Airway evaluation is becoming the standard of care in both Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics.
As children grow, proper breathing is essential to their health, facial growth and overall development. Children who are not able to breathe through their nose breathe more through their mouth.
This change in breathing doesn’t just impact their health but can ultimately change the way a child looks as an adult.
Ask yourself the following questions? Does your child….
- Snore?
- Breathe loudly when asleep?
- Have nasal congestion?
- Breathe through their mouth?
- Diagnosed with ADHD?
Pediatric Sleep Apnea is commonly misdiagnosed as ADHD. When your child is not sleeping properly. This leads to the same symptoms: hyper activeness, inattentiveness, irritability, excessively sleepy or poor impulse control.
If your child has any of these symptoms, a 3D x-ray (CBCT) should be taken to assess the airway and possibly even a sleep study by an ENT.
Why is this important?
The tongue is a powerful muscle. When mouth breathing, the tongue positions itself in the lower jaw. Which makes it grow more vertically, leading to a long face child. In addition, since nasal breathing is compromised, the mid-face and upper jaw fail to grow normally. A deficient upper jaw/ mid face can lead to mis-shaped eye sockets, a deviated nasal septum, an asymmetric nose and ultimately snoring.
Treatment?
If your child is diagnosed with a poor airway, enlarged adenoids and tonsils are the most common cause of compromised airways in children. Often removal can be a quick fix.
If your child is older (7-10y years) and already has a narrow upper jaw and narrow nasal airway a Rapid Palatal Expander can expand the top jaw and therefore increase the base of the nose, changing their facial structure.
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