And so, but that’s our normal right now in our society for our teenagers. Um,

0:06

but you know, gentally or, you know, breathing and and uh sleepwise,

0:13

snoring is very I get this all the time. Well, yeah, I’ve always snorred, but I feel fine. Um, and

0:22

I just want people to know that that’s their normal, but that’s not necessarily good. If you’re snoring,

0:30

you are not getting as much oxygen to your brain as you could be. And like I

0:37

mentioned before, that can have long-term cognitive effects, heart health effects.

0:50

Welcome back friends to the Eerie Wellness podcast where we explore a wide range of wellness topics, highlight the

0:56

incredible local professionals right here in our community, and encourage you to advocate for your own health and

1:01

well-being. This week’s episode is a part one of a part two series that we’re

1:07

doing um featuring two sisters um Dr. Heather Stam and Dr. Chrissy Stam.

1:12

Together, they’re helping local families better understand the connection between airway health, sleep, breathing, jaw

1:19

development, and overall wellness. So, today I’m joined by Dr. Heather Stam.

1:24

After more than 20 years practicing dentistry, a personal health discovery changed the way she viewed the

1:30

connection between breathing, sleep, jaw development, and overall health, and led her to pursue a deeper airway focused

1:37

approach to dentistry. One of my favorite takeaways from our first discussion that we had um was Dr.

1:45

Heathers often says normal doesn’t always mean healthy. So just because a symptom is common doesn’t mean that it’s

1:51

something we should ignore. If you’ve ever felt tired despite getting enough sleep, wondering if your child’s

1:56

development could be impacted by the way they breathe, or simply want to better understand how airway influences our

2:03

overall wellness, this conversation is for you. Welcome, Dr. Heather. Hi, thank

2:08

you so much for having me. I’m really looking forward to our discussion today. But before we jump

2:15

into airway focused dentistry in particular, I’d love for you to share with our audience about your personal

2:21

story. I know there was a turning point for you during a sleep dentistry course

2:27

where you realized that they were describing symptoms that you had been experiencing. Um so can you share that

2:33

with our listeners? Yeah, I mean for my story, I’ve actually

2:38

almost been in dentistry 25 years now. So, it’s been a while. And with in

2:44

general, I’ve always been passion passionate about learning as much as I possibly can for for my own health, my

2:51

family, but also for my patients. So, I’ve taken many different continuing education courses over the years. and I

2:59

was signed up to take a course from a world-renowned um dentist who was

3:06

focusing more on TMJ function or or dysfunction which I had already been

3:12

practicing with. Um and his class they

3:17

were now relating it to sleep and I thought well that’s interesting. I’ve not heard that before. We didn’t learn

3:22

any of this in dental school. So, I think it was in like 2014. Um, and so

3:29

I’m sitting in the class and it basically just started. Um, he was just listing symptoms.

3:36

Didn’t say why he’s listing symptoms or what to do about it or anything and I just started crying. Um, and my my

3:45

husband’s actually a dentist as well and was sitting next to me and he leaned over and he’s like, “Oh my goodness,

3:50

they’re talking about you.” I’m like, I know. And so, um, I was, you know, I was

4:00

obviously, um, moved by what he was saying, but I I knew whatever I was going to learn in that class was going

4:06

to literally change my life. Thus, it changed how I look at patients, how I

4:13

treated patients from that point on. Um, symptoms I literally was going through

4:19

right at that point in time. you know, I’ve always been a type eight, like you

4:24

know, high go go go person, so stress is just my normal thing. Um, and I had

4:31

younger kids, age, I think four and seven at the time, you know, so you’re you’re like in it as a mom. Um, and I

4:40

was just definitely fatigued and I had related it to well, stress and all that.

