About this episode

Dr. David McIntosh discusses the importance of collaboration between ENT and dentistry in addressing sleep-disordered breathing and airway issues.

Sleep, Airway and Mouth Breathing: An ENT’s Guide for Dentists Could a “normal” sleep study still be missing your patient’s airway problem? Why do women and children with real symptoms keep scoring “mild” ? Should a mouth-breathing child see a myofunctional therapist — or an ENT first ? And which four questions screen a child for sleep problems in under a minute? The roof of the mouth is the floor of the nose — so ENT and dentistry should be in constant dialogue. In practice, they rarely are. In this one, Dr David McIntosh — an Australian ear, nose and throat surgeon with a deep niche in sleep-disordered breathing — makes the case for why that has to change, and gives dentists practical ways to screen and refer. He is direct, analogy-rich and doesn’t mince words; expect a few positions that cut against the grain of how sleep apnoea is usually handled. https://youtu.be/QVEc0ocxTCc Watch PDP272 on YouTube Protrusive Dental Pearl: When the Numbers Mislead Dentists love data — the AHI, the cut-offs (over 5 is mild, over 30 is severe). But take those numbers with a pinch of salt: the thresholds are arbitrary, and a single score tells you nothing about why a patient has the problem…

People in this episode

Host: Jaz Gulati

Guest: Dr David McIntosh

Topics covered

• sleep disorders
• airway problems
• mouth breathing
• dentistry
• ENT collaboration
• myofunctional therapy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Protrusive Dental Podcast, ENT

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