airway orthodontics

Straight teeth are great. Breathing well is even better. Dr. Blackburn and Dr. Williams check both, because a narrow upper jaw can crowd the teeth and the nose at the same time.

Here’s the short version. The roof of your mouth is also the floor of your nose. When the upper jaw is narrow, there’s less room for the tongue and less room for air to get through the nose. A palatal expander slowly widens the upper jaw, and the nasal passage widens right along with it.

We place expanders in our office all the time. A few things you should know:

• In kids, the two halves of the upper jaw haven’t fused yet, so a regular expander works beautifully. It feels like pressure, not pain, and kids get used to it fast. Ages 7 to 12 is usually the sweet spot.
• Teens and adults can be expanded too. Once the jaw is done growing we use a bone-anchored expander (you may see it called MARPE). Small temporary anchors in the roof of the mouth let it widen the jaw itself, not just tip the teeth, and often without jaw surgery. Not every adult is a candidate, and we’ll tell you if you are.
• We take a 3D x-ray so we can actually see the jaw, the nasal passages and the airway behind the tongue. No guessing.
• We’re orthodontists, not sleep doctors. If we see signs of a breathing or sleep problem, we team up with your pediatrician, an ENT or a sleep physician. Only a physician can diagnose sleep apnea, and sometimes the real fix is tonsils, adenoids or allergies.
• Not everyone needs an expander. We’ll tell you straight up if you or your kid does or doesn’t.