Dear Spear folks,

Hope all is well with you.

I Just watched the new video series on airway/jaw bone deficiency/malocclusion by Dr. Rebecca Bockow who is an orthodontist/periodontist. Wow, this is good, making sense to me! The lecturer talked about the tongue position/airway/jaw bone underdevelopment/malocclusion/OSA, however she failed to mention the worn dentition/chipped teeth, which is another branch of restricted airway manifestation I believe? None of the cases she showed had teeth wear, I wish she talked about this more common clinical phenomenon which we restorative dentists see so often!

Now here is my question: following the concept in the videos regarding the formation and adeptation of restricted airway, the body will try to compensate for the restricted airway by mouthing breathing, curving the cervical spine, subconsciously sticking the neck out ..... anything the body can help to increase the intermaxillary space dimension to bring in more air, yes that makes sense. However if this rationale makes sense, why pts with restricted airway grind their teeth, wouldn't that reduce the dimension of intermaxillary space and increase the difficulty to breathe? The latter is a rationale I heard often before watching this video series, which says grinding the teeth is the brain tries to open up more intraoral space to breathe, but as far as I see it, these shortened teeth will only make the intraoral space reduced, the opposite to helping breathing. Could you explain to me why these two rationales seem to contradict each other? Thanks!