Airway Dentistry and Toothpillow Innovation

Speaker 1 0:41

Okay , hello , hello everybody and happy Thursday night live . We have the wonderful Dr Kelly Hale here with us today . Thank you so much for hanging out with us .

Speaker 2 0:54

Oh , it is an honor to be on here . I'm so excited . I think we could talk for hours and hours , but thank you for having me , Renata .

Speaker 1 1:01

So if you guys are listening to this live , it's actually a recording . On a Friday , you are an Airway Circle member and you have early access to all of our recordings . So let us know where you're from , what your specialty is . If you have any questions , please put them in the comments . If you're watching this on a Thursday , we invite you to become a member so you can get these early and it'll be more interactive . Also and you're , of course , supporting everything that ARA Circle does for the ARA community , bringing our free directory , where thousands of referrals are coming out of that every single month . These lives where we get other professionals to get you know a little , planting that seed so they can kind of know what this multidisciplinary approach to treatment looks like . And then parents helping parents find you so you can help them . I don't have an intro , so I'm going to ask you to introduce yourself to our listeners . Who are you ? What are you doing here ? How did you get to Airway ? What is your story ?

Speaker 2 2:04

Oh , I would love to . That's so much fun for me to talk about . I have kind of a wild story in dentistry and I I come from a family of dentists so I don't know if you knew that but my mom and dad met in dental school . I'm married to my high school sweetheart who was also a dentist . We convinced him to not go to engineering school and instead go to dental school , and my younger sister's also a dentist , and so there's five in my immediate family and I really did grow up in dentistry from filing paper charts back when that was a thing to the little voice telling you it's time for your cleanup and cleaning , like there was just kind of full circle for me of everything from the front to the back when I was younger .

Speaker 2 2:46

So it was great growing up in dentistry because I got to see firsthand how my parents would impact their patients' lives . My dad does a lot of surgery , so having teeth when you had no teeth and actually our practice name is New Teeth because of that and it was really , really fun . So when I got out of dental school and was really blessed to have a practice to walk into to help like and and cause you don't know anything when you get out of school . I mean , you know just enough I joke . You know just enough not to be a danger to your patient , but when it comes to the leadership qualities and the practice building and being able to communicate with your patients and love on them and your staff and have them stay with you , there was just a lot that I was able to absorb from somebody who didn't prep bed in practice for 35 years at the time and my mom's retired my dad is retiring now .

Speaker 2 3:34

I'm in denial . I'm in denial . I showed up to work the other day and he wasn't there and I was like , excuse me , don't you have something to do ? You know , cause he's he's not like officially gone , but they're just like his schedule is very light and he's like , yeah , I'm in my bathroom having a great morning and I'm like no , no , like there there is so much that has to be done .

Speaker 2 3:51

So that was really fun for me and when I got out I actually did an implant , a mini residency in implantology . My dad had his own course and I really thought I was going to do surgery and I I did love it , I was good at it , but I it was not what got me out of bed in the mornings . You know I loved cosmetics and ortho , but I started screening patients that I suspected might have sleep apnea adults only . We were a heavy adult practice . Um , just because I was hearing that we should and that maybe some of the symptoms that we were dealing with in general dentistry like implant crowns coming loose , abutments breaking , like crowns breaking , whatever might have an underlying cause and I didn't have my own sleep test machines , I didn't do any of that . I was just like you need to go see somebody . It ain't me , but you got to go get screened .

Speaker 2 4:38

And then all of these patients were coming back with sleep apnea and I was like what is going on ? Like everybody is suffering and they're not breathing well and their oxygen levels scare me . So that was kind of the beginning of me realizing that there was a lot in dentistry that we didn't learn . And I went to a very wonderful dental school and paid a lot of money to go there , but there was just so much that I so much more money I needed to spend and time I needed to spend learning once I realized that there was something behind the curtain going on that we didn't know . So , yeah , it was a wild journey .

Speaker 2 5:11

I started doing airway stuff in my practice in 2019 . It's all I do now . I hung up my drill , I like to say in 2021 . And now we've just been opening practices in Houston . I've been training doctors to come in and be with us and me more so . Overseeing that care has allowed some freedom in my life and I'm very appreciative for it . Like we were talking earlier , go get my kids from school or do whatever it is that I need to do and , at the same time , feel like we really are changing people's lives .