4:46

And I’ve always been a light sleeper, what you would coin as a light sleeper. and I was just sleeping even less. Um, I

4:55

would wake up in the middle of the night and I couldn’t fall asleep. And there were times I would even go into the

5:00

office at like 2:00 a.m. cuz I knew I was not going back to sleep, so I might as well get stuff done. So,

5:07

might as well work. Yeah. I mean, obviously that is not healthy long term to sustain. So, I was,

5:13

you know, very tired all the time and just kind of in a fog, so to speak. And

5:20

healthwise, I’d just been diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Um, my thyroid was so bad that my hair

5:27

was actually falling out. So, I was already on the search of like, what the

5:32

heck is going on? And um, and that was what one of the things

5:38

he was listing as a symptom was the hypothyroid. Um and he he listed things of what

5:45

happens when they’re people are younger and what they go through and a lot of things he mentioned um grinding TMJ pain

5:54

um I sucked my thumb that was something else so like it was just crazy he was

5:59

just describing me so um I realized I need to get on this

6:05

because I also learned the importance and obviously my health was already being affected quite drastically. ally

6:12

with my hair falling out. I mean, that’s a I got to an extreme symptom, if that

6:18

makes sense, but I didn’t realize no one that I had seen had put that together

6:24

with poor sleep. Um, so my my journey to amazing sleep, which I do have now,

6:31

wasn’t necessarily easy or fast. It maybe took about four years to fully do

6:37

it. Um, but what’s great is within that four years, I basically did everything,

6:45

tried everything. So, I know what everything all that’s out there for people and I know what it’s like. Um, I

6:54

you you know, I did the basics like use blackout blinds in your room and, you

6:59

know, sleep masks and take melatonin and, you know, things that I could do, right? Then even like I wear blue block

7:07

block glasses at night, you know, um to filter out the yucky lights. Um so I

7:13

I did that very early on and then I tried different like mouth appliances that help move your jaw forward and open

7:21

up your airway back here. And I I did have a sleep study to actually get a

7:27

diagnosis. And I did have a diagnosis of apnea. Um, and I did do blood work. Um,

7:34

that was my like first time with blood work just to really to start helping regulate my hormones because that plays

7:41

a role in um, yucky sleep. And so I was on those journeys. Um, and I just still

7:49

wasn’t getting good sleep. I was still waking up quite a bit. Um, so then I

7:54

went and tried what’s called a CPAC trial where they let you like test out I

8:01

think I tested five different CPAPs of trying to see like if one would work

8:06

because there’s all different kinds out there. None of them worked. Um, and then I went and got nose surgery to help open

8:13

up my nasal passages right here as much as possible. I had had trauma in high

8:18

school. I was hit in the face with a softball, so it caused like collapse in one side. So, I did definitely get some

8:26

benefits from that. Um, but I still knew it wasn’t optimal or enough.

8:33

And I ended up um figuring out that my jaws were just too small um from growth

8:41

and development for any of these treatments to work. So, I actually got jaw surgery, which I was an extreme

8:49

case. Um, most people do not need jaw surgery to to get good sleep. Um, but

8:57

after I had jaw surgery, I sleep great. I realized I had never even knew what a

9:04

good night’s sleep was. Like can’t remember ever because I I had never, you

9:10

know, experienced it. And after the jaw surgery, I experience it now all all the

9:16

time. So I well worth it. And I don’t I

9:22

don’t think it was a waste of time for me to try anything else because you never really want to jump right to

9:28

surgery. And it gave me the opportunity to go through that whole world and

9:33

understand for my patients, you know, have empathy in it, know what everything’s about. And I also know more

9:41

of what to look for of if someone is more likely to need surgery,

9:49

if that makes sense. So, absolutely. I was patient zero

9:56

and then I mean it it just made me see patients differently, treat patients differently. So it helped

10:04

it changed my life of of that aspect as well. Well, sleep is certainly

10:10

important. And if I’m sure there’s a lot of listeners who you’re talking and they’re like, that’s be, you know, and

10:16

we start to give excuses like, “Oh, well, I’m I’m just in the thick of it right now or, you know, I have young

