Your trusted orthodontist in Amersham

👀 Does your child’s palate look like this?

You may be looking at what we call a high, narrow palate — and it means more than just “teeth don’t have enough space.”

🦷 What does a high palate mean?

A high palate forms when the upper jaw grows upwards instead of outwards. This usually happens when the tongue isn’t resting on the roof of the mouth — often due to mouth breathing, allergies, tongue tie, enlarged tonsils/adenoids, or long-term dummy or thumb habits.

Because the palate is also the floor of the nose, a narrow palate means:

❗ Less space for teeth
❗ A smaller nasal airway
❗ Higher risk of mouth breathing, snoring, sleep disturbance
❗ Crowding, open bite or crossbite as teeth come through

🌬️ Why does this matter?

Breathing drives growth.
When nasal breathing is reduced, the jaws tend to grow longer and narrower instead of wide and balanced. This affects facial development, bite, posture, and even attention and sleep quality.

🛠️ What can be done?
Early orthodontic support can gently guide growth by:
✔️ Widening the palate (RME or other expansion methods)
✔️ Creating space for the tongue and erupting teeth
✔️ Improving nasal airflow and breathing patterns
✔️ Supporting stable bite development
✔️ Working alongside myofunctional therapy or ENT care when needed

✨ Early guidance = easier, more stable results.

📩 Wondering what your child’s palate looks like?
Drop them below — we’ll answer them in the next post!

😍 Comment CHECKLIST: to get a free checklist
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📤 Share with a parent
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#AirwayOrthodontics #MouthBreathing #MyofunctionalTherapy #EarlyIntervention #highpalate PediatricOrthodontics TongueTie SnoringInKids Orthotropics FaceClues orthodontist orthodonticspecialist InterceptiveOrthodontics MouthOpenAtRest CrookedTeeth AirwayHealth drsteffendecker mouthbreather tonsils ...

Is your child always like this? 👀
Tired eyes. Open mouth. Crooked teeth.
What if it’s not just “how they are” — but signs of something deeper?

📸 Meet Child 1
From an airway-aware lens, here’s what we see:
✅ Mouth open at rest
✅ Buck teeth & crowding
✅ Long face shape
✅ Flat cheeks
✅ Lips don’t seal naturally
✅ (Likely) low tongue posture

💡 These are often signs of mouth breathing and poor jaw development.

⸻

Why does this happen?
👄 Mouth breathing
👃 Nasal obstruction
👅 Low tongue posture
🦷 Underdeveloped jaws
🧠 Sleep-disordered breathing
💤 Disrupted growth and development

These patterns don’t just appear — they develop silently over time if the root causes are missed.

⸻

👁 Red flags to watch for in your child’s face:
❌ Mouth open at rest
❌ Dry, cracked lips
❌ Snoring or noisy breathing
❌ Crooked teeth by age 6–7
❌ Delayed speech
❌ Tired look / dark under-eyes
❌ Long face or weak chin
❌ Frequent colds or sinus issues
❌ Daytime fatigue or hyperactivity
❌ Bedwetting past age 5

⸻

🛠️ How we help:
• Palatal expansion (RME, etc.)
• Aligners, braces or hybrid approach
• Myofunctional therapy (in-house or referral)
• Functional appliances
• Growth tracking (cephs, 3D scans, clinical exams)
• ENT collaboration where needed

⸻

👶 Your child’s face is full of clues.
Don’t ignore them.

🌱 Early intervention isn’t about rushing treatment — it’s about gently guiding growth in the right direction.

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📤 Share with a parent who needs this
📩 DM us to book an airway-friendly orthodontic screening

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Paediatric obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) can mimic ADHD.

In many children, symptoms like inattention, hyperactivity, irritability, and poor focus are not purely behavioural — they can be driven by fragmented sleep 😴 and intermittent drops in oxygen 🫁.

📊 Research shows a significant overlap between paediatric OSA and ADHD-type behaviours. Some studies suggest that up to ~25% of children diagnosed with ADHD may also have unrecognised sleep-disordered breathing.

🚩 This is why screening for sleep red flags is critical before starting or escalating ADHD medication, including:
• 😮‍💨 Habitual snoring
• ⏸️ Gasping or pauses in breathing
• 🌀 Restless or disrupted sleep
• 👄 Chronic mouth breathing

When OSA is identified and treated, behavioural and attention difficulties can markedly improve — and in some children, largely resolve.

👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️ Parents should always raise concerns about sleep, breathing, and possible testing with their child’s paediatrician or medical team.

⸻

🦷 Where orthodontic specialists come in

Orthodontic specialists play a key role in recognising craniofacial and dental signs linked to sleep-disordered breathing, such as:
• Narrow maxilla
• Crossbite
• High palatal vault
• Dental crowding
• Chronic mouth-breathing posture

🤝 As part of a multidisciplinary team, orthodontists can help guide referrals to sleep and ENT specialists and, where appropriate, use growth-modifying and airway-oriented approaches (such as maxillary expansion or guidance of jaw growth and tongue posture) to support airway size and function — always alongside medical care.

⸻

✨ Key takeaway:
Before labelling behaviour, always check sleep and breathing.
Because oxygen and sleep shape the developing brain.

Comment CHECKLIST to get access to our airway checklist

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Does your child have any of these symptoms?

Breathing patterns 🌬️, tongue posture 👅, jaw growth 📐, muscle tone 💪, and sleep quality 😴 all develop together during childhood. When nasal breathing is difficult, the tongue often rests low, the palate can grow narrower, and the jaws adapt their growth direction. Over time, these adaptations may show up as crowding, bite issues, disrupted sleep, or regulation challenges.

These symptoms are often dismissed individually —
“they’ll grow out of it,”
“lots of kids snore,”
“crooked teeth run in the family.”

But orthodontists are trained to look at the pattern, not just the symptom 🧩.

Early orthodontic assessment isn’t about starting braces early.
It’s about understanding how a child is growing, how their airway 🌬️ and jaws 🦴 are developing, and whether early guidance could support healthier long-term outcomes.

When these signs are recognised early, care can often be gentler, more preventative, and better timed ⏳✨.

⸻

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On the left: A child with ideal facial growth.
On the right: A child with signs of disrupted development.

🧠 These aren’t just cosmetic differences — they tell a story.

Let’s look closer 👇
🔻 Retruded chin
💋 Lip incompetence (lips don’t seal naturally)
📏 Long face syndrome
🦷 Small, underdeveloped jaws
👃 Flattened midface
😬 Mentalis strain (chin muscle working hard to keep lips closed)
🌑 Dark circles under the eyes
📈 Vertical growth instead of forward growth

❓What causes this?
Most often, it’s not genetics.
It’s function — or lack of it:
👄 Mouth breathing
👃 Nasal obstruction
👅 Low tongue posture (possibly due to tongue tie)
🦷 Poor jaw development
💤 Sleep-disordered breathing
😮‍💨 Airway compensation patterns
These changes develop slowly, silently… over time.

👁 Red flags parents should never ignore:
❌ Mouth open at rest
❌ Crowded teeth by age 6–7
❌ Snoring or noisy breathing
❌ Flat cheeks, tired eyes
❌ Dry lips or cracked corners
❌ Long face or weak jawline
❌ Daytime fatigue or hyperactivity
❌ Bedwetting beyond age 5

🛠️ How we help:
• Palatal expansion (RME, MARPE, etc.)
• Aligners, braces or hybrid approach
• Myofunctional therapy
• Functional appliances to guide growth
• Cephs, 3D scans + clinical growth tracking
• ENT collaboration when needed

👶 Your child’s face is full of clues.
Don’t overlook them.
🌱 Early intervention isn’t about “doing braces early” — it’s about gently guiding growth while the body is still adaptable.

📥 Save this post to refer back to
📤 Share with a parent who needs to see this
📩 DM us to book an airway-friendly orthodontic screening

#AirwayOrthodontics #MouthBreathing #MyofunctionalTherapy #TongueTie #FaceClues InterceptiveOrthodontics CrookedTeeth PediatricOrthodontics EarlyIntervention Orthotropics AirwayHealth drsteffendecker
orthodonticspecialist orthodontist airwaydentistry airwayorthodontics sleepdisorders orthodontist sleepdisorderedbreathing sleepapnea ...

The variable was never genetics.
The variable was nutrition.

When a mother consumed the nutrient-dense foods of her ancestors, the biological blueprint unfolded as intended — wide jaws, balanced faces, room to breathe, room for teeth.

When that nutrition was replaced with refined flour, sugar, and ultra-processed foods, the construction faltered.

