Airway

We encourage parents to bring their children in at infancy for an evaluation.

Our Mission

Our responsibility is to help patients in any way to achieve good overall health and quality of life, and one big step to this is to breathe better.

Does your child experience...

Waking up at night, restless sleep, nights and/or daytime drowsiness

ADD/ADHD, difficulty in school and/or aggressive behavior

Bed wetting, chronic allergies and/or enlarged tonsils and adenoids

Mouth breathing and/or childhood tooth decay

Crowded or crooked teeth and/or teeth grinding

If your child is experiencing any of these, whether it’s one symptom or several, we encourage you to contact our office and your pediatrician to determine if this is affecting their health.

The Importance of Breathing at Night and Problems with a Compromised Airway

Sleep is vital to our overall health and is a critical time for our brain and body to perform the restorative and reparative functions it needs. Fragmented sleep can greatly impact a child’s behavioral, cognitive, and physical development.

The central issue for many children suffering from SBD (Sleep-related breathing disorders) is compromised airways. SBD can cause breathing to stop or become shallow while sleeping, which fragments the sleep cycle.

When a child’s airway is compromised, they may struggle to get enough oxygen at night. As a child’s breathing is restricted, their body reacts as though the child is choking, resulting in lower oxygen levels, higher heart rate and higher blood pressure.

What Can We Do?

Children unfortunately don’t “outgrow” sleep problems; they must be addressed. With functional orthopedic therapy at an early age, we can help children breathe better. 

Improving the functions of oral muscles, correcting breathing habits, and using dental tools that help children grow can help open the airway of a growing child and allow the airway to develop to its full potential.

Early Treatment is Critical

Dentists are taught to refer children by the age of 7 to the orthodontist for an evaluation but why not help encourage growth while the growth is at its optimal potential? 

The most rapid growth of the head/jaws takes place from 0-4 years old, at this point the jaw has grown 60%. By 6 years old it has grown 80%. Don’t fear though, we work with all ages and there is no better time to start than now!

How is SBD Related to my Child

Tongue Tie

‘Tongue tie’ is a term used when the lingual frenum (cord that stretches from under the tongue to the floor of the mouth) is short and restricts the mobility of the tongue.

For infants, this restriction can make it difficult to correctly latch when breastfeeding and can also cause pain for the mother. For older children, tongue tie can cause speech impediments and difficulty chewing, swallowing, and other aspects of oral function. Tongue tie can also contribute to habitual mouth breathing and underdeveloped jaws which can lead to smaller or obstructed airways that are common for sleep-related breathing disorders including obstructive sleep apnea.

ADD/ADHD

Because ADHD creates behavioral interference with sleep, a vicious cycle can develop for kids with ADHD. In those instances, where there is a true sleep disorder (whether sleep-disordered breathing or another disorder), it can lead to a misdiagnosis of ADHD. In those cases, treatment of the primary sleep problem – including sleep-disordered breathing – may improve the ADHD symptoms as well as prevent other physical health problems.

Cavities

Improper breathing and poor oral hygiene can affect oral health, leading to tooth decay and gum disease.

Tooth decay is caused when acids in the mouth eat away at your enamel, but your body has a natural defense mechanism: saliva. Saliva washes away plaque and also neutralizes the acids in your mouth, both of which prevent cavities. Unfortunately, your mouth becomes very dry when you breathe through your mouth at night, so you lose this protection.

Mouth Breathing

Mouth breathing is a well-known form of sleep-disordered breathing that can occur in children and can also be associated with sleep apnea. When it occurs, it should be addressed – over time, it can lead to alterations in facial skeletal growth and may also increase behavioral problems due to disrupted sleep.

Bedwetting

Bedwetting can have a relationship to how we are breathing and the quality of our sleep. Since breathing can be difficult with sleep-related breathing disorders, the brain works harder to take in oxygen than it does to control other bodily functions, like bladder control.

The brain is sensitive to reductions in oxygen levels, which may trigger flight-or-flight response and refocus oxygen from something less necessary (like the bladder) and deliver it somewhere more critical preparing for the rare case the oxygen were to stop.

Tongue Tie

‘Tongue tie’ is a term used when the lingual frenum (cord that stretches from under the tongue to the floor of the mouth) is short and restricts the mobility of the tongue.

For infants, this restriction can make it difficult to correctly latch when breastfeeding and can also cause pain for the mother. For older children, tongue tie can cause speech impediments and difficulty chewing, swallowing, and other aspects of oral function. Tongue tie can also contribute to habitual mouth breathing and underdeveloped jaws which can lead to smaller or obstructed airways that are common for sleep-related breathing disorders including obstructive sleep apnea.

The Dental Connection

Many young children with SBD have dental arches that are underdeveloped, narrow, and positioned too far back. A normal human profile should have the lips and chin positioned well in front of the eyes with a strong jawline.

Unfortunately, in most cases, such growth and development doesn’t happen on its own. In our modern world of limited breastfeeding and soft, processed foods, far too many of our children are simply not developing fully in their lower facial areas. If allowed to persist during their formative early years, this condition prevents proper growth and development of a child’s airway.

Hours

  • Mon – Fri 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
  • Saturday 8:00 am – 3:00 pm
  • Sunday Closed

Request an Appoinment

Call us: 360-260-0505  or Fill in the Form Below
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