04/30/2025
This brave and beautiful kid has a big day today. 💪🏼 She is getting her tonsils out, her adenoids out, and getting tubes placed AT THE SAME TIME
Airway has been a super important part of my practice at High Tide, and we take this issue with our young ones seriously! The field of orthodontics is changing, and I’m proud to be a part of the movement that has been promoting phase 1 early, interceptive treatment in the right situations (I like the idea of dropping the term “early” from this phrase as this term gives the feeling like we could wait for “later” treatment. Most of the time we probably can wait, but some kids can REALLY benefit from Phase 1 treatment)
The girl in the picture is my daughter, Bowie. When she sleeps next to me, I can hear her struggle to breathe, I see the tossing-and-turning and the difficulty of awakening in the mornings. It’s easy to see the issues as a parent, and this just stimulates my desire to help these kids even more!
Did you know that orthodontic expansion can improve mouth breathing and help with nighttime grinding and/or snoring? And might be best when combined with tonsillectomy?
There is even literature that shows that early orthodontic expansion can help shrink tonsils/adenoids!? (It’s a controversial idea and gaining traction)
“Early” orthodontic expansion is not a cure-all for sleep-disordered breathing, but more a potential integral aspect of a team approach (ENT, Myofunctional therapist, pediatric dentist, pediatrician, general dentist can all play a part) that can improve the growth and development of our kids!
I will be doing more writing/speaking about this in the near future, but for now I want to wish my own kid the best of luck today. Go Bowie!!
