Teeth Grinding in Sebastopol, Ca and Airway Problems

In this video, Dr. Nammy Patel details the transformative case of Amber—a young, vibrant patient suffering from chronic fatigue, TMJ issues, and gum recession due to improper tongue posture and a constricted airway. Over a two-year period, Amber underwent non-surgical treatments that expanded her airway from 8.7 to a healthier measurement and adjusted her jaw width (from 33.7 to 35.5), largely through the use of an oral appliance at night. These improvements not only resolved her clenching and grinding but also enhanced her overall energy and quality of life, illustrating the power of a data-driven, holistic dental approach.

Dr. Nammy Patel: Hi, it’s Dr. Nammy again, and today I want to talk about my favorite things to do, which is going to be opening up airways and really helping patients have proper tongue posture so that they can breathe really well and have more energy and be full of life. So, I want to share today about a patient of mine, a beautiful, young, vibrant girl, just exhausted and tired all the time. Hormones are off and just not really sure on what to do or what’s happening.

So, she came to me and said, “Hey, Dr. Patel, I have massive gum recession. I don’t know what to do about it and I’m tired all the time. Not that you can help me with that.” And I said, “Wait a minute, actually I can.” So, that was really fun. So, let me share this story. Okay, I’m going to share some scans and you can see how wonderful we’re able to help Amber here.

Improving Airway and Tongue Positioning

So, this is her case when we started in 2021, and this is when we finished in 2023. So you can see her airway was at an 8.7, but look at her tongue. Her tongue, it could not latch. And this black space here is not good. It is not what we want. And that was a root cause of her feeling tired and clenching and grinding her teeth.

So, it was really nice to be able to expand her airway and get it to be where it needs to be. And now she doesn’t clench, she doesn’t grind. She has a stressful job, but she’s able to manage it. Amazing, right? And she feels really good and really excited about the quality of work that we were able to provide. I’m also going to share some more scans here. So you can see this is her. We actually expanded to her jaw non-surgically, which is kind of fun.

Wearing an Oral Appliance at Night

She wore an appliance at night and that’s it. And what we did is we took her width from here to here, which is 33.7 to 35.5, which is what she needed to get her tongue in the right position. So, see this blab, see how it’s pretty much gone over there? So, that’s how we’ve taken her into completion. So, that’s really what we wanted and it’s really nice to be able to see these things because we can quantify and that’s what we do in our practice, is really do a nice quantification to make sure that everything is looking really good and we’re getting the results that we really desire for patients.

Again, you can see her airway here, all the reds, right, then we go to all the greens. Phenomenal, right? So yeah, it’s really cool and I love doing this work. So I’d love to help more patients like you. Give our office a call and let’s see what we can do to help you. Awesome.