Welcome to our podcast. My name is Rebecca Boschman. I'm the Associate Director here
at the Children's Airway First Foundation. And you are here for our first ever podcast.
So welcome. Wanted to give you a little bit of background about who we are and what we
do and really today talk as parent to parent. Our foundation was started about a year ago.
It will be April 2021. And if you want to hear on a more personal level about our guests today
and the story about their daughter and their journey, you can check out our website. We have a
great podcast interview that we did with one of our fellow podcasters, Emma Cooksy,
that will give you the background. But today I'd like to introduce you to our co-founders,
Brad and Candy Sparks. Hi guys. Good afternoon. Good afternoon actually. Yeah. Right. So,
you know, today for those of you that really don't know about us just at a high level,
our mission statement, which you can find on our website, is to make sure that every child
has screening, evaluation and treatment for airway disorders before the age of six. And as we go along,
you'll find out why that age milestone is so critical. And today I'd like to just open it up.
Like I said, we're going to talk parent to parent. Really, why did y'all create CAT? Let's start with
that. About a year ago, I found out that everything that happened to our daughter,
she's almost 20 years old now, could have been avoided or treated and treated when she was very
young. So, in talking parent to parent, I would just like to ask everybody listening today,
what if somebody told you that your child could be born with a condition or an anomaly
that's structural in their airway that would cause them to have hypoxic brain injuries,
innumerable comorbidities, including cancer, heart disease, autonomic disorders, you name it,
and with lower than IQ by at least 10 points. Would you not rush to your local pediatrician
and possibly your local dentist and maybe just really know what to do? Well, we had no idea
that our daughter had this issue. But it was present at birth and could be seen by a trained eye.
In fact, when she was 18 months old, I went to my cosmetic dentist and he took one look at her
and she's adorable. Look at her on her website. I mean, gosh, she's this gorgeous child.
And he said, you know what, she's going to need some work. And I'm thinking, huh, she's first of all,
she's the smartest kid ever born. We all think that about our kids, don't we? Right. And she's just
cute as well. What is he talking about? And he said, you're going to go need to go see a Dr.
Hang, Dr. Bill Hang in California when she's between six and nine. So we thought, well,
she's 18 months now. At that time, it's all good. But what I learned in the last year is that that
trained eye could have recognized it at birth. And what would they have been seeing? Number one,
that she was breathing through her mouth predominantly. And number two, if they had checked
inside her mouth, they would have noticed that she had a very high upper palate. And that palate
was actually impeding her nasal airway so that she wasn't able to breathe through her nose because
that palate was up too high. And we also have been told, oh, and by the way, her chin is back a little
too far and the tongue is attached to that. And that tongue is falling back into her oral
pharynx, her oral airway. So even breathing through her mouth had a loss of oxygen that she was trying
to get. So all of that was possible to see at birth. And one thing that we're fighting for now
with the Children's Airway First Foundation is the opportunity for every child to have a complete
airway exam within the first 24 to 48 hours after birth. Because think about it, at least 20% of kids
are born with some type of airway issue. That's huge. That's astounding. That's huge. And you
can't even imagine that there are 11 million children under the age of 10 in the United States.
And usually it starts at birth. But let me tell you, if it isn't present right then and there at
birth, here's how it could show up for your child. Imagine if you bring your child home and you have
no idea that there's some black mold in your house. And we're in Texas. So sometimes that happens here
in Texas. Right. Or you might have a cockroach infestation under your peer and being that you
don't even know about. But there are toxins in your home. Or maybe you open the window and there's
a factory nearby and that toxic chemical is blowing into your home. And maybe within hours or days,
your newborn child is breathing through his or her mouth. And when you breathe through your
mouth, instead of your nose, your jaws and your airway are going to become compromised.
They will develop differently. Who knew? I certainly did. I thought I was mouth breathing
from the start. I thought, yeah, maybe she just does that because I'm nursing her and she's kind
of saying, hey, again, please. So we're finding that children have this mouth breathing going on
and we check them and we could see a high dent of arch, maybe a retarded chin so that tongue is
falling back into their oral pharynx. And other issues that you might look for is typically,
they may have sort of an accentuated bow upper lip, you know, that cute little bow lip.