Speaker 2 5:39

That is incredible .

Speaker 1 5:41

Before we go . I know you have a little presentation for us before we go through that . Do you mind sharing a little bit about Toothpillow ?

Speaker 2 5:47

I know you were very involved and there's a lot of talk on Toothpillow .

Speaker 1 5:51

People have lots and lots of questions and I know from the first time that I spoke to them , when they first reached out to me , to now . E has just exploded .

Speaker 2 6:00

Yeah , yeah , I would love to . So yeah , I am a founder of Toothpillow . It is a virtual dental office in the sky , is what we like to describe it , and I have some , even a myths slide that I shared at the World Unofficial Sleep Society meeting when you and I were there together . That I can share in some cases . But my heart lies in early intervention orthodontics . I absolutely love it and I work with some great orthodontists in Houston . For the more complicated cases that need surgery and whatever else , I'm in Alfie's backyard in Houston , so I'm just like surrounded by wonderful people and my patients could just get sprinkled wherever they need to go . If it's something outside of what I want to do , but starting really young with myofunctional therapy and habit corrector appliances whatever the brand I don't care Like just is so helpful for the kiddos and we do start as young as three in my private practice for an actual habit corrector appliance and then my own munchie or whatever younger than that all of my airway dentist offices have my functional therapists on staff full time , which is like I couldn't live without you guys Like I . Like there's like literally no chance that my stuff would look so good if we didn't have my functional therapy . So , yeah , that's been really fun .

Speaker 2 7:07

And tooth pillow was born out of the idea of there are not a lot of and it's not just the Cali show , but they're just not a lot of airway dentists across the United States . And how could we increase the access to that care , including my functional therapists for virtual , for virtual care , and just have people know what the heck it is ? Because , as you know , as a mom , it's really hard to navigate if you're being told like , oh , tooth extractions are your only option or your child's snoring is normal , they'll grow out of it , which I said . I said as a dentist , getting out it's one of my biggest regrets , but it's what I was taught , you know . I mean , they tell you to say that and it's like when you get out and realize that that's literally no evidence of that anywhere , you're like why is it that what we're saying ?

Speaker 2 7:47

So Toothpillow was born out of the idea and it was years of late night calls and blood , sweat and tears getting certain dentists that we really wanted to say , hey , can you work with us ? Like , would you be willing to do a virtual consultation in your state ? And there's a couple of states that unfortunately , have totally outlawed any sort of teledentistry , which has made it a lot harder for these children to get the care and we're having to find offices that they can go into first and then we can help . It's really yeah , it's been , it's been challenging the whole Smile Direct Club . You know , explosion really damaged what is a very simple tool for kids to have and won't do any harm to them . So , yeah , so that's , that's what it looked like . We have , like , I think , 75 dentists and a whole branch of my functional therapist that help us , and we need more . So any of your followers , any people that you know , like we're looking for the best people to be able to get on you know , a zoom with somebody in the middle of Kansas that can't get anywhere .

Speaker 1 8:46

Exactly this is something that I have noticed from other myofunctional therapists that we all we all work together um , saying , okay , we , we got this child . They are super young , there's nobody around them and I think that a habit corrector would be perfect for this child . What do we do ? Because it's we can't order them out of our hands . So I do believe that tooth pillow is a great option for these cases where you know that a habit corrector is the right treatment for that child , but there's no dentist around and there's no way of them getting . You can't order . So reaching out to you guys , that's a great platform .

Speaker 2 9:23

Oh , absolutely , thank you . We would love that and it's . It's really like when we very first started . It's a little more popular now because word of mouth and stuff and people , I think , have a much better understanding . In the beginning I think everybody thought we were Smile Direct Club . Just every kid gets it whatever . And we deny right now about 30% of the cases and we it's so hard but we have to . Like you can't take in a 10 , 11 and 12 year old that needs like expansion .

Speaker 1 9:47

And it's not necessarily denial of treatment , it's something else .

