section.
Like a popcorn husk between the teeth
Everyone knows this: a piece of popcorn husk gets stuck between the teeth, and the tongue immediately wants to go there. It probes, pushes and does not come to rest until the foreign body is gone. A Balancer is many times larger and stays in the mouth for hours.
The tongue is one of the most sensitive tactile organs of the body. Its tip orients itself to the small elevation behind the upper incisors, its back to the palate. A block that protrudes between the rows of teeth into the oral cavity offers it a new tactile stimulus. In our view, it thereby draws the tongue away from its tongue reference position and occupies it with the device instead of the palate.
The tongue seeks out every foreign body. A block in the mouth becomes its point of reference.What is then learned is a substitute reference on the device, not the body’s own reference on the palate.
Biting and chewing
Actively biting on the Balancer? Chewing is not pressing
The chewing exercises on the Balancer are intended to train the masticatory system. Chewing, however, is a rhythmic movement with free paths, changing loads and real tooth contacts. From these contacts, the periodontium and the jaw joint report to the brain in fine detail where the jaw is. On an elastic block, exactly this contact is missing: tooth meets material.
What is actually being trained
Imagine there was only a pin between your incisors. Even that would prevent the lower incisors from gliding past the upper ones. The anterior guidance that steers the lower jaw when closing would be blocked. A Balancer is much thicker than a pin. What is practised on it is a movement in which the teeth never reach their natural path at all.
Chewing
- The lower jaw moves freely, up and down and to the side
- The load changes, the bite becomes smaller and is swallowed
- Tooth meets tooth and provides precise feedback
- After the swallow, the jaw is free
Springing on a block
- The lower jaw works from a lowered position
- The material stays; there is no end point
- Tooth meets silicone, and the feedback is coarse
- The masseter presses against resistance
Biomechanically, in our view, repeatedly compressing an elastic block is more pressing than chewing. It is mainly the masseter, the strongest masticatory muscle, that works, and the jaw joint bears the load. We view this particularly critically where jaw joint complaints already exist. We also explain why constant chewing disrupts pattern formation in the article Mewing, and more on the jaw joint under Understanding TMD.
Biting on a block trains biting. Breathing, swallowing and head balance learn nothing from it.Chewing is not an integrated function of these three basic functions. The pattern that matters develops during swallowing with tongue reference position, with nasal breathing and an upright, balanced head, not when biting down.
If you feel tension or pain in the jaw, temples or neck after biting exercises, that is a signal. Raise it with the practice that is supporting you instead of increasing the exercises.
In sleep
Why the mouth can open at night
Practices often recommend wearing the Balancer at night as well. This is precisely where the difference between a held and a learned mouth closure becomes apparent. In sleep, there is no attention holding the lips together against a lowered lower jaw.
The fact that the practice leaflet warns in advance that the device will initially get lost at night fits this picture. In our view, this is not a sign of a lack of cooperation, but a consequence of the geometry: the mouth opens, and the air takes the shorter route.
Mouth breathing is not harmless. The monkey experiments show how a constantly open mouth with a low lower jaw changes the face and bite6. That is why, in our view, what matters is that lip closure and nasal breathing hold by themselves during sleep. You can read more about this under Mouth breathing and nasal breathing and in the article Mouth taping.
Posture
Does the bite regulate posture?
In dentosophy and related approaches, it is often said that the bite controls the posture of the whole body. This question has been well studied.
on the masticatory system and posture were evaluated in a review from Trieste8
of them was of medium to good quality. The association found was biologically measurable but clinically without significance8
that could be predicted was found between bite and posture in a review from Padua7
The authors from Padua explain this with the many compensatory mechanisms of the nervous system that regulates the body’s balance7. This fits our view. The body’s statics are controlled via head balance, the organ of balance, the eyes and the feedback from muscles and joints. Tooth contact is too brief and too rare for this; it belongs to swallowing and chewing.
The jaw and head balance are nevertheless connected, just differently. Signals from the jaw, the masticatory muscles and the upper cervical spine converge in the brainstem. That is why we train head balance as well, instead of adjusting the bite with a block. How the neck and tongue are connected is explained in the article Neck and back.
Evidence
Criticism of dentosophy: what studies show
According to our research, there are no controlled studies on dentosophy. In the medical database PubMed, there is not a single entry under “Dentosophie” or “dentosophy” (search on 30 September 2026). There are many experiences with dentosophy, in books, practice reports and forums. They show the course of individual people, but no comparison with children who were treated differently or not at all.
remained in a review of elastodontic appliances out of 2,168 hits, mostly case reports and case series9
on jaw displacement in children: most found changed jaw values, while advantages over conventional appliances remained unclear10
The studies on elastodontic appliances measure tooth and jaw values on X-rays, mostly in growing children. We do not doubt that teeth can be moved with a device during growth. However, no conclusions about nasal breathing during sleep, the swallowing pattern or posture can be drawn from this. And the studies concern related devices, not dentosophy itself.