And maybe the lower lip is rolling forward. And those are also characteristics. But I would like
to ask you to look at a book called Sleep Wrecked Kids, Sleep Wrecked Kids, written by Sharon Moore.
You can get it on Amazon. You can get it through our website and so on. But if you have a young
child and you're wondering, they seem to be breathing through their mouth. They also snore
when they're trying to sleep and they're restless when they're trying to sleep. Maybe their covers
are thrown all over the place. And maybe you're a child a little older, four or five. And you're
noticing that they're tired during the day. And they're not able to focus very well. And maybe
that issue of not being able to focus and concentrate very well is getting in the way of
preschool. And sometimes those kids become a little more aggressive because their teachers are saying,
hey, you know, wake up. Did you not do your homework? Did you, is there an issue here? Well,
those kids may be starting to develop ADHD, ADHD, because that is contributed to my hypoxic
brain injuries because they are getting on average 18% less oxygen per night. Think of it.
People all seeing issues where somebody loses their airway and within minutes they die.
Right. As your child's developing brain, not getting adequate oxygen or CO2 or other necessary
components during the night or while they're mouth breathing. Mouth breathing is a huge
issue. Look for it not only in your own child, but other children. And it's not okay. That's
something that you drove home with me really early on when I joined the organization. Mouth
breathing is not okay. Right. It's just not, it's not cute. It's not, it's not okay. Absolutely.
And I have been working with the physician in chief at Delft Children's Hospital here in
Austin, Dr. Leah Harris. And we were talking, you know, four or five times and one day she said,
you know what? Mouth breathing is not normal. Maybe that should be our slogan so that we all
start looking for it because a lot of pediatricians have not been trained to look for the signs of
airway issues in children. And sometimes they just go straight to, well, this kid seems to have a
EDADHD when they're around five or six, let's make sure they get some riddle then so they can focus
and concentrate better. Or they'll grow out of it. That was the other thing that drove home. Yes.
Yeah, they'll grow out of mouth breathing. They're a nice snore. It's okay. They'll grow out of it.
They have allergies. Let's wait and see. Right. Or as they get older, it's probably exercise and
doost allergies. So let's see where the healer is going. Again, you have steroids happening and
we want to avoid that. So let's go back to this child that's born. I met an osteopath, a DO,
is and they are MDs. And she said, tell me a little bit about your child's birth. And I did.
And she said, okay, so I would have taken your daughter, Savvy, and had her skull in one hand
and be holding her. And then I would have moved my other hand behind her skull and a few inches.
And I would have noticed that the vibration coming off her skull from her brain was not right.
Because she had an impaired airway. Then I would have gone inside of her mouth. And I would have
noticed that she had a very high V shaped upper palate. And then I would have noticed that her
chin was back so that that tongue that her chin is writing on also called the mandible was too
far back into her oral pharynx. And she was also having difficulty breathing in that way.
I would have checked her for what's called lip ties. Is that lip attached with a little piece of
skin? Is the tongue tied down to the mandible with little pieces of skin? And all of that needs to
be changed at that point. And then she said, because we are osteopaths, we do manual manipulation.
So we would have started to reshape that upper palate from a high V shape to a healthy U shaped,
which is the normal way your palate should be. And by the way, you can see that on our website.
That's right. It's on our website. Yep. Yes. So and you can see all of these characteristics
on our website and including our daughter's story, which also talks about what we should have been
looking for. And photos. That's the other great thing with Savvy story just to interject. If you
go on our website and you look at our story, you're going to see photos of Savvy. And once you know
the signs to look for, it's amazing. I mean, they're there. It's just, it's right there. But, you know,
no one knew. Yes. I have to tell you that this is so new that the vast majority of books have been
written after 2015. So mine was one of the jobs that causes us to move frequently. So my daughter
had her first pediatrician and dentist in Potomac, Maryland. And we moved to Seattle. And she had a
dentist and two pediatricians there. And when she was three years old, she had RSV and she went into
Seattle Children's Hospital for three days to be treated for RSV or possibly pneumonia. So you had
all of these different doctors and dentists looking at her within the first three years of her life.