10:24

kids, you know, all these things or I’m my hormones are changing.” But it’s important to kind of just explore what’s

10:30

right for you and what’s going on and how you can help because sleep is so important for our dayto-day. Um,

10:37

yes. But so for anyone who’s never heard of the term airway focused dentistry, um

10:43

what does that actually mean and how is it different than traditional dentistry? Yeah. So I mean airway focused dentistry

10:51

basically is looking at how the mouth, the the tongue, the jaws, your uh facial

10:58

development affects your breathing and your sleep. So like quite simply um you

11:04

know traditional dentistry is historically just looking at the teeth and the gums looking for cavities, gum

11:11

health, maybe how your bite is aligning cosmetic work which all matter are

11:17

important but an airway focused dentistry just takes a step back and

11:23

asks the question is this person well overall the mouth is the gateway to our

11:31

overall health. Um, and so it just starts in that position.

11:36

Okay. What are some of the tests or like evaluations that you do when it comes to

11:42

airway? Yeah, I mean we definitely do a very thorough health history, very thorough

11:48

dental history. Uh, we do sleep screen everyone, which the American Dental

11:54

Association has, um, highly recommended since 2017. So, not every dentist is is

12:01

doing that, but we’ve been doing that for a long time. And so, just in that in

12:07

that you get more of a patient’s story. And, you know, anytime there’s a yes on

12:13

anything, we dive deeper. Um, so that’s like tests, so to speak. But, I mean, it

12:20

also has to do with symptoms. I mean like I I mentioned earlier, everyone’s different

12:27

and there are a lot of symptoms that can be tied to um to sleep or airway issues

12:37

there. With the screening there is, you know, an actual if there’s this many yeses, then this is how awakely you know

12:44

they are. So if the tongue looks like this, if the back of the throat looks like this. So, there are measurements

12:50

that we do as well when looking into the mouth. I don’t know if that helped answer that

12:57

question. No, I was just yeah curious about kind of like what that overall assessment looks like and how it’s a little bit

13:03

different than just like dentist. So, yeah. Yeah. So, what thorough is the

13:09

word? I do have patients, why are you checking all this? And I’m like, yeah. Well, you

13:16

know, it’s the gateway like I said. So, yeah. Yeah. Well, I have a little bit of a personal

13:21

connection. So, our um all three of our children um had lip and tongue tie

13:27

releases and two of ours had to go through myofacial therapy before they would do it. But one of the things that

13:32

our myofacial therapist had mentioned was hundreds of years ago, our diet

13:38

looked different, our environment looked different, and now we’re kind of as a population as a whole,

13:45

we’re seeing smaller mouths and more airway related issues today. So, what’s happening there? And why has our

13:51

modern lifestyle um diet and environment changed the way our jaws and our airways

13:57

have developed compared to generations before us? Yeah, I mean this is quite

14:02

fascinating at least to me. There has been a lot of research and studies for a

14:08

long time like you mentioned and one more popular one is um from Weston A.

14:15

Price who was an anthropologist and actually a dentist uh who followed

14:21

different indigenous um cultures um all over the world and he was really seeking

14:28

is there correlation between diet and and dental health and diet and overall

14:35

health. So uh what he found was um differences were they ate a lot more

14:43

fibrous foods at early ages. Their their breastfeeding you know way of doing it

14:49

was a little different than the more modern culture and this was 1939. So

14:55

this is the modern culture um at the time. Their diet had little to no sugar

15:02

in it. Their diet had no processed food. what whatsoever.

15:07

And what he was finding was again he was a dentist so he found that zero, you

15:14

know, maybe little but really no decay in their mouths.

15:19

All their teeth were straight and coming in and had room and obviously they didn’t have any orthodontic care.

15:27

um and but their overall health was um

15:32

like disease-wise way lower than the modern civilization. So um and I think

15:40

even now we probably eat even less fibrous foods than in 1939.