A method needs a rationale that fits physiology, and studies that test it. In our view, dentosophy lacks both.A block that holds the rows of teeth apart, blocks the anterior guidance and diverts the tongue from its reference does not fit what breathing, swallowing and head balance need. And the method has not been tested.
The same honesty applies to us. The only randomised study on the FaceFormer comes from Hamburg and examined 45 children over six months. In the FaceFormer group, the tongue rested against the palate more often during swallowing, and mouth closure was achieved more quickly11. The groups were small, and basic functions were measured. More under Studies and science.
Our approach
Balancer and FaceFormer: where the difference lies
Both devices are made of soft material and go in the mouth. That is where the similarities end.
Balancer
- Lies as a block between the rows of teeth and encloses both dental arches
- Holds the rows of teeth apart for as long as it is worn
- Exercises with springy chewing movements on the material
- Tooth contact is replaced by material contact
FaceFormer
- Lies in the oral vestibule, in front of the teeth and behind the lips
- The lower jaw stays in its usual position
- Exercises combining lip closure, a brief bite and swallowing
- The teeth meet directly, then return to the rest position
Drag to rotateLies in the oral vestibule in front of the teeth The membrane lies in front of the teeth and behind the lips. The rows of teeth remain free, and the lower jaw stays in its usual position.
In the basic exercise, the lips enclose the FaceFormer, the tip of the tongue lies at the reference point, you breathe through your nose, and the head balances upright. You bite down briefly with your back teeth and swallow. The negative pressure in the mouth draws the tongue to the palate, after which the teeth and lips release.
What is trained is the sequence of breathing, swallowing and head balance, just as it runs many hundreds to a thousand times a day in everyday life. Strength is not the goal; what counts is the pattern. For children up to about ten years of age, the softer FaceFormer ZERO is recommended; it is exactly the same size as the ONE.
We receive feedback from people who have completed treatment with the Balancer, are disappointed with it and are now looking for a different approach. Many of them still share the basic idea that function shapes form. This is exactly where FaceFormer training comes in, with free rows of teeth and the pattern of breathing, swallowing and head balance.
If your child or you already wear a Balancer, do not stop the treatment on your own. Talk to the treating practice about whether and how a switch or a combination makes sense. The same applies to braces or other devices prescribed by a doctor.
Everyday life
Function shapes form: what you can observe yourself
Teeth apart
Except when chewing and swallowing, the rows of teeth do not touch. If you catch yourself clenching, release your teeth.
Lips gently closed
The lips rest on each other without effort. If the chin tenses, force is at work instead of the pattern.
Through the nose
Watch your child’s mouth while playing, at the screen and during sleep. If it is often open, it is worth taking a look at breathing.
Swallowing correctly
When swallowing, the tip of the tongue lies behind the upper incisors, the lips stay still, and the back teeth meet briefly.
Head over the body
Adjust your desk and screen so that your head balances upright and does not drift forward.
Chewing when eating
Chew solid food thoroughly and swallow. Afterwards the jaw has a break; no device to bite on is needed for this.
Questions
Frequently asked
What is dentosophy?
Dentosophy is a method that originated in France and aims to influence the teeth, jaws and the well-being of the whole person through function. It was developed from 1984 onwards by French dentists around Michel Montaud. Its tool is a soft activator, usually called a Balancer in German-speaking countries, which is worn between the rows of teeth.
How does the Balancer work?
The Balancer is a soft device made of silicone or rubber that encloses both dental arches and lies as a block between the teeth. According to the instructions of many practices, it is worn for about an hour a day and at night, together with exercises involving nasal breathing, tongue on the palate, swallowing and springy chewing movements on the device.
Which exercises are part of dentosophy?
Typical are short sessions while seated: lips closed, breathe in strongly through the nose, press the tongue against the palate, swallow and alternately chew gently on the Balancer. In our view, springing on an elastic block is more pressing than chewing, because tooth meets material instead of tooth.
What do critics say about dentosophy?
According to our research, there are no controlled studies on dentosophy (PubMed, as of 30 September 2026), and in our view it lacks a physiologically sound rationale. The block lowers the lower jaw, blocks the anterior guidance, diverts the tongue from its reference and turns lip closure into a holding effort that can break off during sleep.