No one said she has a high V shaped arch. She is a mouth breather. She has a retrusive chin that is too
far back. Therefore, she has to have a compromised airway. And that will mean that she's not getting
the normal amount of oxygen she should be getting, especially when she's asleep. Right. So what can
what can that cause? Do you know that if you have, we all probably heard of sleep apnea, obstructed
sleep apnea, and we think that that is happening to our 15 year old, or an elderly person who's
panel of thoracic and possibly overweight. And we think, does that happen to a child?
Who's ever heard of that? Right. We find that these children are have sleep disorder, breathing,
or fragmented sleep, or even obstructive sleep apnea. And then what happens when your child
cannot get into REM sleep, just like an adult, because they can't get the oxygen and the rest
that they need, and they're waking up many times just like an adult with sleep apnea,
because sleep is disrupted, it's fragmented. And when they don't get that sleep that rejuvenates them
and restores their brain function clearly, they begin to get hypoxic brain injuries.
And there isn't a single psychological disorder that can be tied back to fragmented
sleep. So my daughter developed greater anxiety, depression. Today she has PTSD,
and we can talk about all the ways that that manifested and came about. But those were the
things that were starting in her system. And also she has POTS, which is Pustural Orthostatic
Tachycardia Syndrome. She has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, she's hypermobile. She has a couple
of different conditions. But it's amazing. I'd like you also to read Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker.
Matthew Walker wrote his book in 2017. In the UK, it became the book of the year.
And it is a fantastic way of finding out if my child has a narrow-way issue, what can happen?
How will it change the course of their health as they're growing? The first thing that goes, remember
this, is concentration and focus. So why do we have so many kids that have difficulty reading in
school? Why do we have so many kids who are half-sleeping in school? Because their sleep is
disruptive. It has a narrow-way issue, which also means they have a sleep issue. So the thing is,
is that there is help for babies that can get that exam at birth. Some correction can occur as they are
an infant and what we call a wobbler. And then we get into the toddler. Did you know that only 30
months, an airway-centric pediatric dentist, can begin treating your child and helping them to expand
their airway, fixing these anomalies, turning that high V-shaped arch into a rounded, healthy arch.
Guiding the mandible and maxilla, the upper and lower jaws forward, expanding the airway so your
child will get the oxygen they need while they sleep. They will no longer have sleep disorder,
breathing, fragmented sleep, or any of these conditions. If you don't take this chance to
help your child get this treatment, they will have more issues trying to learn in school.
And just the other day, one of our advisory board members from the Mayo Clinic at Rochester,
who is a neurologist, who studied sleep medicine, is he has set up many of the pediatric sleep labs
across the country in many of the best children's hospitals, including Boston and Burry and others.
And he said, what happens when your child cannot learn?
Is that not terrifying? It is terrifying. It is terrifying. And the other thing that was brought
up that I think they also touched on and why we sleep is this lack of REM sleep,
due to waking up because you can't get oxygen, it's destroying their autoimmune system.
And as a parent to me, that is terrifying. And I would never, ever have put two and two together
and thought that was going to happen. Right. So you have hypoxic brain injuries and autoimmune
just wreaking havoc on these kids. Yes. And no one's noticing. Yes. Because hypoxic brain injury
can be responsible for triggering MS. Yes. And other autoimmune disorders. So also, we look at
waking and it can trigger the hormone, the hypothalamus, the one that says, I have a
kind of a snack. I'm not satisfied. I gotta have another one. And you never feel full. So,
and also, you have a horrible, that same area that can give you a normal response to food of,
oh, I feel full now. Oh, I'm just eating this and I'm good. But what happens when all you
only do is eat some more? That's also can manifest from fragmented sleep and an airway issue.