15:47

Um, I don’t think normal or common is to give you your 2-year-old beef jerky,

15:53

which might be something something like that they were given. We give them, you know, applesauce in a packet. And, you

16:01

know, those puffs as snacks that just disintegrate in their mouths. Like, our

16:06

jaws are literally not working. And bone to grow needs to be stimulated. So,

16:13

we’re supposed to be stimulating our muscles. Um, so I mean that’s one thing he found

16:19

related to our jaws are smaller because they’re not stimulated. Um, and another

16:25

thing is in environmental they you know they didn’t have

16:30

environmental toxins like even in 1939 they were um exposed to and you know we

16:38

now have like more EMF stuff. there’s different things that can uh affect our

16:44

our system in general. And um he noticed that they were more

16:50

nose breathers versus the more modern society was developing more mouth

16:56

breathers and that can come from the toxins. Our body just has to filter

17:01

more. So there was more chronic allergies, problems breathing through the nose. And

17:07

so if you can’t breathe through the nose, it’s hard to be a nose breather.

17:12

So you just start to become a mouth breather. And that actually affects your

17:18

tongue position, which affects how your jaws grow because your tongue should be up on the roof of your mouth. But if

17:25

your tongue your mouth’s open, that’s impossible basically. Um and that tongue

17:31

is not stimulating the muscles and the bone either to grow how it should.

17:37

So our body can you know compensate in many ways and that can be disease which

17:45

was finding um and it can be how the jaws are developing. Well Dr. Heather, you explained that so

17:51

good. And I think that it really gives people an like an idea of like, you know, what’s changed? Why are things

17:58

different? Why are we dealing with this now versus, you know, a hundred years ago

18:03

people people didn’t have this these issues. Um, right. So, but yeah, it explained it so well.

18:09

So, thank you for giving that like little background. Yeah. Just paraphrasing a big story. Yeah.

18:16

Yeah. So, what are the symptoms that patients are coming into you with that may actually point back to airway or

18:22

sleep issues? Yeah. Well, I mean, there’s a broad list. Um, some are, uh, more obvious

18:30

than others. Some obvious ones is, um, if you’re snoring or a bud partner, you

18:35

know, hears you snore or gasping for breath or an actual diagnosis of of

18:41

sleep apnea. Um, jaw pain. people kind of uh are aware that something’s off. If

18:49

they’re having jaw pain, um grinding their teeth, they’re they’re aware of,

18:54

you know, things are off. But less kind of obvious ones would be chronic

19:00

fatigue, um anxiety, this the the stress of the the life, um

19:08

let’s see, grinding, clenching like I mentioned, um dark circles under

19:13

someone’s eyes, um having problems breathing through your nose, suffering from more chronic sinus issues, um

19:23

waking up multiple times at night, waking up to have to use the bathroom. That’s a big sign. Even if it’s just

19:30

once during night, that’s one of those things where it may be common but not

19:35

necessarily good. Um, yeah. So, I mean, kids can look a

19:41

little different and similar. They can also snore and grind, which is a big

19:47

indication. Um, they can have speech issues that might be related to a tongue

19:53

tie. They can sound like they’re breathing loud. Um being more of a mouth

19:59

breather than nose breather. I mean when they go in they might find that their tonsils are big. They might have a lot

20:06

of um history of ear infections. Um bedwedding, night tears.

20:12

Um I’m sure there’s much more. I mean hypothyroidism like ADHD like symptoms.

20:21

So definite um with kids if they’re you know having any issues in school really

20:27

fidgety hard to stay still. So um it’s definitely the ADHD like symptoms.

20:35

Someone comes in they say okay I’m having these symptoms you do an evaluation and then what happens?

