Accepting New Patients
Accepting New Patients
Loud snoring, trouble waking up, breathing through the mouth all day, grinding at night. None of these are dramatic on their own, and it’s easy for a tired parent to write them off as quirks. But when a few of these patterns show up together, they can point to something happening with your child’s airway, and it is worth a closer look. How a child breathes during sleep and throughout the day can shape their growth, mood, and focus in ways that are easy to miss until someone points them out.
At Silicon Beach Pediatric Dental, Dr. Ray Klein and Dr. Hayley Botwin fold airway screening into the pediatric dentistry they already provide, looking at each child’s mouth, jaw, and breathing patterns as part of the bigger picture rather than a separate specialty visit.
An airway evaluation at our office is not a sleep study. It is a closer look at the parts of the mouth and throat that affect breathing: the jaw, the palate, the tongue, the tonsils, and the soft tissue at the back of the throat. When any of these are cramped or underdeveloped, they can narrow the airway and make it harder to breathe freely, especially while lying down. For most kids, this evaluation is simply a more thorough version of the standard dental exam, with no needles, no sedation, and nothing invasive involved.
No single symptom proves there is an airway issue, but a cluster of them together is worth mentioning at your child’s next visit. Some of the more common patterns we hear about from parents include:
Any one of these on its own might just be a phase. Several of them showing up together is a different story, and it’s the kind of pattern we look for at every exam.
The link between the mouth and the airway is closer than most parents expect. Tongue position, palate shape, jaw size, and bite alignment all affect how easily air moves through the throat at night. Kids who breathe mostly through their mouths instead of their noses are often developing patterns that build on themselves over time. A narrow palate, for instance, can shrink the space above it in the nasal cavity, which makes nose breathing harder and keeps the cycle going.
A 2021 review published in Pediatrics in Review, an American Academy of Pediatrics journal, described snoring as the most common sign of childhood sleep-disordered breathing and noted habitual snoring shows up in roughly 10 percent of preschool and school-age children. Catching it early, while the jaw and palate are still developing, gives families more room to respond before patterns become harder to shift.
Depending on what we find, there are a few directions this can go. For a lot of kids, everything checks out fine and we simply keep an eye on things at future visits. For others, we might suggest a referral: to an ENT to check tonsil and adenoid size, to a sleep specialist for a formal sleep study, or to an orthodontist if jaw development seems to be part of the picture. In some cases, early orthodontic work can open up more room in the arch and make breathing easier as the jaw grows.
We won’t tell you something’s wrong just to have something to treat, and we won’t push a referral before it makes sense. Our job is to give you a clear read on what we’re seeing and help you figure out the next right step for your kid specifically, because every child’s mouth develops a little differently.
Airway health doesn’t sit in its own little box. Kids who aren’t sleeping well can see real effects on growth, learning, and mood. A lot of growth hormone gets released during deep sleep, so when that sleep keeps getting interrupted, especially from airway blockage, it can get in the way of that process. There’s also a solid body of research on how fragmented sleep affects a developing brain. Paying attention to airway concerns early isn’t only about better sleep. It’s about giving your kid’s development room to happen the way it’s supposed to.
Mouth breathing can also shape the face over time. Kids who breathe primarily through their mouths tend to develop longer, narrower facial profiles, higher palates, and more crowded teeth. None of this is set in stone, but it’s the kind of pattern we watch for at each visit, right alongside everything else we check.
Dr. Ray Klein and Dr. Hayley Botwin see kids from their very first visit all the way through their teen years, which means we get to track how a child’s jaw, palate, and bite change over time. That kind of continuity makes it easier to notice when something shifts in a direction worth discussing. Learn more about Dr. Ray and Dr. Hayley, and check insurance information to see if your plan is in-network, as Silicon Beach Pediatric Dental works with most major PPOs.
If something about your child’s sleep, breathing, or focus has been nagging at you, it’s worth bringing up at their next visit, whether that’s a routine cleaning or digital X-rays. Reach out through our contact form, and we’ll find a time to sit down and take a look together.
Mon-Fri: 9am – 5pm