And it's a vicious cycle. So you're eating more and you can't sleep. So you're tired. So now you're
not moving. And again, if you're taking this, this is something else that someone else on our
board has mentioned before that when you look at this holistically, what's happening now as a child
that we could fix, you know, if we're focused on it is impacting the health span of your child
as into adulthood, which basically shortens their lifespan. Absolutely. So the biggest thing that
I would say parent to parent is number one, we're going to be working on getting their way exam score
into all of our pediatricians, obstetricians, doulas, anyone who is attending an infant.
It has to be board certified. It has to go through the training and board certification
to learn to do a comprehensive airway exam on an infant within the first 24 to 48 hours.
And the physician in chief I mentioned earlier, Dr. Lena Harris, adult children,
is so interested in getting this done because she's also a neonatologist. And she knows the
importance of finding everything when you have these preterm babies and babysitter at risk.
And those even that aren't, what if we don't discover this? What if they continue to mouth
breathe? What if nobody sees it and no one's trained to see it? So that's a huge thing. We also
are working with Dell Medical School so that we can change the curriculum for pediatricians.
So any pediatrician walking into can say, Oh, there it is. I see that here, besides,
let's evaluate further. And if necessary, maybe even do a sleep lab test or now there are even
ways to do it at home. And let's make sure that we understand, is this child getting
proper sleep? Are they getting into REM sleep? Are they getting the kind that allows them to
concentrate and focus and learn and feel healthy and good about themselves?
Right. So all of that now, thanks to a whole lot of airway centric dentists and neurologists have
said, we must get on top of this. We must train everyone in our field to be able to spot these
children. It's almost 20% of the population of children. There's seven million children in the
United States and at least 11 million under the age of 10 have these issues.
Right. And can we just, can we speak to also, we're talking about pediatricians,
but some of the members of our advisory board are some of the most prestigious and well-noted
dentists and orthodontists and, you know, maxofacial
professionals, yeah, surgeons in the industry. And I keep hearing time and time and time again,
you know, speaking parent to parent, this warning about removing permanent teeth as they come in
and retract of braces. Could we, can we touch on that a little bit because to me, you know,
if you've missed the signs at birth and as a parent, you have a, you have a child coming in
and you think, oh, their teeth look really great. There's, there's no gaps in them and they're coming
in. I had no idea that that was a sign. There should be gaps, right? So that the, their adult
teeth have room to come in. But, you know, once they come in, how many children do you know
are shipped off to the orthodontist? Let's pull teeth and let's talk retract of braces.
Right. I just read a story the other day about a mom who's her daughter to see the orthodontist
and said, you know, she has crooked teeth. She has a lot of cavities. She has a malocclusion,
like class two malocclusion, which means that big overbite or what we used to call buccate.
And maybe it's even more prominent than that. Or sometimes there's a class three malocclusion,
which means your lower jaw comes out farther than your upper jaw. So your lower teeth are
out farther than your upper teeth. And then there's a class one malocclusion, which basically means
you have very crooked teeth. So also if you're mouth breathing, kids at 72 months have many more
cavities than kids who are nasal breathing. Right. So always the goal to get them to nasal breathing.
And there are lots of ways to do that. And we talked about that too with my functional
therapy and so on. But your question, Rebecca, is about when it's time to go to the orthodontist.
Oh my gosh, I wish I had known then what I know now. Right. So we moved from Seattle and we
lived in Scottsdale a couple of years and then we moved to Austin and our daughter was eight.