20:42

Yeah. So I dive deeper like if if someone says I’m not sleeping through

20:49

the night or you know chronic fatigue or there’s reasons for that like if it is a

20:56

mom is it because they can’t sleep or their their partner’s snoring or their

21:02

one of their kids can’t sleep you know obviously so like I said any symptom yes

21:08

we’re going to dive deeper um and then we take that and we do an oral exam and

21:15

see structurally if there’s anything that could be contributing to that. We

21:21

do imaging that actually measures your airway and there’s different, you know,

21:26

numbers that we’re supposed to to be at ideally. So, but it starts with the

21:32

patient’s story and goes from there.

21:37

When you say airway, yes. How far deep does that go? like um like

21:43

where does it end that your airway? Right. I mean it is kind of all connected. So I mean when we take our

21:49

imaging it’s like a three-dimensional X-ray that goes around your head and it starts in the nose and just follows all

21:55

the way down their sinuses all the way down you know your throat. So we can see

22:02

all of this um and your mouth obviously. So, it’s all connected and

22:08

there could be just one part of it that’s off that’s causing an issue or it

22:13

can be multiple things. So, yeah. Okay. So, I’m going to plug in the listener

22:20

question for this. Oh, so here. Um, so if one of my This came from a

22:25

listener. If one of my kids has airway issues, should I probably be looking at the rest of the family, too? So I guess

22:33

it’s the the question might be like is it a genetic thing? Is it common to see it in multiple people within one family?

22:40

Yeah, it’s a good question and yes, there is a genetic component to it. Um

22:47

just like most things, genetics aren’t everything, but there’s definitely more of a component to it. I see uh parents

22:55

that have small amounts and then it it trickles down to their um kiddos as

23:00

well. And is it environment causing that or the genetics? I I believe it’s a

23:07

combination. But yeah, absolutely. It does not hurt anything to get everyone

23:13

screened. Yeah. Other than sleep, what are some like other things that it’s important to

23:19

bring up? Like your airway is important because one, you’re going to sleep better. Like what are some of the other

23:26

things that you like to talk to your patients about where they can Yeah. you know, have a better quality of life.

23:32

Absolutely. I mean, breathing slash oxygen is foundational to health.

23:38

Like without it, you can’t first of all live. And with with um a decreased

23:46

amount, it mainly affects your cardiovascular self uh health and your

23:52

cognitive health. So the bigger issues um are tied to cardiovascular diseases

24:00

um strokes and then cognitive wise uh dementia and Alzheimer’s. So like those

24:06

are the big ones and our body is really good at compensating um for a while. It

24:14

it’s like I got this, I got this. and we see like the the less obvious symptoms

24:19

like I said, but you’re still able to function, you know, maybe not optimally, but

24:25

you’re still able to go. But then it it’s more of what happens 10 years, 20

24:30

years down the road of that quality of life. Um, and so

24:38

just thinking oxygen is very important. Your body knows this. So it will do

24:45

things in your sleep if you’re not breathing properly to get that oxygen

24:50

that is sending a jolt of epinephrine and waking you up making you grind or

24:57

clench because it actually stimulates these muscles to open up your airway.

25:02

However, it doesn’t let you get to the deep levels of sleep. And the deeper

25:07

levels of sleep is where our body repairs itself from all the damage that

25:14

happened during the day from all the the toxic things, the free radicals that we

25:20

were exposed to. Like it it helps muscle repair, tissue repair, brain repair. And

25:26

so if you’re not getting to that deeper levels, all of that is not getting the

25:31

the repair for kids. It’s where growth happens. um the growth hormones released in that.

25:38

So there can be growth issues related to that.

25:43

Not sure if that makes sense, but it sounds really important like it’s like that is yeah a foundation like you

25:49

said to life. So yes. Yes. It’s not just about sleep, it’s about oxygen.

