4 minute read
Your Child’s Breathing and Sleep, and Your Dentist Lidio Rainaldi, DDS
By Lidio Rainaldi, DDS
Dentistry today is taking on yet another challenge. As the dentist has always been the specialist of what’s going on in your mouth and looking down your throat for any problems, it is becoming our duty to also start looking for any blockages that may be affecting your oxygen intake.
Breathing is a life-giving function. The ideal scene for you and your child’s health, wellness, and brain development is to have an open airway, breathing through your nose, and to have nightly deep, restorative sleep. The body needs oxygen more than any other nutrient. Our cells need oxygen to create energy — 25% of which goes directly to the brain. Studies have shown, when the brain doesn’t get the oxygen it needs, parts of the brain may be damaged, often permanently; and, the heart will be overworked trying to compensate. This in itself leads to a lot of other health problems, which over time become chronic.
The medical term “Sleep Apnea” is when there is Obstructive Breathing. This occurs when the throat and airway gets blocked and needed oxygen is cut off. The medical profession once thought this primarily occurred in overweight adults, but now realize that it can occur in almost anyone. Children can have blocked airways at a very early age, even as infants. There are many ways the airway can be blocked. Narrow faces, large tongue, large tonsils, crowded teeth, a small lower jaw, all make a small mouth. The tongue needs lots of room to move around; if not, it drops back blocking the airway. Being tongue-tied also pushes the tongue to the back of the throat. A blocked nose results in the person breathing through their mouth. In children, mouthbreathing 24 hours a day worsens the proper development of the face and jaws, and exhausts them. Enlarged tonsils and allergies also prevent good air flow.
Mouth-breathing and snoring are the two primary signs that the airway is blocked
during sleep. When you lie down to sleep, the lower jaw, tongue, and soft palate all fall to the back of the throat, narrowing the airway. Snoring is the sound of the air trying to get thru, vibrating the soft throat. Snoring is not life-threatening, but when the tongue and tissues block off the oxygen, often for longer than a minute, this can be very dangerous. That is a lot of deprivation to the brain, and brain cells die off. The person has to wake up slightly and repeatedly during the night to breathe, never getting a good night’s rest.
When children are snoring or mouthbreathing, their brains and bodies cannot develop correctly. And if the child is a noisy sleeper, or if they are moving all around the bed when they sleep, they may be trying to find a position in which they are getting oxygen.
Reduced oxygen to the brain results in cognitive impairment. This can result in behavior issues. The child not doing well or falling asleep in school, teeth grinding, mouth open at night, runny nose, recurrent infections, nail-biting, bedwetting, nightmares.
Recent studies indicate that perhaps 50% of children diagnosed with ADHD are misdiagnosed. The symptoms of low oxygen and sleep deprivation are almost identical. Many medications prescribed for ADHD are stimulants and can cause insomnia. A child shouldn’t be taking a stimulant if they already aren’t getting a good night’s sleep.
Start observing your child, family members, and yourself. Check nose airways, observe sleep patterns, look for other symptoms mentioned above, and spend a few minutes online for more information. The short YouTube video, “Finding Connor Deegan,” is a great start. The video was created by Connor’s mom for parents and educators alike to watch and learn. Her message: Every sleepy or struggling child should have airway and sleep evaluations, and be checked for allergies. Look also at the Foundation for Airway Health website: www.airwayhealth.org for more information. Consult immediately with your family doctor if you notice the symptoms described above. Early intervention is the key.
Sleep Disordered Breathing often goes undiagnosed, but now is seen by many in the health field as the cause of serious health problems. This is what inspired me to write this article – to give others awareness, as it may be affecting your life as well.
Your dentist and physician may not yet be experts as there’s so much to learn, but we will work together with other specialists to help those in need. The good news: unblocking the airway can give the person their health back, and the results are often immediate.
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