Optimizing Nose Breathing In Preschool Age Children With Dr. Kevin Boyd

Specific Human Malocclusion (poorly aligned teeth and jaws) phenotypes are a common finding among children raised in industrialized societies.  However, these HM traits are a rare finding in the pre-Industrial skeletal and fossil records, and seldom seen in extant (modern day) aboriginal societies who have not yet been (so-called) Westernized.  

Many children diagnosed with Sleep Disordered Breathing/Obstructive Sleep Apnea have also been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD; certain HM phenotypes known to be (at least) co-morbid with, if not causally related to, development of SDB/OSA and ADD/ADHD, etc., are usually first detectable in very early childhood (primary dentition), and recent evidence suggests that they might even be detectable in utero (mid-gestaional ultrasound imaging).  Changed dietary regimens associated with cultural industrialization during infancy/early childhood (i.e., nursing and weaning period) and beyond, seem to have played a role in the observed increased prevalence of skeletal-dental HM since the Industrial Revolution in Western Europe and North America from the late 18th- thru the mid/late-19th-Centuries.

And all of these changes in HM has changed HOW we breathe.  Mouth breathing and/or shallow breathing leads to Sleep Disordered Breathing/Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

I'm excited for our conversation with Dr. Boyd to see how it's ALL connected.

About Dr. Kevin Boyd:

Dr. Boyd is a Pediatric Dentist in Chicago. He is an attending instructor in the Pediatric Dentistry residency program at Lurie Children’s Hospital where he serves as a dental consultant to the Sleep Medicine service.  His clinical focus is centered on prevention of oral and systemic disease through promotion of healthy breathing and eating; his primary research interest is in the area of infant/early childhood feeding practices and how they impact palatal-facial development, naso-respiratory competence, and neuro-cognitive development. He is currently a visiting Scholar at U. Pennsylvania doing research in the areas of anthropology and orthodontics. He has also recently been appointed as an adjunct Assistant Professor in the Dept of Anthropology at the University of Arkansas where he is mentoring PhD candidate research.

www.dentistry4children.net