Breathe Right, Grow Right: How Airway Health Shapes Your Smile and Well-Being By: Dr. Nishita Ondhia
Why is a dentist talking about breathing? Because function affects form and form affects function.
How we breathe affects our craniofacial development, it affects how our face actually forms. What?!! Yes, it is true!
As a practicing health care professional in restorative dentistry for almost 27 years, it has become clear that the body wants to be healthy. With respect to form, the ideal orofacial situation calls for three things:
- Nose breathing
- Proper tongue function via proper swallowing and while at rest, it needs to sit at the roof of the mouth with the teeth slightly apart
- Teeth aligned, no crowding in broad arches
During our growing years, when one breathes via their nose, this allows the strong tongue to sit against the palate and it acts like a natural palate expander, widening the upper jaw and palate (coincidently, this is also the floor of the nose). When the jaws are widened into a broad arch form, this creates room for teeth to erupt with space the way mother nature wants; it also allows the lower jaw to grow without any interference.
More and more, due to to the soft foods we eat and due to certain epigenetic, our dental arches narrow at a very young age. There is no room for the tongue to sit on the palate or sometimes to even sit within the jaws; thus, the tongue has a low posture and the mouth remains open. This starts a cycle of mouth breathing which has many negative health effects such as ADHD, repeated ear/throat infections, hearing issues, prolonged bedwetting, snoring, guiding but the most concerning is the effect on proper sleep. If left untreated, this will lead to heavy snoring and sleep apnea in adults.