25:55

Yeah. So what are the common like treatment plans that you’re prescribing to your

26:02

patients? Like how do you get better airway? There’s many different ways um to do it. So, it it definitely depends

26:09

on what we’re we’re finding in there. But simply, if something in the mouth is

26:15

not big enough, then you look at is there a way to make things bigger? Um,

26:21

and we do things called expansion where there’s different actual appliances that

26:27

kids and adults can wear to help expand their actual bones and jaws. And then we

26:35

can move teeth around to also expand. If if your teeth are tipped in like this,

26:41

that that takes um room for your tongue or your tongue just doesn’t have enough room as as it should. And so it’s not

26:48

able to go in the proper place to open up your airway. So if you upright your teeth how they

26:54

they should be actually and not collapsed in, that gives your tongue more space. So that’s something that’s

27:00

fairly easy to do to absolutely give you some some room and that opens your airway. If you’re tongue tied, you can

27:08

have that released. That will also open up your airway. With the X-ray I take, I

27:14

see where the jaw joint position is. If it’s set backwards,

27:20

this this lower jaw here is forced backwards. That’s closing all this airway. So, there’s ways to help your

27:28

jaw relax forward. And there’s different um appliances treatment for that. So, it all depends.

27:36

Sometimes I see a beautiful airway right here. The t the mouth is

27:42

actually wide, but they’re still struggling. And when we do our imaging,

27:47

um, we see that the nose is totally clogged up or deviated so much that it’s

27:54

completely blocking one side to breathe. So, I mean, I work with a lot of different health care providers out

28:01

there. Um, we work closely with ENTs, um, that maybe they need a nose surgery,

28:07

allergists, um, if they’re suffering from chronic allergies. I mean, it could

28:12

be a change in diet, like I said, checking the hormone levels. If all of

28:17

this structurally is okay, then we dive deeper into what else it could be. Um,

28:24

if it is your sleep habits in general, are they um, healthy? And I give all my

28:31

patients a a quick like sheet of healthy sleep habits and what that looks like.

28:37

So I st start with structure because if that’s not where it should be, you’re

28:43

absolutely can have struggle with um breathing and sleeping. Um, and if that

28:50

looks good, then like I said, we dive deeper and I might be referring you to, like I said, an ENT, but maybe a

28:57

chiropractor or physical therapist or a myofunctional therapist because your tongue just doesn’t know where to go. It

29:04

has room to go into the right place, but it just doesn’t know how. So, it’s like a a personal trainer for your for your

29:12

tongue. Um and so yeah, it just depends on again that

29:18

patient’s story and the the imaging is really important. Um not every evens

29:28

don’t have the type of technology we have for imaging. Um the ENT I work with

29:33

is just loves because I send all this imaging with my patients and he can see so much

29:39

more of what’s going on. So, um, it it really helps open your eyes

29:45

like so that you can, you know, look under the hood, so to speak, of the car of truly knowing

29:52

what’s going on. That’s crazy that an ENT doesn’t even know. I actually was shocked as well.

30:03

So, one thing I love and I brought it up in the intro and it’s something that you said during our first conversation

30:09

together was normal doesn’t always mean good. So, can you explain by what you

30:14

mean by that and why so many people may think that their symptoms are just normal life when they could actually be

30:19

signs of deeper issues? Yeah, it’s it’s something I’ve said many

30:25

times over the years, if it’s to my kids or my my patients or even myself. Um

30:30

that, you know, to give an example of not related to to what we’re talking

30:36

about right now, um I just looked it up. The normal

30:42

com like teenager what’s common is they spend seven or more hours on their phone

30:49

right now. And I think most of us can agree that’s not a good thing for for

30:56

various reasons. And so but that’s our normal right now in our society for our

31:01

teenagers. Um but you know gentally or

31:07

you know breathing and and uh sleepwise snoring is very I get this all the time.

