Is your child mouth breathing?

You might have noticed that your child’s lips are separated while they rest or sleep. This is typically the first indication of mouth breathing. Mouth breathing is often associated with anterior tongue rest posture. These positions can become a dominant reflex, causing the tongue to invade the oropharyngeal area, reducing the airway. This can result in snoring in children as young as two years old.

Changes in muscular activity creates functional imbalances in the facial environment. This can cause the palate to become deep, the tongue to change its lateral configuration and the face to become narrow.

As mouth breathing patterns become dominant, multiple regions of the face and airway are affected. Children often present with:

• Purple/dark circles under the eyes
• Sleep disturbances (child waking up without reaching third and/or fourth phase of sleep)
• Alterations in growth hormone (GH) release
• Lack of muscular mass and bone development
• Night time wetting
• Changes in craniofacial growth and development
• Secondary habit developments such as thumb or finger sucking.
• Front teeth not touching (anterior open bite)

It’s important to seek treatment as soon as possible when your child presents with any of these characteristics. Delaying treatment can deteriorate and complicate a malocclusion. This will not self-correct with natural growth.

“The earlier a deviation from the normal facial and airway development can be detected, the earlier we are able to treat the problem. Treatment can occur as early as three years old” says Dr. Calkins.
We invite our families to join us for a complementary evaluation to check for possible soft tissue dysfunction that could be associated with the development of sleep disorder breathing. This offer is available to patients as young as three years old.

For more information on soft tissue facial dysfunction, please contact Dr. Calkins at Sunrise Orthodontics.