These changes weren’t “genetic mistakes.”
They were the result of missing signals — a deficiency of the fat-soluble nutrients required for proper bone growth and development.

Over time, a pattern of degeneration became so common that it was rebranded as normal.

But biology hasn’t changed.
When the body receives what it needs, growth reorganises. Structure improves. Function returns.

Nature doesn’t punish — it responds.
And when its laws are respected, it allows a return toward health, balance, and resilience.

🦷 Facial growth
🫁 Breathing
😴 Sleep
🧠 Neurological regulation

These are not cosmetic outcomes.
They are reflections of foundational biology.

Source @1thehiddentruth

😍 Comment CHECKLIST: to get a free checklist
🧠 Dentists & Orthos — comment ACADEMY to learn more
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#AirwayOrthodontics #MouthBreathing #MyofunctionalTherapy #EarlyIntervention #HolisticDentistry PediatricOrthodontics TongueTie SnoringInKids Orthotropics FaceClues orthodontist orthodonticspecialist InterceptiveOrthodontics MouthOpenAtRest CrookedTeeth AirwayHealth drsteffendecker mouthbreather tonsils ...

👀 Does your child’s palate look like this?

You may be looking at what we call a high, narrow palate — and it means more than just “teeth don’t have enough space.”

🦷 What does a high palate mean?

A high palate forms when the upper jaw grows upwards instead of outwards. This usually happens when the tongue isn’t resting on the roof of the mouth — often due to mouth breathing, allergies, tongue tie, enlarged tonsils/adenoids, or long-term dummy or thumb habits.

Because the palate is also the floor of the nose, a narrow palate means:

❗ Less space for teeth
❗ A smaller nasal airway
❗ Higher risk of mouth breathing, snoring, sleep disturbance
❗ Crowding, open bite or crossbite as teeth come through

🌬️ Why does this matter?

Breathing drives growth.
When nasal breathing is reduced, the jaws tend to grow longer and narrower instead of wide and balanced. This affects facial development, bite, posture, and even attention and sleep quality.

🛠️ What can be done?
Early orthodontic support can gently guide growth by:
✔️ Widening the palate (RME or other expansion methods)
✔️ Creating space for the tongue and erupting teeth
✔️ Improving nasal airflow and breathing patterns
✔️ Supporting stable bite development
✔️ Working alongside myofunctional therapy or ENT care when needed

✨ Early guidance = easier, more stable results.

📩 Wondering what your child’s palate looks like?
Drop them below — we’ll answer them in the next post!

😍 Comment CHECKLIST: to get a free checklist
🧠 Dentists & Orthos — comment ACADEMY to learn more
📥 Save this post
📤 Share with a parent
📩 DM us to book an airway-friendly ortho screening

#AirwayOrthodontics #MouthBreathing #MyofunctionalTherapy #EarlyIntervention #HolisticDentistry PediatricOrthodontics TongueTie SnoringInKids Orthotropics FaceClues orthodontist orthodonticspecialist InterceptiveOrthodontics MouthOpenAtRest CrookedTeeth AirwayHealth drsteffendecker mouthbreather tonsils ...

@autismbrainempowerment after our podcast last week: here is a first book UNLOCKING AUTISM by Taiba Bajar:

If you’re the parent of an autistic child between the ages of 1-11, you already see their incredible potential. However, without enough support, it can feel like you’re on your own.

Autism’s challenges from self-harm and anxiety, to trouble with eating, sleeping, or self-care, can be disruptive and draining. Additionally, with limited support from schools and healthcare systems, parents often have to step in to fill the gaps.

“Unlock Autism” guides you through a clear, research-backed 7-Step Autism Action Plan, offering practical tips, step-by-step guidance, and worksheets to unlock their potential and achieve their milestones within 12 months. You’ll discover:

❤️A straightforward 7-Step Autism Action Plan supported by the newest research.
❤️Comprehensive advice for tackling behavioural issues, boosting communication, and enhancing wellbeing.
❤️Tools for creating a supportive, nurturing environment tailored to your child’s unique needs.

Start the journey with “Unlock Autism” and see the remarkable progress your child can achieve through simple changes you can make at home.

Please DM @autismbrainempowerment for all questions

Dr Steffen Decker & team

#autism #autistic #autisme #parentstips #orthodontist ...