Teeth Grinding in Napa, Ca and Sinus Congestion

In this video, Dr. Nammy Patel shares Sarah’s journey from a troubled oral state—with chipping teeth, acid reflux, and cavities—to a revitalized smile and improved overall health. Concerned about long-term dental issues and the fear of ending up with fake teeth, Sarah, in her mid-thirties, underwent a comprehensive evaluation that revealed a congested airway and improper tongue posture causing teeth grinding. Through targeted treatments that improved her nasal breathing by opening her sinus cavities and correcting her bite, Sarah’s dental function and energy levels were restored, enabling her to enjoy a healthier, more active lifestyle.

Dr. Nammy Patel: Hi, it’s Dr. Nammy again, and today I want to share with you a little bit about my patient, Sarah. Sarah is a wonderful patient. She is darling.

She came to me, young girl in mid-thirties. “Hey Dr. Patel, I kept chipping and breaking my teeth and I hate it. I have acid reflux. I literally have a mouthful of cavities and I am really concerned because I’m in my mid-thirties and I need to be around for a lot longer and I don’t want to have fake teeth.” And I was like, “Let’s take a deep breath and I get it. I don’t want you to have the same problem either, so let’s take a look and see what we can do for you.”

Evaluating Her Oral Health

So, we checked her microbiome, we looked at her airway and we found a couple of number of things. When she said grinding, automatically suspected that her bite was probably not right and that she didn’t develop properly as we wanted her to. So here is her case.

This is where we started with her in 2021, and this is her completed in 2023. Her sinus cavities are really congested right over here and you can see they’re at 1.8. We took them to a 4.1, which is great. She’s got great nose breathing now. So that’s fantastic because one of the biggest reasons patients tend to clench and grind their teeth is if they’re not able to nose breathe and the tongue is in the way. If the tongue is in the way, your body’s going to do that subconsciously while you’re sleeping, and that’s when the teeth chip and break and have lots of problems.

Tongue Position

Secondly, this is her tongue position. You can see how there’s black here. This is no bueno. We do not want this. This means that the tongue does not latch at the roof of the palate. We want the tongue to be at the roof of the palate because it helps the sinuses drain and also creates a proper suction when you sleep so you don’t end up grinding your teeth or chipping and breaking any of your teeth either in that process.

So, this is her, again, 2021. This is what she looks like in 2020. See, there’s no a lot space. So, we were able to help fix that for her, which is phenomenal. And she’s delighted because look at the difference in her airway too. Let’s look at that. See, this is where she started. This is where she’s got, her functional airway is now proper. It’s open. She is super happy. She’s running marathons right now and just really happy being able to do the things she wasn’t able to do before because she got too tired.

So this is a really nice thing to be able to share about Sarah, and I’d like to help more patients like Sarah, and this is what excites me. So give our office a call. I’d be happy to help.