Is the FaceFormer comparable to dentosophy?
The basic idea that function shapes form is similar. The device works differently. The FaceFormer lies in the oral vestibule in front of the teeth, the lower jaw stays in its usual position, and the teeth meet directly when you swallow. What is trained is the sequence of breathing, swallowing and head balance, not biting.
Can I combine the Balancer and the FaceFormer?
This is best discussed with the practice that fitted the Balancer. In our view, the two approaches contradict each other in the position of the lower jaw. Do not stop an ongoing treatment on your own.
Is dentosophy suitable for children?
Parents who search for dentosophy are asking an important question: how can function support healthy growth of the jaw and palate? In our view, a child’s mouth should remain free so that the lips, tongue and teeth can learn their natural position. More on this under FaceFormer for children.
What experiences are there with dentosophy?
There are many experience reports, in books, on practice websites and in forums. They describe individual cases. Whether a change was due to the device, to growth or to other measures cannot be separated from them, because comparison groups are missing.
More articles from the knowledge section
Where to go next
Sources
- Société Française d’Orthopédie Dento-Faciale, Musée: Appareil de Soulet-Besombes (1952). Abgerufen am 30.09.2026. Source
- Besombes A, Soulet R (1955). Nouveaux appareillages en thérapeutique orthopédique fonctionnelle simplifiée. Revue française d’odonto-stomatologie 2(4):483-490. PMID 14395923. Source
- Heideborn M (1965). Klinische und elektromyographische Ergebnisse nach Behandlung mit dem Schienenaktivator von Soulet-Besombes. Fortschritte der Kieferorthopädie 26(3):293-299. PMID 5216302. Source
- Montaud M (2021). Dentosophie. Unsere Zähne, ein Tor zur Gesundheit. Synergia Verlag. ISBN 978-3-907246-48-1. Source
- Goldstein G, Goodacre C, MacGregor K (2021). Occlusal Vertical Dimension: Best Evidence Consensus Statement. Journal of Prosthodontics 30(S1):12-19. PMID 33783090. Source
- Harvold EP, Tomer BS, Vargervik K, Chierici G (1981). Primate experiments on oral respiration. American Journal of Orthodontics 79(4):359-372. PMID 6939331. Source
- Manfredini D, Castroflorio T, Perinetti G, Guarda-Nardini L (2012). Dental occlusion, body posture and temporomandibular disorders: where we are now and where we are heading for. Journal of Oral Rehabilitation 39(6):463-471. PMID 22435603. Source
- Perinetti G, Contardo L (2009). Posturography as a diagnostic aid in dentistry: a systematic review. Journal of Oral Rehabilitation 36(12):922-936. PMID 19878440. Source
- Ronsivalle V, Nucci L, Bua N, Palazzo G, La Rosa S (2023). Elastodontic Appliances for the Interception of Malocclusion in Children: A Systematic Narrative Hybrid Review. Children 10(11):1821. PMID 38002912. Source
- Ureni R, Verdecchia A, Suárez-Fernández C, Mereu M, Schirru R, Spinas E (2024). Effectiveness of Elastodontic Devices for Correcting Sagittal Malocclusions in Mixed Dentition Patients: A Scoping Review. Dentistry Journal 12(8):247. PMID 39195091. Source
- Korbmacher HM, Schwan M, Berndsen S, Bull J, Kahl-Nieke B (2004). Evaluation of a new concept of myofunctional therapy in children. International Journal of Orofacial Myology 30:39-52. PMID 15832861. Source
- Lear CS, Flanagan JB, Moorrees CF (1965). The frequency of deglutition in man. Archives of Oral Biology 10:83-100. PMID 14262163. Source
- Soulet R, Langlade M, Picaud M (1969). Etude céphalométrique de 20 cas traités exclusivement par activateurs de Soulet-Besombes. L’Orthodontie française 40:355-373. PMID 5270759. Source
Get started
Ready for the training?
The free FaceFormer app guides you through the basic exercises, counts along and reminds you of your sessions. If you wish, a practice from the practitioner directory can support you.
FaceFormer ZERO + ONE
Both material hardnesses for getting started, day and night. The set for adults.
FaceFormer ZERO
The softer FaceFormer for getting started, for children and for the night.
FaceFormer ZERO Children’s Set
ZERO with hygiene box, plush bag and success book with stamp.
FaceFormer training aims to restore the physiological setting of the basic functions of breathing, swallowing and head balance, with lip closure and the tongue reference position, thereby creating the conditions under which symptoms can improve. It does not replace a medical assessment. You can find practitioners near you in the practitioner directory.