Speaker 2 9:50

It's just they have to go , yes , and but that's hard if they're six hours away from a provider and that's , and then they're crying on the phone with their people . Anyways , we're it's . It's a lot that I do want . That's one of the myths on . The myth slide is like please don't think it's just click , buy and then you get it . It's like we do a comprehensive video consultation . They have to submit ortho photos and medical history and we work with via a teledentist company where we have licenses in every state in order to be able to provide them proper care . It's very expensive and it's it's very . It's just making sure that we're doing it right is our biggest thing . And and um , we have . We have helped kids get into practices all over for care that they wouldn't have received if they went to the wrong person , and you know how that goes .

Speaker 1 10:32

So I know that is amazing . I have one question Do you have any advice for other malfunctional therapists or for parents out there who are trying to convince a three-year-old , a four-year-old , to wear a habit corrector ?

Speaker 2 10:50

Yes , I do . That's honestly , even in my private practice , because I give these out my private practice all the time . It's like are they really going to wear it ? And you know , here's my I can . I can go two ways with it . One , I tell parents it is the most , in my opinion , life altering , life giving procedure you will do for your child and their growth and development . In my opinion , myofunctional therapy to have a corrector appliance will change their life . It will change their face .

Habit Corrector Appliance Recommendations

Speaker 2 11:14

And if they're on the fence because everything's expensive , everything's expensive right now in the world , and they think , oh well , they might not wear it , I literally look at that mom in the eyes . I'm like you have to let them try . Yeah , because I was like I have had three-year-olds do it night one .

Speaker 2 11:31

I've had three-year-olds take six months before they stay in all night . Either way we have time because they're little , but if they do it , oh my goodness , like you will be so far ahead . And after that I'm like okay , so you've got like the . My seven-year-old daughter was very sassy about it and really like it was difficult , but I'm not beneath bribery . I was like doing this thing all week .

Speaker 2 11:53

We're going to target , you know like target you a doll like and it'll still be cheaper than 100% , than braces , yeah , having to fix it later , yes , and so anyway , yeah , I always tell the parents , like , figure out what motivates the child . And there are some things that I think the parents need to know that are normal . Like their teeth will be sore the first couple of days , they're going to spit it out , like they're going to drool a lot because I've got oral dysfunction , and like there's things that I prep them for just so that they know , like it's not a failure the first week because of whatever's happening . And I also tell the parents they have to make it fun . I said you guys are the bad guy Sometimes . You spend a lot of money , you get grumpy , you get frustrated and you make a negative and that's your fault , not mine .

Speaker 2 12:33

We want to make it positive . So , yeah , we give sticker charts and all sorts of stuff to help them to , like , track their progress , and the kids will color the page for me and bring it to me and I put it on my big board . You know there's things to do , but it's important that you know they get to try and if they can't do it , we put it in expanders . I mean , it's just really as simple as that . I'm like , okay , we'll glue it in , you know are there any contra indications to a habit corrector ?

Speaker 1 12:57

when it's not the right time . When is it not the right tool ?

Speaker 2 13:07

Yeah , Um , age too old , uh , really hypoplastic . I mean I don't sell them on something that's not going to make the changes that we both know that they need . As far as , like medically , no , I think , severe apraxia I will not like we will work together with somebody , but you got to be careful . I had this one kid who was really , really disabled and nobody would treat him . I was like I will treat him . I didn't do it with the habit corrector , I did it with removable expanders , but I couldn't put anything fixed in him because his swallow was so bad and he , he was in like it would take 45 minutes for him to eat , and there was this whole thing .

Speaker 2 13:37

So you do have to make certain accommodations , but I would say for the majority of the kids , like there's no reason not to consider it Um . But also , paying attention to frenulum is , I mean , like they're going to spit it out a lot too if they have really poor tongue function , which your people know really well . So I think understanding that it's not a one size fits all or one size fix all , I guess , without your team , is really yeah , it's really important .

Speaker 1 14:02

How about snoring Um , those kids that are always congested or not breathing all through their nose ? Are we doing any tests to see if this kids can breathe ?

