The body does not grind teeth because of anxiety. It grinds teeth to breathe, says Dr. Don Anderson, a general dentist in Fresno, CA.
Anderson has spent the past 1 1/2 years transitioning his practice entirely to airway management. Most patients, Anderson says, and a surprising number of clinicians, still have it backward.
Dr. Don Anderson.
In this episode of The DrBicuspid.com Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Kevin Henry sits down with Anderson to bust three persistent myths about airways, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and what dentistry's role in all of it actually is.
Anderson came to this work through personal experience. He has had OSA for more than 20 years and watched his patient base age alongside him, developing the same problems over time.
His training at Spear Education -- alongside clinicians, including Drs. Jeff Rouse, Jonathan Ford, and Jamison Spencer -- sharpened a clinical philosophy that has become the foundation of his new practice model. That model is catching airway problems early, before they qualify as full-blown OSA, and intervening before they create irreversible consequences.
The first myth Anderson takes on is the one patients hear often from their physicians: Your sleep study was normal, so you're fine. Anderson explains that upper airway resistance syndrome represents a meaningful and treatable middle ground -- patients who are not yet clinically diagnosable as having OSA but who are still experiencing real breathing disruption during sleep.
The second myth Anderson hopes to dispel is that only physicians can identify patients with OSA. Dentistry, he argues, is better positioned than medicine to identify these patients early, because the signs of OSA appear in the mouth first. Worn dentition, broken restorations, bruxism -- these are airway symptoms that dentists and hygienists see at recall appointments long before any physician does.
The third myth -- and perhaps the most clinically urgent -- involves children. A five-year-old who grinds their teeth is not stressed. They are trying to breathe.
Anderson makes the case for early palatal expansion and pediatric airway intervention as a genuine opportunity to alter a child's developmental trajectory, protecting growth hormone release during sleep, preventing the downstream consequences of untreated airway obstruction, and giving young patients a chance at full physical development before the window closes.
Anderson can be reached at donaldandersondds.com or at [email protected].
Listen to the full conversation below.
