The link between dental health and wellness encompasses more than just the teeth and gums — at New Hampshire Smile Co. in Nashua, NH, airway dentistry is probably the most important differentiator between our care and what is typically considered standard dentistry. Airway-focused dentistry and airway dentistry training at New Hampshire Smile Co., provided by Dr. Neveu, represent our whole-person philosophy of patient care. Because a dentist who focuses on the teeth alone is only evaluating one of many factors that impact a patient’s wellness, longevity, function, comfort, and quality of life, we believe dentists should be trained to evaluate a patient’s airway as an integral part of patient care. The airway isn’t simply another dental consideration; it’s a huge aspect of overall wellness and a factor that too often goes unaddressed in dental appointments.
The Connection Between Breathing & Overall Health
A person’s breathing route, pattern, quality, and consistency during waking hours and during sleep impacts almost every system of the body, which is a connection to dental health that most people are completely unaware of:
- Chronic mouth breathing misses out on the filtration, humidity, and nitric oxide production of nasal breathing, impacting immune system function and blood-oxygenation efficiency and ultimately every single breath taken.
- An airway that is too narrow to accommodate an air passage through the nose or throat reduces the restorative value of every sleep cycle, resulting in the daytime fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, mental-emotional imbalance, and physiological stressors associated with chronic sleep deprivation over time.
- Untreated airway problems can lead to chronic blood-oxygen desaturation, which has been linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, metabolic issues, and systemic inflammation.
- Breathing patterns, tongue posture, and dental and facial growth all impact the dental airway. If airway dentistry recognizes problems and addresses them early on, airway function can positively influence dental and orthodontic treatment outcomes, and the dental health, growth, and development of children can be greatly impacted for the better.
Signs Of Airway Dysfunction In Adults & Children
Airway dysfunction symptoms often look different in children than in adults, which is why one of the greatest contributions to a patient’s overall health and wellness made by an airway-focused dental team is identifying symptoms in both adult and pediatric patients:
In Adults
- Chronic daytime fatigue or lack of restorative sleep
- Snoring or apnea
- Morning headaches, sore throats, or dry mouth
- Teeth clenching and grinding that has not responded to typical dentists’ treatment of wearing a nightguard
- Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain and tension and jaw pain
- Trouble concentrating or mood swings due to sleep apnea-related poor sleep quality
In Children
- Mouth breathing throughout the day or sleeping with their mouth open
- Snoring, restless sleep, or waking frequently at night
- Behavioral, cognitive, or academic issues that could reflect sleep-disordered breathing’s effects on cognitive function
- Small mouth with crowded teeth, narrow dental arches, or high palate, which can suggest airway development is restricted
- Bed-wetting or frequent bed-wetting after age 7 (or after nighttime toilet-training has been completed)
- Dark circles under their eyes and looking tired or generally unhealthy despite the recommended age-appropriate amount of sleep time
How Airway Health Affects Sleep Quality
One of the most clinically important and consistently overlooked connections in healthcare involves the relationship between breathing and quality of sleep. When the airway is narrow and airway obstructions caused by soft tissue obstruction, the tongue position, the jaw position or other anatomical changes occur while sleeping, your body attempts to compensate by briefly stopping breathing. This interruption in normal sleep architecture may be so fleeting that the person isn’t even aware of it, but these sleep events negatively impact their quality of sleep and how well-rested they feel in the morning. Altogether, the effect of broken, airless, oxygen-starved sleep on people’s day-to-day activities, long-term health, and quality of life is quite substantial — and part of what a dental and oral-focused evaluation for sleep-disordered breathing does for people’s overall health and wellness is to identify dental and oral and structural issues related to this broken sleep pattern.
Airway Function & Oral Development
The relationship between airway and oral development is most important and most amendable to intervention in childhood — Dr. Neveu’s airway-focused, whole-person approach to comprehensive care identifies and intervenes in developmental concerns in childhood when such intervention is most effective, rather than once the dental and craniofacial developmental patterns have developed and become entrenched in the person’s development:
- Nasal breathing in development leads to the proper tongue position, and in turn the development of the normal width of the palate that provides normal amount of space for the development of permanent teeth.
- Mouth breathing in development allows the tongue to be in a low position, where it no longer provides the outward force necessary to develop a normal palatal width, and in turn, leads to narrow arches, a narrow palatal vault, and crowded teeth. These conditions frequently end up necessitating orthodontic care to provide space for the permanent teeth to erupt into their natural positions.
- Airway-related developmental concerns in children can be identified and intervened in early in life, in a way that works with the growing patient’s natural development rather than in the face of established dental and developmental patterns.
Evaluating The Airway During Comprehensive Dental Exams
During a comprehensive dental exam at New Hampshire Smile Co., an airway-focused exam evaluates clinical factors related to airway health and function because people can not enjoy the benefit of airway-focused dentistry from a dental practice that does not evaluate the patient’s airway! During a comprehensive exam with Dr. Neveu, an airway-focused exam will evaluate the following:
- Tongue size and position and rest posture in relation to palatal space
- Palatal width, arch form and dental crowding
- Tonsil and soft tissue exam to identify airway contributing soft tissue factors during sleep
- CBCT if indicated to visualize the dimensions of the airway and surrounding structures
- Discussion about sleep patterns, sleep quality, fatigue and breathing in daily life that commonly accompany airway dysfunction
Treatment Options For Airway-Related Concerns
The airway-focused dental treatments and treatments for airway-related concerns recommended by the airway-focused comprehensive care team at New Hampshire Smile Co. reflect the whole-health and whole-person philosophy that characterizes all dental care provided at our dental practice. Dental treatment provided at New Hampshire Smile Co. is presented to people in a comprehensive manner, honestly, and, when indicated, in collaboration with other dental and medical providers who are appropriate to each unique and individual dental and airway-related concern that may affect a person’s overall health and wellness. Dental and airway treatments commonly include:
- Oral appliance therapy for sleep-disordered breathing as a comfortable and non-invasive option for appropriate candidates who do not want to use the CPAP
- Dental and orthodontic intervention that addresses arch development and dental crowding with airway health as a priority of the treatment plan
- Treatment coordination with sleep physicians, ENT specialists and myofunctional therapy as indicated and when it is indicated for a person to receive the best dental and airway care for their unique and individual dental needs
- Myofunctional guidance to optimize the function of the airway in terms of proper tongue position, swallowing patterns and mouth breathing habits and practices that can affect the health of a person’s airway as it relates to all aspects of daily life
Benefits Of A Whole-Health Approach To Dentistry
The benefit to the patient of going to a dental practice where the entire clinical picture can be evaluated — teeth, bite, TMJs, airway, facial muscles and systemic health implications of each clinical picture — is the difference between providing dental treatment that deals with today’s visible clinical condition and providing dental treatment that considers the patient’s optimal long-term health and dental function and quality of life years down the road. Dr. Neveu’s commitment to dental health from a whole-health and whole-person perspective is grounded in the belief that people should not just have access to someone who fixes their teeth — but to someone that evaluates a person’s full clinical picture and helps a person become well-informed to make well-informed decisions about their long-term health with someone they can trust to be there for them throughout their dental care at New Hampshire Smile Co. in Nashua, NH.
Call our office or book your appointment online today.