Speaker 2 14:12

properly ? Oh , absolutely . And I I mean sometimes I have to ventilate the habit correctors . I don't know how how much that's come across your feed , but I will literally take if they are like . I have parents , they're like we are not taking out the tonsils . I'm like , okay , we're going to do other things , but they really want to make it work and I will go in and put big holes in the phalanges in the front to allow them to mouth breathe at the same time while we're converting them , and then I'll get them a new one and transfer just to like get slow , ease into that tonsils and anoints reduction . So , yeah , they have to be able to breathe through their nose .

Speaker 2 14:43

We talk about nasal hygiene like crazy and I love the intake breathing strips . I've been working with them for a while . Working with them , I just love using them , and I've told them we need a PEDS line , but they have small ones and so they have the S1 and the S2 , which you can't get on Amazon . You have to go through their website . It's small enough for kids and it is great , like if my daughter was sick or something . I have a video on my Instagram of her and I putting ours on . I love my intake strips , so those are the kinds of things that I'll have them help like in that first transition with a habit corrector appliance and they're like oh , it falls out every

Orthodontic Appliance Success Stories

Speaker 2 15:15

night , or whatever . It's like okay , we need to look at the oral musculature , we need to look at your nasal breathing , because you should be able to keep it in when those are all in harmony .

Speaker 1 15:25

Oh my gosh , that's amazing . All right , let's see what your presentation . Okay , here , let me pull it up . Are we on Facebook ? We're on Facebook , Hello Facebook .

Speaker 2 15:33

Oh , we are , we're live . I didn't know , I put a little bit on .

Speaker 1 15:35

Facebook and I forgot about it Okay , you guys should see what our TNLs are like . However , this is just for members . You guys guys are going to watch this on Thursday , so come join us on zoom . If you are a member , you have the links all over your emails and inside the membership portal by Facebook .

Speaker 2 15:52

Okay , let me share my screen .

Speaker 2 15:53

I got it up so I kept the MythBuster slide in this because it was really helpful . At WDSS , people had great feedback . Toothpill is not a proprietary appliance . That is just the name of our company . We did not go make an appliance that we're trying to make work for patients . We're using validated appliances through Myobrace and the Vivos guides .

Speaker 2 16:11

Not all children are accepted for virtual treatment , which we talked about earlier . Our myofunctional therapy is not one size fits all . That was another thing people were really worried about . And then patients are not told that they will not need expanders or braces . This is very much like a pre orthodontic treatment that we talk about with them . But I would love to show some cases . These were done in my private practice over the years and this little boy was nine and had a slew of symptoms on his sleep questionnaire that we use in our offices obviously very deep bite class too and within 10 months his bite was doing so well . I was like floored because this was pretty early on in my career and I'm like , oh my gosh , these things work .

Speaker 1 16:52

That's how I feel .

Speaker 2 16:53

We might be on something you know . And then now he's 12 and really great , so any sort of phase two that he'll have for any leveling or aligning is just going to be minimal for him . He did really really well throughout his treatment . And this is another little one I think he was eight when we started again six , eight , 10 , 12 months . We're taking pictures consistently throughout the treatment and of course , my functional therapy is happening in these kids , which is just making the entire thing a beautiful .

Speaker 2 17:21

Any releases with these patients . These two did not have any releases . Nope , wow , they were . They were doing really well . Yeah , thank you so much . I love it .

Speaker 2 17:30

This was a little one six years old , I believe , and still wetting the bed . So bed wetting is the thing we haven't really talked about , but I know comes up a lot in airway training and stopped bedwetting with the habit corrector appliance and once we got him breathing through his nose and everybody can see , his bite went from deep to lifted and beautiful , which was just icing on the cake . Now this one was kind of a crazy story and hard to believe , truly . But this child was 10 and came into my office and I was like okay , we need , you know , expanders and all of this stuff . I mean you're going to leave today with the habit corrector appliance and then I'll see you . Well , they disappeared for a year . I don't know what happened , but they literally left . And then my staff's like hey , so-and-so , just called . I don't know what happened , but they were supposed to get expanders . Like forever ago we had them in the office and they think he might need a bigger habit corrector appliance .

Speaker 2 18:23

And I'm like yeah , I can't even whatever , and this is what his bite looked like .

Speaker 1 18:27

Wow .