And she started this new private school and the kids were giggling about the fact that she had
this severe class two malocclusion. Her mandible and her teeth were way forward. It was almost
that cartoonish grin that you sometimes see in cartoons. She's like, Mom, you know, they're
kind of laughing at me. And I said, okay, time to go to the orthodontist. So we looked at who is
the number one person in Austin and we went there. And he said, Oh, yes, I see that she will need
orthognathic surgery, also known as double jaw surgery, also known as MMA. And that means that
both jaws have to be moved forward to help open expand that airway and allow her to breathe through
her nose and develop more healthy to be more healthy. So anyway, he said, but she's AIDS and,
you know, looks are important. And in fact, if you read anything about dentists and orthodontists,
they want to assure that your child has a healthy esteem, self esteem, and that they can improve
their smile to help with that. Right. He said, I can give her a great smile. But at 17, she will
need to have those jaws pulled forward and to have orthognathic surgery. So I'm thinking well,
all right, that makes sense. So he put in a rapid expander, which takes care of that
upper palate and expanded it very quickly because it was so high to begin with. And as people,
of course, and then put on what are called retractive orthodontics. In other words,
bare men to push the team back. But here's what I know that most people never know is that even
a millimeter or two, think of it a millimeter or two can push the tongue farther into that oral
pharynx that this child is trying to breathe through cause more damage. Right. That's why today,
you need a dentist and orthodontist who believes in something called forwardontics or bringing
the jaws forward, not back to protect the airway. And you need to ask them, are you an airway
centric dentist? Are you going to and to really protect my child's airway? And if they say, oh,
it's not important, by the way, your child could breathe through a straw, but the size of the airway
should be the size of a hose. And we even have orthodontists who claim that a child can breathe
through something as tiny as a Starbucks straw, Sturks straw. Right. Because all my mom, they're
struggling to breathe and getting my toxic brain injuries and systemic comorbid.
You're listening to airway first with today's guest, Brad and Candy Sparks. You can find out
more about the Children's Airway First Foundation and our mission to ensure that every child has
access to screening, evaluation and treatment of all children's airway disorders before the age of
six on our website at children'sairwayfirst.org. You can also find a ton of great resources for
parents on our website, including things like videos, blogs, recommended books, comprehensive
medical research and more. As a reminder, this podcast and the opinions expressed here are not
a medical diagnosis. If you suspect your child might have an airway issue, contact your pediatric
airway dentist or pediatrician. And now, back to our podcast. Oh my gosh. Well, we didn't know to
ask those questions. We didn't even know there was such a thing as an airway issue. She was
an idiot. Right. Okay, but we're at the number one guy and he's gonna give her a nice smile.
And it's all gonna be good. All right. This is insane. So she's got the braces on and she begins
to walk more slowly across her campus at school and can I get to her next class or to the building
with the lunchroom minute and move with the other children? She has to walk more slowly.
She is not getting enough air, right? Be able to walk at a normal pace with the other kids.
And this was a kid who is running around and fits prior to getting these retracted races.
And we actually know now from Dr. Bill Heng, who's on our website, who is an extraordinary
dentist who is airway centric, he is a pioneer in this and bringing the jaws forward that he
looked at her records and said, it was moved back two to three millimeters enough to completely
destroy her health, her memory. She's like, mom, I don't know why I can't remember much of my
childhood. Mom, I don't know why I can't remember to bring my homework to school. And I'm not one
of the smart kids anymore. Yeah. How can this be? So when she was 10, her fifth grade teacher said
to me, do you know that your child blacks out in class? That we can't even wave our hand in
front of her and have her wake up? That's called a micro sleep. And if you're looking at the book,
why do we sleep? You find out how this happens in children. They're so exhausted from not sleeping
at night that they're bringing us to go into a micro sleep. So they also said, you know, she's
forgetting our homework. She's walking more slowly. We had to give her a key card to get into other
buildings because she couldn't keep up with the kids to walk across. And oh, by the way, we're going
to put her in a special class with children with disabilities and diseases, who also are weak and
lacking in stamina and strength. Our child quite seven couldn't walk mountains and hills
in the Seattle area and in Italy on a summer vacation and run all over suddenly has these issues
because her airway is so incredibly impaired. Right. So we take her to Texas Children's to the
famous pulmonologists who saw the way the bull and took care of him for years. And we think
he's going to know everything. He's going to cure our child. Wow, let's do it. So we go
so and so amazing. He runs all these tests, takes all these images, and he tells us that our daughter
is a history. Why? Because pulmonologists are generally looking at the thoracic region from the
neck down, not from the neck up. Right. So he's not noticing the upper airway.
And to their credit, pulmonologists also are mainly trained to address emergencies.
