How Airway Clearance Affects You in Your 30s

A note from our team: Airway health, sleep-breathing concerns, and myofunctional therapy have a meaningful connection to your dental health — how you breathe, sleep, and hold your tongue at rest can affect your teeth, jaw development, and long-term oral health. We share this article so our patients understand that connection and can recognize when to seek help. When patients need care in this area, we work closely with a trusted specialist who focuses on it full-time, so you’re getting the level of expertise your overall health deserves.

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Life can be hectic. Between your career, family life, and social calendar, you may wake up each day feeling overtired or unfocused. Reasons behind this will vary for every patient, but a safe bet might be you’re not getting enough sleep. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that adults over the age of 30 aim for 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night. Sleep deprivation can affect your mental and physical well-being and cause you to experience low energy, poor concentration at work, or changes to your cardiovascular health.

For some adults, a lack of sleep may be due to stress or anxiety. For others, sleep deprivation may be a sign of impaired airway clearance.

Airway Clearance, Sleep Disordered Breathing, & Sleep Apnea

Airway clearance is the ability to maintain a clean environment in the airways. It helps prevent against respiratory infections and poor breathing habits, as well as aids in proper orofacial development. It’s important to develop and maintain proper breathing habits, as constricted airways can lead to significant oral and behavioral health issues that cause inadequate orofacial development leading to asthma, allergies, and infections.

Sleep disordered breathing, as defined by the ResMed, is a condition characterized by repeated episodes of either hypopnea (shallow breathing) or apnea (not breathing) occurring during sleep. When your breathing is disrupted while sleeping, your body thinks it’s choking, which leads to increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and arousal of the brain, waking you from sleep.

Sleep Apnea, according to the National Sleep Foundation, affects more than 18 million adults and is a chronic condition that causes your breathing to repeatedly stop and start again during sleep.

The three main types of sleep apnea include:

  • Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) – The most common form a sleep apnea, OSA occurs when your throat muscles relax too much, creating blocked airways.
  • Central Sleep Apnea – This condition occurs when your brain doesn’t send the proper signals to your muscles that control breathing.
  • Complex Sleep Apnea Syndrome – This type of comorbid condition is when patients are living with both obstructive and central sleep apnea.

Symptoms of Sleep Apnea

According to The Breathe Institute, the most common signs and symptoms of sleep apnea include:

  • Headaches
  • Excessive daytime sleepiness (hypersomnia)
  • Difficulty paying attention while awake
  • Loss of libido
  • Increased clumsiness
  • Poor job performance
  • Low concentration

Treating Sleep Apnea Through Airway Focused Dentistry

The best way to find out if you’re experiencing a sleep disordered breathing condition, such as sleep apnea, is to contact Dakota Dental for a consultation. The team can help find out if airway focused dentistry is right for you, order a sleep test and discuss options.

Your Overall Health Is Part of Your Dental Care

At Dakota Dental, we look at more than just your teeth — how you breathe, sleep, and function each day are all connected to your oral health. For patients who need care specifically focused on airway, sleep-breathing, or myofunctional therapy, we partner with a trusted specialist nearby whose practice is dedicated to this work. That partnership lets us keep our attention on your comprehensive dental care while making sure you get the specialized attention this area deserves.

If anything in this article resonates with you or someone in your family, mention it at your next visit. We’re happy to talk through the connection to your dental health and help you find the right next step.