Speaker 2 18:29

So , I was like I looked at the data and I was like I don't even know how to explain to you what happened . I mean I can , but this is wild and also we get in a hurry . I get in a hurry , I'm like we got to do experience right now . We got to do and it's like if you get that kid breathing through their nose and you get that tongue and swallow corrected , like it really is wild , what can happen . I mean , he was a hundred percent overbite , large overjet , like to this you know . So anyways , I thought that one was was kind of cool . This is another example of one . He just kept wearing it and wearing it and wearing it . Now they get bigger , they're different .

Speaker 2 19:02

Like you have like your starter , and then you know your , your , your team will know that , and so now going into phase two to help make sure there's enough room for the canines and bring everything down again is easier than doing that when it looks like this , you know , so really fun .

Speaker 1 19:16

So I think one of the biggest things that I hear from orthodontists , especially on class two patients okay , we can bring , because a lot of times , even though they're class two , their maxilla is still too far back . Everything needs to come forward and my orthodontist is always like , okay , what if I do a forward pull face mask ? But what's ? Going to happen to the mandible ?

Speaker 2 19:40

Right .

Speaker 1 19:41

Can we bring it forward ? And I do see a lot of these cases with habit correctors of . I don't know if it's a mandible that comes forward .

Speaker 2 19:49

Yeah , I think it's a well I think it's probably a mixture of both , but I also think once the tongue is putting pressure because the tongue's attached down here if the tongue's up and forward , the whole jaw's coming forward with it , and the habit corrector appliances put the kids in class one . They're designed to hold them in class one , so when they're in a deep class two it's like a herps , but only when they're sleeping . It holds them in class one and then it repositions and then this happens . So yeah , and then this happens . So yeah , totally fun . It's my favorite way to correct class two . I hate chasing class twos with other appliances . I just , I , just , I'm like wear your freaking habit corrector .

Speaker 2 20:26

If you will please wear that , my job will be easier and I'll be super grateful for that whole thing . So they it's my go-to for class two correction , regardless of age . As long as they're I mean , as long as they can fit into the proper appliance , they're going to be in that we ask for active wear one to two hours a day and then all night , and you know the results are are there .

Speaker 2 20:44

So yeah this was the baby , baby , uh , starter , the starter kids appliance , and my associate did this one , so credit credit for her . She was super excited messaging me . And then this is a little boy that I followed for four years , so credit credit for her .

Speaker 2 20:58

She was super excited messaging me . And then this is a little boy that I followed for four years so he was in the kids appliance . Then we got into the starter so you can see how the bite lifts and life's just going on and teeth are in and we get into the tooth positioner appliance and now we're kind of looking here . And then I saw him middle of last summer and we were here . So he's doing so well . These are just like the technical terms for the different appliances , but it's just a beautiful change that you can watch happen from start to finish . When the kids are compliant I mean again like it's not going to be for everybody but when they're willing to do their their job at home , the moms are willing to make sure that they're doing myofunctional therapy . This is what is possible .

Speaker 1 21:39

So I'm really strict with the parents Like I'm , and this is him .

Speaker 2 21:41

He's cute , like just you can just see his whole face shape and everything is beautiful . But I tell I will tell the families like , um , I'll probably stop sharing here . There's so many that you know . If you want the results that you see me post online and you see that other people doing this or posting online , you have to do what we're telling you to do . And I think some of the dentists get shy from that because they're like the parents are looking at them like oh well , it's not working , or whatever . And I was like , well , did you ask them if they're doing my own ? Did you ask them if they're cleaning their nose ? Like you have to put the pressure back on them , which does make it difficult , but if they want the results and they've already paid for this and it will work , I've literally never not seen it work , unless they're doing what they're supposed to Exactly .

Speaker 1 22:24

Yeah , uh , do you have a CBCT ?

Speaker 2 22:27

protocol . So in our practices , yeah , so I , I have a lot of pushback on taking it under like five . I get a lot of parents preferring you know and I'm , I'm fine , not . But if we're doing any sort of expanders , like 100% , we have our records , like I , and I'm like don't let anybody do any sort of expansion to you without that . So amazing .

Speaker 1 22:48

Um do you usually get a report ? What are you guys looking for in a CVCT ?

