“I quickly realized that traditional approaches often treated symptoms instead of causes,” says Dr. Kapoor. That experience—and her own personal health journey as both a patient and mother—pushed her to explore airway dentistry. Dr. Hale, too, convinced that airway dentistry could offer her pediatric and adult patients greater benefit, sold off her seven traditional dental offices. She currently runs The Airway Dentist, four airway-focused dental practices in the Houston area, with three more under construction around Texas.

Disordered sleep impacts children and adults

Pediatric patients are often a central focus: airway dentistry supports healthy development of children’s airways, guides proper growth and tongue posture, and encourages nasal breathing. Mouth breathing has a lot of proven downstream effects in kids, like daytime fatigue, poor concentration, and behavioral problems. Improper facial development even changes children’s physical features, leading to long, narrow faces with recessed chins and narrowed cheekbones.

However, adults can really benefit, too. Many of us might already be dealing with these issues as adults without ever being diagnosed with a narrowed airway. The reasons for this narrowing have been traced back to jaws getting smaller over generations, primarily because we’re all chewing less on a softer, Western-style diet. “For example, 100 years ago, we didn’t have foods that melted in your mouth. We breastfed longer. The muscles of the mouth of a baby worked a lot more a century ago than compared to today,” says Dr. Hale.

These structural changes have effects on our breathing and sleep that medical science is just recognizing. “There are a lot of medical issues we’re treating right now with medication that are an underlying sleep problem,” says Dr. Hale, who stresses the importance of normalizing sleep tests for this reason.

In adults, airway dentists recommend therapies that can expand, support, and stabilize the airway using different approaches that help maintain an open and healthy passage for breathing. “Patients who once thought fatigue or poor sleep was just part of getting older often discover that with the right therapy, their energy and focus improve,” says Dr. Kapoor. However, airway dentists who treat adults (not all do) say it’s more challenging—and expensive—than children, as the patients’ airways are not actively growing and developing the way children’s are. “Dentists might have to do some non-surgical and even surgical procedures to help them get to a better width and growth in their jaws,” says Dr. Hale.

How airway dentistry changes lives

Gehrke is just one of the many patients who have benefited dramatically from their experience with an airway doctor. Dr. Hale reports statistically significant changes in sleep apnea and hypertension levels in her patients; she’s seen acid reflux and environmental allergies improve, and has been able to wean a lot of patients off their anxiety medications as well. Dr. Kapoor reports similar success with patients with sleep apnea and chronic migraines. “We’ve also seen improvements in TMJ pain, focus, and even digestive symptoms when breathing was corrected. These are life-changing shifts,” she says.