My Story
I was 21 when I entered the world of dentistry, I fell in love with the problem solving side of it. What has been happening in this persons mouth for it to be the way it is? The human body is miraculous, how it responds to disease and how it heals, every case, every person has a new set of variables. I guess this is why I’ve remained engaged in this area for around two decades. I loved working in specialty, ever since before I even graduated I knew I wanted to work in Periodontics (gum specialty) and this is where I ended up for over eight years. I loved my job so what happened that sent my career off into a new direction?
Five years ago I had my first child and even before her first tooth erupted she had her first toothbrush to hold, even before she could sit up, she was in the dental chair having ‘rocket ship rides’, I was going to do everything right for her oral health and there was no way she would be having any dental concerns.
As far as I knew her dental development was on track. Her feeding and sleep were another story though. I had recruited a number of lactation consultants but was still left in tears during each feed, I felt this dread hang over me anticipating the next feed and a constant pressure to endure it as ‘breast is best’, add into the mix the drama at bed time and broken sleep. Like most mothers screaming out for help we were sent off for a day stay at sleep school to work on settling techniques…… I tried everything so how could I be failing? I knew all about the mouth so how could I know so little about feeding?
When my daughter was around twelve months old I returned to work, I had left my role in Periodontics and returned back into general practice to refresh all the skills I had not used for years from working in one discipline. It was here I was talking to a colleague about tonsils and the effects that large tonsils can have on sleep. Wow, these little balls of flesh stare at me all day and I stare back at them, but only to screen for lesions or abnormalities, never had I thought to be asking my patients with large tonsils how they sleep. After all, this was beyond the imaginary line drawn behind the back molars that separate the domain of dental practitioner and ENT surgeon. Well the lightbulb went off, I got a good look at my daughters tonsils and what do you know, LARGE tonsils! So off to the ENT we went only to be told she was fine and I had nothing to worry about. I was back at square one. clueless as to why my child was so hard to get to sleep.
Well two years past and during this time I had another child, the horrors of breastfeeding returned, I was told by our pediatrician to supplement feed my daughter with formula as she was losing weight, the terrible sleep haunted me with another child and she also threw in recurrent ear infections for good measure. I was seeing Pediatricians, Maternal health nurses and a new lot of lactation consultants- all with differing opinions. One thing they did all agree on was that my daughter had a high palate. What did this mean? No one could tell me. But I felt if anyone should know it should be me! So I began looking into it myself and down the rabbit hole I went.
Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy (OMT) kept popping up on my journey and I ended up enrolling in a course to learn all about it. It blew my mind! How can not everyone know about this! all the dots were connected. I took my eldest daughter back for a second opinion with an ENT, and a third- again all with differing opinions and I requested a Polysomnography (Sleep study) to be carried out for both my girls. My mum instinct was right, my eldest daughter, though her symptoms were subtle was diagnosed with SEVERE obstructive sleep apnea. She went in and had surgery to open her airway removing tonsils, adenoids and a tongue tie release. My youngest daughter had adenoid removal and ear tubes placed. She will also be getting her tonsils removed in the coming months. My daughter falls asleep easily now, wakes happy, no longer naps and doesn’t turn into a robot in the afternoon and best of all- her developing brain is getting all the O2 it needs to develop to its fullest potential.
After this finding I felt I have to be there for others, I have to let people know, I cant let other children suffocate in their sleep, I cant let parents go down dead end roads with ‘sleep training’ and no answers night after night. Every one of my patients is asked about sleep. Since attending that one course, I no longer attend courses on ‘what fluoride varnish works best’ I attend courses on sleep, pediatric feeding, breathing, Orthotropics, TMD (jaw pain). I listen to sleep physicians, ENT surgeons, Maxillofacial surgeons, Osteopaths, Lactation consultants and Orthodontists talk just to name a few because mouths are connected to bodies and if one part of it is dysfunctional, a chain reaction of symptoms is set off. Its up to me, with the help of a multidisciplinary team of specialists to piece the puzzle together and provide the right course of treatment to obtain ideal health for patients.