Speaker 2 22:53

Yeah , so we I will send through beam readers every adult case and any really severe abnormality in children . We're taught to read panoramics , and so anybody that's had airway training can also go and look at the tonsils and adenoids . It's where we get our sept tracings from , so it's important to be able to read through it and then punt . Anything you don't understand . But when I'm , when I take one on a child , I'm looking at their airway , I'm looking at their nose . Do they have a deed of septum ? What does their turbinates look like ? What are their adenoids and tonsils look like , so that I can make sure that we have a very tailored experience for that child . And yeah , so that's the short and sweet of that .

Speaker 1 23:29

How do you differentiate structural airway problems and functional airway problems ?

Speaker 2 23:38

Well , that's a combination of your proper tracings of the skeleton and myofunctional therapists letting me know how the function is . So I know a lot about myofunctional therapy , but I will . I will be the first to tell the patient like I have no idea she needs to assess your function . Just because I see a frenulum doesn't mean I need to release it , like we need to make sure that everything's working properly in there . So , yeah , it's a team effort , definitely a team effort .

Speaker 1 24:02

Um , how do you approach early intervention for children with high vaulted palates ?

Speaker 2 24:09

Mayo nasal hygiene tongue needs to be able to be up . Your natural palate expander tongue needs to be up . So every child that does expanders with me also has a habit corrector appliance . So when you wait too late , you're getting the kitchen sink thrown at you . When you start at three , you're in a habit corrector and that tongue is going to do what it needs to do . So there's this just steep curve of the older they are , the worse it's going to be . So the earlier you start , the easier it'll be .

Speaker 1 24:35

Uh , one of the things that I think people shy away from treating young , young kids , it's the how to manage their anxiety , how to manage them not understanding exactly what's happening . Uh , do you have any advice on how to manage this ? So ?

Speaker 2 24:52

they the appliances don't hurt , they really don't . I mean , kids will say that their teeth are a little bit sore , but on the little babies three , four and five it's just not like . If you've never done one , I can see how it would seem . Like this mountain you have to climb and the doctors that are in my mentor group I tell them , like that mountain is in your mind , like this is not a hard thing for the families to do , put it in when they go to bed and if the kid's gagging , then they've got oral dysfunction and we need we need help with from a Mayo .

Speaker 2 25:22

But if there's anything else that's going on , like it's going to be short lived and but the doctors really need to know how to treat it . But the thing is that they need to be comfortable with the habit correctors and then they're not going to be nervous about doing it . So , yeah , any , any , anything that is like I've seen it all . I've seen it all with habit correctors and anybody can DM me if they're treating somebody and they don't know like what you know . Please reach out to me on social media and I'll be able to answer what I think's going on to help .

Pediatric Airway Health Practices

Speaker 1 25:50

You mentioned a mentorship group . Is that just for your practices ?

Speaker 2 25:54

Yeah , no , it's called the sleep well journey . So my husband and I have a podcast .

Speaker 1 25:59

Yeah , no , it's called the sleep well journey .

Speaker 2 26:01

So my husband and I have a podcast . Yeah , I know it would be so fun . And so the mentor group is for it's really for dentists . We have a hygienist in there that is expanded function and she's doing oral appliances in her state , which is really great . We meet two times a week and we are just going through cases and cases , and cases and cases . Yeah , over a year it's been so great , yeah .

Speaker 1 26:19

Wow , twice a week . Yeah , you can find time . That's incredible .

Speaker 2 26:29

Well , I just yeah , there's my life is wild , but yeah , it's the sleepwelljourneycom . And then there's like a mentorship tab . We have our forms that we use in our practices for for treatment planning are on there for any offices that you know want help . We're trying to make things accessible and they can fill out a form on there if they want to learn more about how to work with me . I love that .

Speaker 1 26:45

How about if a child is thumb sucking ?

Speaker 2 26:48

Yeah , so that's a problem and obviously you can't cut their thumb off . You can't take their thumb away . Honest , honest to goodness , in my experience and this is just me and thousands of kids just in my private practice they just want something in their mouth . Passy babies , thumb suckers , they really take well to have a corrector appliances because it's a security thing for them , it's also an airway thing . They say like when they're thumb sucking they're keeping their tongue forward and they breathe better . So it can become this habit that's happening because innately they know that they need mandibular advancement and so we just , we just do our best . I'm like , if you have to wear it during the day more than at night at first , that's fine . Let's start working towards those habits and try to bribe them . And my , I was a thumb sucker and it got fixed , but my parents put like cayenne pepper on my thumb . There was none of this like being nice , it was just you're going to stop doing that .