And you would see that in the book, Breath by James Nestor. And as he talked with pulmonologists
about why aren't you looking for this and explain why. So she's going through all of this. And she's
thinking no one understands. And her best friend died of leukemia. And she's thinking he was getting
weaker and weaker and weaker and such a bright, darling child. And maybe I'm going to die too.
And she's becoming more depressed. And she's anxious because she can't remember things.
She's trying to even stay up late because you can't sleep to do more homework. And I can,
I'm thinking, are you trying hard enough? Because the doctors aren't pointing this out. And her
pediatrician says, oh, she has exercise and do asthma. Take her to the track. They're going to
run a little bit. Then walk, run, walk. And here's another retailer. Right. It's not working.
So at 12, she said, you know, I'm done. And we went to see a psychologist. And while we were there,
back in Seattle, we happened to see my cosmetic dentist, the one who saw right 18 months with
that trained eye. And he said, let me just check her. And he said her back in the chair and said,
oh, my gosh, I don't know how she breathes. She is 50 to 80% block. This is already off.
But the teeth are back. And there's no place for the tongue other than to fall back and
or various right. And he said, you have to go see Dr. William Hange in California immediately.
So we went to see him. And we also saw a myofunctional therapist named Joy Moller. And
both of them took measurements and said, I'm sorry, it's too far on. She is going to need that
work in ethics surgery, that double jaw surgery, MMA surgery now immediately. So there's a preparation
process that takes five to six months. We had to go through that. It was very difficult. We also
knew that the father of sleep apnea, the late Christian Guilleminault at Stanford could tell us
what was going on with the sleep apnea. We went to see him and he said, yes, she has obstructive
sleep apnea. And oh, by the way, we're going to test her right now for narcolepsy and MS.
She's 13, 13. And all of this has been manifesting mainly at the time she was eight and had
retracted braces that push those teeth back, even just a few millimeters from a dentist
who is highly rated. And I'll have to say that I have family credit. I don't think he knew
what could happen. I don't. What is so terrifying. We talk about this in our board meetings. We've
brought this up in other discussions and auxiliary conversations. As a parent, the fact that dentists
don't realize the statements that they could do. I mean, they think they're doing the right thing.
Yes. Absolutely. And as I looked into, well, what are the standards? What are the board
certifications for dentists and orthodontists? And they actually have different beliefs in
different dental schools. Some believe in using retracted braces. Some believe, well, they all
do, but some look at rapid expanders. Don't like them. Some pull for by cuspids. And here's a thing.
If you're an orthodontist who wants to pull teeth, run. Right. I'm telling you run because we ended
up with the world renowned maxillofacial surgeon, Dr. Larry Wolford, who is known and admired. And
he set the gold standard for maxillofacial surgeons. And he said that half of his patients have had
teeth pulled. And the worst are the ones who have four by cuspids pulled and then retracted braces.
And now they're having trouble chewing, swallowing, they're having trouble eating,
they're having trouble speaking. All of their mild functions, their facial functions are impaired.
And I had another doctor say they look like hell, they feel like hell, they function like hell.
It's a terrible thing. And this can come from a dentist or an orthodontist and many orthodontists
are self-taught, they're general dentists. So we have to be sure as parents to make sure that we're
working with somebody who is trained to be airway centering, who is trained to provide your child
with jaw advancement, bringing it forward instead of bringing it back. Correct. So and the earlier
you start, the better. Right, which was also amazing to me because as a parent, I remember
being made fun of because I wanted to get my daughters to the dentist and they were three.
But having been here and working with the organization for a year and everything that I
everything that I've read, they should have been at the dentist before that. Yes. It's just it's
counterintuitive and it's just everything that could have been caught and prevented. And you know,
so again, we have this paradigm shift just with parents. When should they be going to the dentist
with their children? When is the first time? Right. When they should have their first exam.
Right. At 30 months, they can be cut. They can start to have treatment to bring their jaws forward
if necessary. And you think that that oh my gosh, that must be horrible thing. It's all non-surgical.
