Last week I took three of my children to the dentist for routine cleaning and when they were finished one of the dentists asked to speak to me. He said that he noticed that one of the three children had a significant amount of crowding and it looked as though she would need braces. I agreed with him and indicated that she had already been evaluated for orthodontics and we were planning on putting them on this summer. Also, the doctor mentioned that she had quite a bit of calcification which indicates that she is mostly mouth breathing and he figured it was because of the very large size of her tonsils.

Then he told me that new studies were indicating that the jaw can’t grow as it should with mouth breathing and huge tonsils. He said they actually have documented cases of young children with significant crowding, good candidates for braces, that once they had their tonsils removed, their jaws grew and their teeth straightened on their own, without orthodontics. Apparently tongue position during regular nose breathing also has an influence on the organization of the teeth but during mouth breathing the tongue is in the wrong place. Why didn’t anyone tell me this when the first five of our children got their braces? We’re going on our tenth year of a continuing relationship with our orthodontist who now gives us his “large family discount.”

The good news doesn’t stop there. I was speaking with the pediatrician yesterday, during our ADD evaluation for the nine year old and requesting referrals to an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist for three of the children, my next three candidates for braces and I also explained to him what the dentist had told me and that is why I wanted the referrals. He then informed me that research is showing that tonsillectomies may also improve a child’s sleep, reduce the occurrence of middle ear infections, sinusitis, upper airway infections, mouth breathing, head, neck, and face pain, and eliminate some of ADHD/ADD symptoms. If your child has very large tonsils, struggles with ADHD symptoms and you suspect poor sleep habits, it may be worth your while to visit an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist for a tonsillectomy evaluation.

The tonsillectomy is the second most common childhood surgery and is most often performed these days to treat sleep disordered breathing. A tonsillectomy is a surgery involving removal of the tonsils from the throat. Tonsils are clumps of lymphoid tissue found on both sides of the back of the throat. Tonsils probably work as part of the body’s immune system. This means they help the body fight infection by filtering out germs as they enter the breathing passages through the mouth and nose.

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