Children’s Airway Health: Friday AM Edition

Presented by: Sharon Moore, SLP; Susan Maples, DDS; Carla Damon, DDS; Shereen Lim, MD

Original Presentation Date: September 15, 2022

Course One Title: Creating Change in Little People

Course Description:

Join us for an enlightening discussion on the often-overlooked aspects of children's health within the upper airway. Delve into the crucial roles of breathing, eating, drinking, and sleeping, emphasizing not just the actions themselves but the methods by which they are performed and their impact on long-term health. Discover the extraordinary opportunity to enhance a child's quality of life and health trajectory by addressing upper airway health before school age. Learn how to navigate families' challenges and empower them with vital knowledge to recognize the importance of addressing upper airway issues. Explore the 'why,' 'what,' and 'how' behind optimizing children's health, including coping strategies for life's challenges. Uncover the physiological factors influencing craniofacial respiratory complex bone growth, identify signs of dysfunction in the upper airway, and gain insights into educating parents about the significance of these aspects in their child's well-being.

Learning Objectives:

• Grasp the physiological mechanisms impacting bone growth in the craniofacial respiratory complex, linking these processes to children's overall health and well-being.
• Recognize indicators of dysfunction or atypical function in the front and back of the upper airway, enabling early identification and intervention strategies.
• Acquire key communication points to effectively educate parents about the importance of upper airway health in children's quality of life, emphasizing the 'why this matters' aspect.

Course Two Title: See It Sooner and Help Kids Thrive!: Integrating Pediatric Airway Into Your Dental Practice

Course Description:

Join our expert panel of dedicated dentists as they share invaluable insights and actionable strategies to transform your approach in serving pediatric patients under six with airway disorders (AD) and sleep-related breathing disorders (SRBD). These passionate practitioners have developed multi-tiered treatment solutions within their practices and established collaborative referral networks in their communities. Geared towards general dentists and hygienists, this session offers a roadmap for identifying essential next steps and crafting effective strategies to address AD and SRBD in pediatric patients.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the vital telltale signs and symptoms of pediatric AD and SRBD, enabling prompt recognition and early intervention strategies in clinical practice.
• Evaluate and implement effective screening questionnaires specifically designed to detect symptoms associated with AD and SRBD in pediatric patients under six years old.
• Examine the significance of allergy, congestion, and tonsil/adenoid hypertrophy in influencing the development of Craniofacial Respiratory Complex and its impact on AD, SRBD, and pediatric development. 
• Explore successful methods and approaches the panelists use in establishing collaborative referral sources within their communities to support the comprehensive care needs of pediatric patients with AD and SRBD.
  

Speaker Bios:

Sharon Moore, a Speech Pathologist with over 40 years of clinical experience, specializes in upper airway function disorders. Based in Canberra, she manages a private practice and collaborates with medical and dental specialists, emphasizing Orofacial Myofunctional principles in diagnosing and treating various issues, including breathing, swallowing, and speech. With a focus on early detection of craniofacial anomalies and airway obstruction in sleep disorders, Sharon champions the role of myofunctional therapy in sleep disorder management, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing significant health challenges associated with sleep disorders. She is also the author of Sleep Wrecked Kids: Raising Happy, Healthy Children One Sleep At A Time.

Dr. Susan Maples is a passionate health educator and leads a successful total health, insurance-independent dental practice in Holt, Michigan. She brings preventive and restorative dental expertise, ‎a passion for mouth-body total health, a master’s degree in business/marketing, and 30+ years of ‎experience in private practice. She is the creator and founder of Total Health Academy, a complete online solution ‎for dental teams to integrate all aspects of Total Health Dentistry, and the developer of the Hands-On ‎Learning Lab™ and SelfScreen.net. She is the author of Brave Parent! Raising Healthy, Happy Kids ‎‎(Against All Odds) in Today’s World and BlabberMouth!: 77 Secrets Only Your Mouth Can Tell You To ‎Live a Healthier, Happier, Sexier Life.

Dr. Carla Damon, a board-certified pediatric dentist, completed her dental education at The University of Texas at Houston Dental School and her Pediatric Dental residency at Baylor College of Dentistry. Co-founding Beyond Pediatric Dentistry in Dallas, TX, Dr. Damon and Dr. Loria Nahatis prioritize pediatric patients, focusing on airway screening, infant frenectomies, and adopting a wellness-centered dental care approach. With expertise in oral dysfunctions, feeding/speech difficulties, and malocclusions linked to sleep-disordered breathing, Dr. Damon co-founded the DFW Airway Collaborative, advocating for a multidisciplinary approach to addressing airway issues in children and adults. Driven by a passion for whole-body health and early education in health decisions, her mission is to empower children for a lifetime of good oral and overall health by promoting optimal breathing, quality sleep, and thriving lifestyles.

Dr. Shereen Lim, a Perth-based dentist with a postgraduate diploma in dental sleep medicine from the University of Western Australia, has specialized in managing snoring and obstructive sleep apnea for over a decade. She advocated airway health from infancy and authored Breathe, Sleep, Thrive: Discover How Airway Health Can Unlock Your Child’s Greater Health, Learning, and Potential. Dr. Lim's practice focuses on tongue tie management, early orthodontics, and myofunctional therapy. She actively promotes an integrative team approach to airway health through social media, presentations, and interdisciplinary conferences, fostering collaborations and discussions locally and internationally.