Speaker 1 27:43

So do you guys work at all with schools to address concerns like mouth breathing or sleep issues ?

Speaker 2 27:51

So , yeah , so , as we have branded as the airway dentist in Houston , we have just this large marketing effort for education . We do monthly patient education meetings . I've done that for seven , six years , every single month and my associates have taken that over now . So we fill it up with patients , members from the community school administration in Texas , where we are in the public school districts . It is almost impossible for me to get faced with them , but they can come to dinners that I offer and that's different .

Speaker 2 28:21

So if we we reach out to the school boards and invite superintendents and teachers and stuff nurses , I'm really in on that because that's helpful for you know , as they're evaluating a kid that might be falling asleep in class or whatever . So , educate your community , spend the money , take the time , buy them a nice dinner . I promise you your practice will see numbers it's never seen and you will help more people than you ever have . If they know that they can go listen to you at a Mexican restaurant or something without any . You know they're not in the dental chair . You know what I mean .

Speaker 1 28:52

Yes , what is the ? This is amazing . Um , what is the recommendation that you have for myofunctional therapists to approach dentists ? Um , so they can maybe start looking at this . It is difficult because we're not doctors , so a lot of times we're shut up , you know , shut down completely , like who the heck are you to see anything ? I will ?

Speaker 2 29:14

tell you , right now I am constantly taking cards from myos , especially for my private practices , where somebody offers it virtually because people will come from so far , even though I have them in office , they're busy , so finding the right dentist is an important thing . Like you don't want to go to like the guy on the corner that's like been practicing for 75 years and doesn't have a clue what you're talking about . Like if you know that somebody is a new you know myobrace provider or a vivos provider . Like they probably don't have their people yet and they probably need somebody . And so them building that network and chatting with them in their town , like Google airway dentists around you and see like who's popping up and then drop off a card and you know some Starbucks or something and and I think it would be really helpful and if they're doing any sort of education , join forces with them . Like we've on one of our big dinners we brought in a Mayo to do part of the talk with us and it was just great to have extra perspective in that regard .

Speaker 1 30:10

That is great . Talking about all the professionals , I think from my experience I'm not sure y'all's listening the hardest professional to get in front of is a pediatrician , and I believe it's just because they're too busy dealing with very important things . You know that they have to do with all of these kids , but what is the one thing that you wish every pediatrician understood about pediatric airway health ?

Speaker 2 30:37

I wish they would stop telling people tongue ties weren't a thing .

Speaker 1 30:41

Oh my gosh , I shared . I shared a thing from the Bible this , uh , this last week it's on the Bible His tongue was freed . Is it really a fad ?

Speaker 2 30:53

I know it's , you know I it's funny that you just said the whole thing with the peds , because it has been awful . It is the one like , with the exception of a pediatrician here in Houston that is like incredible , like sends us patients all the time willing to have us come in , and like Dr Farrella is incredible . But we've tried another ones and they're just like well , they're not , they don't understand . But I did get in with an emergency pediatric office and I don't know if you guys have any of those around you , but I was able to talk with him and he he literally gave me two minutes and I was so , I was so thankful , brought food for everybody and he , and you know , when he asked me , I was like do you want me to show you some nanonoids ?

Speaker 2 31:37

Do they go to you first , or the ENT ? That was his question and I was like they need an oral , they need an airway assessment first because we might be able to shrink them . So I would say the best and where they're going to tell them like they don't get strep throat enough , then we're not taking them out . So I'm like me and he was like cool , and that was it . That was the extent of our thing . So I think thinking about that is really important too , because you could get you know they're seeing ear infections , knowing that ear infections are linked to tongue tie , like that's not something that they were trained on either .

Speaker 1 32:06

So , um , yeah , anyways um , what has been your experience in your uh practice seeing uh any tonsils and adenoid tissue shrink some oh all the time I my my youngest .