31:13

Well yeah I’ve always snorred but I feel fine. Um and

31:20

I just want people to know that that’s their normal, but that’s not necessarily

31:25

good. If you’re snoring, you are not getting as much oxygen to

31:30

your brain as you could be. And like I mentioned before, that can have

31:35

long-term cognitive effects, heart health effects. If you’re snoring, it’s

31:42

a dis form of disruptive sleep. You’re not getting to the deeper stages of sleep. So, which is what I said that

31:49

that filters things that that um of our everyday life. And so, snoring might be

31:56

your normal, but it doesn’t mean it’s good. Um a jaw that pops but has no

32:03

pain. Uh a lot of people I bring that up and they’re like, “Yeah, but it doesn’t hurt. I’ve had it for, you know, 20

32:11

years or as long as I can remember.” and that’s their normal, but that’s not

32:16

good. Every time your jaw pops, it’s dislocating and pulling on that jaw

32:22

joint a certain way. And eventually something will give. And

32:27

so, um, a lot of the symptoms I actually mentioned, you know, is they’re normal

32:34

but not necessarily good. And I I had a patient actually I saw a couple weeks

32:39

ago and she came in for jocking and like I mentioned we do a very thorough health

32:45

history, dental history, sleep, no matter what you come in for. And she had

32:50

some yeses and like I mentioned we go we dive deep into those yeses or yeses. And

32:57

one was uh fatigue and I asked her, you know, tell me more about that. And she

33:03

just laughed and like shrugged it off like, “Well, of course I have fatigue. I have a three and a six-year-old and you

33:11

know, I’m a mom.” And then just stress, you know, like that’s normal.

33:16

And I do dove a little deeper into other yeses. Um, which she had quite a few.

33:22

And I was like, you know, this isn’t this might be normal of what you consider, but it’s actually

33:29

doesn’t have to be your normal. and it and it’s not good for it to be normal

33:34

and there’s things we can do about it. Um, and I did go through that imaging

33:40

with her and I show the patients like I mentioned we we go all the way back and

33:46

I got to her airway where it shows on the screen like a measurement and it it

33:51

it correlates it with colors. Black and red are highly constricted, small. Um,

33:59

blue, greens, and whites are what you want. That’s like the big airway, an optimal airway. And her color, she

34:08

really didn’t have any. It was like a little tiny bit of red and she’s squinting because it’s mostly black is

34:15

what her color is. And then she read the the number that’s right next to it and she just started crying. And you know,

34:22

we just sat with that for a minute and then she looked at me and is like, that’s why I’m going through all

34:28

these issues, isn’t it? Like, yeah, that’s a a big part of it, but there’s things we could do. So, even

34:35

though she was crying, I saw this hope in her eyes and that she had been to

34:41

multiple people for this TMJ pain and no one could help her. Um, and it’s a high

34:47

correlation of of airway issues um, for various reasons, but like she was

34:54

hopeful cuz everything I was going over, we had a pathway of helping her out and

35:00

it was going to help her overall health, not just that TMJ pain. So, that was her normal and what she

35:07

thought, well, yeah, I’m a mom with young kids. Of course I don’t sleep or

35:12

of course I’m tired or, you know, So that’s a good um example.

35:19

Oh, Dr. Heather, that’s so good. And I think a lot of people it’s like light bulb on like just understanding all of

35:25

that. So thank you so much for explaining all of that and those are some really really good examples.

35:31

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And amazing that you’ve been able to provide so many people these like

35:37

answers and it’s you know it’s very rewarding too. Yeah. Because I’ve been there. I I’ve been

35:43

there in my own health journey, so to speak. Um, yeah. So, I it’s it’s kind of my passion

35:51

to put a puzzle like to to solve this for them and like be in it with them.

35:58

And again, it may not be um structural. And because of my nutrition background

36:04

and different things, I can dive deeper into the systemic health as well.

