What is an Airway Centric Dentist?
Airway centric orthodontics is focusing on straightening the teeth and jaw that includes opening the airway to improve natural breathing. Orthodontics emphasizes optimal dental health, which includes the treatment and correction of issues for the teeth and all supporting structures. With sleep treatment developments, there is also the need to preserve the function of the airway.
Airway centric orthodontics takes into consideration other aspects of your health, the health of your airway and facial development, which ensures you receive treatment for airway issues that may have been missed. With this centric treatment, they can increase oxygen intake and resolve issues like sleep apnea or snoring.
The Need for Airway Centric Orthodontics
Many people today deal with some form of an airway problem. This centric approach allows your orthodontist to look beyond your teeth and consider the throat, nose, tongue muscles, face, neck, and the rest of your body. By connecting the dots, the treatment goes from realigning just your teeth to restoring your optimal health.
If your child is experiencing any of the following symptoms, they will benefit from airway centric orthodontics:
- Mouth breathing or snoring.
- Excessive daytime sleepiness, migraine headaches, or dark circles under their eyes.
- Thumb sucking or bedwetting.
- Teeth grinding and excessive teeth wear.
- Recurrent ear infections.
- Recessed or protruded lower jaw or a TMJ disorder.
- Narrow jaw, or crooked teeth.
The Benefits of Airway Centric Orthodontics
By gaining proper airflow, balancing proper facial structural development, and restoring natural functions, it can prevent defective facial growth, disruptive sleep patterns, and crooked teeth. These issues impact your or your child’s entire body and can disrupt healthy cognitive development. Early intervention and preventive treatment are crucial to preventing future issues.
The centric approach does not treat the symptoms, instead it focuses on the underlying cause for effective treatment. The body will automatically alter head posture to open an airway, which then changes posture to preserve balance. Normalcy will not be restored until there is an improvement to the cause. Your family dentist can help with non-surgical, mild airway centric orthodontics. Improving air passages will improve breathing functions which will reduce sleep apnea.
Improving normal nasal breathing helps with the proper and natural development of the jaw structure. Since the perception of your face affects your appearance, you can enjoy aesthetic benefits for a lifetime. Early intervention will take advantage of a child’s development and give them a healthier life.
Airway Centric Orthodontic Treatments
Some procedures available under airway centric orthodontics include:
- Conventional Braces- Traditional braces use brackets and an arch wire to shift teeth to their proper position.
- Tongue-Tie Treatment- Known as a lingual frenectomy, this procedure involves using a laser to free the frenulum away from under the tongue.
- Myofunctional therapy- The treatment involves training procedures to help exercise the mouth and facial muscles. Myofunctional therapy is based on the principle that malocclusion is caused by muscle dysfunction.
- The Myobrace System- This system uses a series of removable oral devices. The procedure helps the child’s development, improves breathing and sleep by correcting the underlying causes responsible for any crooked teeth and narrow palate, ensuring a healthy smile and a healthy body.
- Early Palatal Expansion- This procedure widens the mouth roof, to create more room for teeth eruption. The palatal expander is fixed to the upper teeth, and your dentist will teach you how to adjust the expander daily.
- Invisalign®- Invisalign straightens the teeth with clear aligner trays.