Speaker 2 32:19

The reason I put him in a habit corrector so early was because they were so big . My daughter had hers out when she was 18 months old but I didn't know any different , I didn't know any better than and I was like he's going to have a mouth , he's snoring , he got it . He got a cavity on a primary molar from the mouth breathing and I floss that kid every single day , like and like , and so I put it took him six months , like I alluded earlier , to really keep it in all night , like . But I was like I'm going to start at three and who cares ? At three and a half Like he has never not slept with it now .

Speaker 2 32:45

I mean , he is my perfect and his tonsils down the way went completely to normal and and we know with Dr Youden study that maxillary expansion shrinks them statistically significantly with like an RPE or whatever . So I'm like I don't care what age they are . We got to get them breathing through their nose , we got to get that tongue up and at whatever age you come to see me , your treatment is going to change a little bit . But either way there is a surgery alternative and we should try it before we're doing something irreversible .

Speaker 1 33:11

I love that Over here in the comments you guys can can let us know what have you seen and what do you usually recommend for your patients to try to get that tissue to not be as inflamed ? If you could give one piece of advice to a dentist , starting to focus on airway , what would it be ?

Speaker 2 33:37

Don't be scared , you're not going to hurt anybody and find a good place to get educated . Don't get on facebook groups and listen to people who have never even taken an airway course tell you that expansion of the lower jaw or whatever is not possible . I can't anymore . I leave those facebook groups , I'm all done , and just know that you will be an outlier in your city right now for offering it , because there's just not a lot of us , and you will be immensely rewarded by the improvement and symptoms in your patient's life . So so please just don't have an opinion until you go take a course .

Speaker 1 34:16

Amazing , oh , my goodness . Thank you so , so much . I know that I have so many more questions , but this has been wonderful .

Speaker 1 34:25

I have a couple announcements before we say bye from Airway Circle . We have an Airway Circle retreat in Hilton Head Island from April 10th to April 12th . We have a couple speakers Dr Uma Katwa , from Harvard . He's a pediatric pulmonologist and pediatric sleep physician . He's going to be hanging out with us talking tons about sleep and airway . And then we have Dr Lincoln Harris , who isa dentist from Australia . He is the CEO of Ripe Global , which is a company that teaches dentists after they get out of school . They do extra training , all online . It's an incredible company . It's growing like crazy . He's going to be there talking about business , talking about knowing how to speak in public . He's fantastic . Then we have Tamara , who's going to be talking about personal growth my favorite . So we're going to be diving deep into ourselves , our goals , um , and how we can all improve , because there's no such thing as you growing professionally If you do not grow personally first . We're going to be riding bikes , we're going to be doing beach walks , we're going to have massages . We're going to have a private chef . There's a heated pool in the house . It is freaking amazing . So it's limited . We only have eight spots left .

Speaker 1 35:44

The value for allied health professionals is $2,500 . And for dentists it's $5,000 . However , we have a promotion right now for $3,500 . If anybody wants to join , jump on it right now . We have more information on our website , wwwairwaycirclecom . Just click on AC Retreat 2025 . Our new foundations course , foundations of Orphation Myofunctional Therapy , starts every August , so we already have a wait list started for that . You can also find the wait list on our website and Beauty of Breathing Podcast . We got that on area circlecom . You can find it there .

Speaker 1 36:21

And if you're not in the directory again , please join us . It's free . There are patients out there trying to find you and I'm telling you immediately going to start getting referrals . We don't charge anything for that . We believe one of our missions is to try to help the patients find the correct professional to help them . So join our directory . Just click on add . You create your own profile . You don't have to be an Airway Circle member . The Airway Circle members are the ones who allow us to maintain that directory , so we're so grateful for all of you guys . Thank you for listening . Thank you for spending some time with us . Any last words ?

Speaker 2 36:59

Oh , I'm just grateful to be on here and I think it's a really incredible time to be in dentistry and we couldn't do it without you guys and I love all of you and I appreciate you having me on and I hope this has empowered more dentists to , in my functional therapist , to do more , more airy treatment yeah .

Speaker 1 37:12

Thank you . Thank you Everybody . Have a wonderful week . We'll see y'all next week . Bye-bye .