At Dr.Jay Dental, we are focused in airway centered dentistry. When Dr.Jay is examining a kid or adult, she is looking at the oral system holistically and is planning on explaining to the patient and patient's parents how the teeth and the jaw position affects the airway of the person during sleep.
Many of us only notice our breathing when we are awake. We are unaware how our airway gets blocked during sleep. Breathing is not an option. We need to breathe optimally and in a healthy way to have a good quality of life and proper growth in kids.
Childhood sleep related breathing disorders
- ADD and ADHD
- Nightmares, restless sleep
- Delayed or stunted growth
- Mouth breathing/ snoring
- difficulty in school with academics and concentration issues
- Anger, irritability, defiance and aggression
- bed wetting
- frequently wakes up at night time
- morning headaches
- depression
- asthma//allergies/ sinus issues
- swollen adenoids/ tonsils
- daytime drowsiness
- tooth grinding
- daytime sleepiness, social issues like few friends
- sleep talking and sleep walking
- crowding of teeth
By age 4, children have about 60% of the facial skeleton growth they will have as adults; by age 12, they have reached 90% growth. Early intervention is the best thing we can do for our children—when they get early treatment, we can facilitate the growth instead of fighting against it. Straightening teeth will not help with breathing issues in the long term, as we are not treating the issue that caused these crooked teeth in the first place. Teaching kids myofunctional therapy—exercising the tongue so the pressure exerted by the tongue is balanced by the lips and cheeks—is a very effective way to treat the issue. Teaching them to use their own muscles to expand their jaws will facilitate the growth to help them achieve better breathing.
In this process, we are evaluating children’s facial skeleton growth and airway and treating them accordingly—we are not forcing their body into something unnatural but helping them grow to have healthy lives. We treat kids so that when they become adults, they can avoid being on CPAP machines and having other health issues.
Sleep-disordered breathing is very common in children. Other signs that your kids may have disordered breathing are mouth-breathing, snoring, lips open at rest, forward head posture to facilitate breathing, restless sleep, hyperactivity, lethargy, crowding of teeth, and dark circles under their eyes. Early intervention in oral health and proper growth can help your kids breathe easier and live healthier.
How can we treat sleep disordered breathing issues in kids?
- 1. Eliminate bad habits, teach good habits. We use habit correction appliances, teach myofunctional exercises like breathing exercises. We also teach exercises to help the tongue, lips and cheeks to work in harmony.
- 2. When there is harmony between lips, cheeks, tongue with proper swallowing and breathing habits, there is going to be proper growth of the jaws helping to establish a good open airway. At our office, we use fixed or removal expansion appliances to reach this goal depending upon the age of the kid and the amount of correction needed to facilitate proper growth. This helps your kids to reach various milestones with proper growth.
- 3. Eventually, the adult teeth growth into their ideal location after proper growth is established with expansion appliances and myofunctional therapy.
The outcome we focus on is the airway centered dentistry for proper growth of the children and we are passionate about what we do!
Myobrace is an appliance we use often to correct habits in kids. To learn more about Myobrace
Dr.Jay has been continuously taking numerous continuing education courses focusing on kids having proper breathing and optimum growth.
Our Patient Testimonials
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