36:09

and working with my my sister, she has other strengths that help patients um

36:15

with stress and different things as well. Right. So, we’re going to be airing Dr. Chrissy’s episode um a little bit later

36:23

on. Um so, can you share like why did you decide to bring her on and why did

36:28

you feel like she would complement your practice? Um,

36:33

I’ve always wanted more of a wellnessbased uh, dental uh, practice and there’s all

36:41

the things I was learning, there’s so much more that’s than teeth that there’s just so much more into it. Um, and she

36:49

had a lot of advanced knowledge. And again, this is all connected. And so a chiropractor working on this and the jaw

36:57

can help in a lot of different ways for my patients. Um and so we decided to to

37:04

team up which is very rare for a dentist and chiropractor to um partner up. Um

37:10

and in that journey she actually went and got her training for a myofunctional

37:15

therapist which helps me learn as well of how the tongue is plays such an

37:22

important role with how we breathe and sleep. Um and so she runs that whole program

37:28

and then she learned about infant tongue ties and she loves working with moms. Um

37:34

and when they’re struggling with breastfeeding that’s something else. So she made me go get training related to

37:40

that which has been very rewarding. Um and we do that a lot and that helps so

37:45

many families. So we we’re just able to really incorporate what I was saying

37:52

like we look at someone as a whole and offer more in-house services so to speak

37:58

to help with that. Well, Dr. Heather, I’m so glad we’ve

38:03

been able to have this conversation and have you on the podcast. for someone who’s listening and feels like this

38:08

conversation has connected a lot of the dots for them, how can people work with you or get in contact with your um

38:14

office? Yeah, I mean absolutely. I think the best way is to go to the website at

38:20

elevateairway.com because we have a lot more um information knowledge of all of

38:28

what you may be struggling through um what if it’s a jaw issues or or sleep

38:34

issues or for kids you know um growth and development issues. Um, and so we

38:42

also break it down into what to look for for your babies, what to look for for

38:48

small kids, teenagers, adults, and so I think that’s very helpful. And we have

38:53

different social media platforms as well. Um and we also offer uh virtual

39:00

consultations which has been um something fairly new for us but patients are really liking it

39:07

because sometime I mean we see people that don’t live by us so that that’s helpful in general and sometimes

39:14

you know if it’s you or you’re a parent you just need a little more clarity of

39:20

is this something that I want to pursue and die further and have that thorough

39:26

evaluation, the imaging, um, and just kind of there’s a lot I can tell just by

39:32

symptoms. Um, and so that’s been something that people like for sure and

39:37

we offer that. And I mean, just something I want to say is, you know, if

39:42

anything we discussed resonated with anyone, you know, you you don’t have to

39:47

push through these symptoms. um that there are things that can be

39:53

done, there are things that can help and you will feel better or your child will

39:59

be better and healthier. And so for you and your loved ones, it’s worth, you

40:04

know, diving deeper and trying to start that journey for them.

40:10

Dr. Dr. Heather, thank you so much for joining us today and for sharing your knowledge and passion for helping

40:16

families and people feel better um understand the connection between airway health, sleep, breathing, and overall

40:22

wellness. And don’t forget that this is a part one of a part two series. Um be

40:28

sure to tune in to our next episode where we continue the conversation with Dr. Chrissy, Heather’s sister, and

40:34

explore how airway health connects to TMJ dysfunction, myofunctional therapy,

40:40

breathing patterns, and nervous system health. And as always, if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a

40:45

friend, leave a review, and subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode featuring some of the incredible local

40:51

professionals that we have here right here in our community. Thanks again, Dr. Heather. Absolutely. And thank you, Lauren. And I

40:58

mean, that’s so great what you provide to the the local community, and I was blessed to be a part of it.

41:05

All right, friends. Before we wrap up, here’s the part I need to share. This podcast is for educational and

41:11

inspirational purposes only. I’m just your friend behind the mic. Nothing shared on this podcast creates a patient

41:18

relationship with any of our guests or replaces the guidance of your physician, professional coach, or other qualified

41:24

expert. and the views shared by guests are entirely their own and don’t necessarily reflect the beliefs or

41:30

values of the Erie Wellness podcast. My goal is to simply create a space for real, open conversations that help us

41:36

all learn, grow, and feel a little more connected on our wellness journeys. Thanks so much for listening. I’ll see

41:42

you back here next time.