There are appliances, almost like clear liners, where there are softer plastic, but they guide
the jaws forward. And it's done over a longer period of time. But the aim is especially
trained pediatric dentists who are airway centric like Dr. Kevin Boyd in Chicago, who's also on staff
at LaRae Children's Hospital, where you have a great team of an osteopath and EMT, ear, nose,
and throat, and laryngologist. You even have psychologists who understand what it's like
to be physically impaired and have anxiety and depression due to airway issues and so on.
Understand you're a whole person and can work with you. They have a great sleeper. And in fact,
Kevin Boyd is mentioned in almost every book written today. Yes, it is. The interesting thing
is Kevin had two daughters. And as he started to recognize this in his older daughter, he started
to think of ways he could help her. And he wasn't able, it was too late to really help her to the
extent she needed, but he was able to intervene with his younger daughter and cure her of all of
these issues by guiding her jaws forward and correcting her upper collar and so on. So he
has mastered this approach with children. I've actually seen an eight-year-old boy in his office
don't be happy to ask him, you gave me 10 or 11 years, now he can play ball, now he can run,
now he can play. And I became a great student. And there are many, many, many success stories
of children who have this airway-centric work done. There's also Dr. Ben Ruralia, M-I-R-G-I-A,
look for it on our website. In the New York area, he's trained about 200 other dentists to do this
work and they're doing great work. He also trains their staff and mild functional therapy to keep
function going well with children. Take a look at that on our website. And it's just so important
that we recognize this. I'd like to mention another book that's great, especially if your child is in
that six, seven, eight-year-old range and it's called Grave Parent. It just came out on March 22nd,
written by a dentist, Dr. Susan Maples. And she's actually in Lansing, Michigan. And Susan speaks
all over the country about these issues with airway and how to make sure that we discover them
in children. She's also a pioneer in getting the word out and helping parents. But read her book,
Grave Parent, and especially the chapters on sleep and breathing. And it will give you also the
language you need to talk with your pediatrician, to talk with your dentist, to ask the right
questions. And be curious because once you start any treatment, you have to make sure
that you are not doing anything more to impair your child. And the goal is to get your child to
be able to breathe through their nose. Because also breathing through your nose is like running
anything, coming through a clearinghouse so that it's actually helps your immune system. Did you
know breathing through your nose helps your immune system? I did not. Wow. Is rudeness. Correct.
Correct. From what it removes to what it creates, even down to the way it lets it come through,
because it adds moisture to others. Again, these books that Candice mentioned, we'll kind of go
through them again at the end, but they're amazing. They will give you this deeper understanding.
And I will tell you, as a parent, they're going to terrify you a little bit. And as a parent,
I'm going to tell you what's rightfully so. Let it terrify you because this is scary.
And it's something that as parents, we have the power to do for our kids, to help our children.
And with that, I kind of want to segue into Brad to talk about,
again, I come to this a little different. I didn't have the journey with Savi. I know Savi now,
and I love her, and I feel her journey, but I wasn't there. But as a parent, I think, oh,
I've got insurance, and I can do this for my kid, and I can do this for my kid, and I'm doing such a
great job, and come to find out, even that's not necessarily true because of the way it's
structured. And Brad, I'd like to open it up to you to speak a little bit more parent to parent on that.
Well, parent to parent is very interesting. Keddie, she alluded to the time when we actually
were introduced to the orthodontist who put the retracted braces on, and of course, went through
the story about, I can give you a good smile. Savi will need surgery when she's 17, which
we've never heard before. So we're kind of ready. And so, and I've worked for some pretty decent
companies who've got very good insurance plans, and so orthodontics and dental insurance was one
of them. So what I wanted to do, parent to parent, talk about what we would wish we could have asked
the orthodontist when we first signed, he was talking about this smile and the surgery in the
future, but we never ever mentioned our way, not once. So when you think about that, we didn't know,
and we just assumed that that was not an issue. Just assumed it. And that was probably the very,
very critical mistake that we made. And now, if we were to start over and have that
same conversation, the first thing we would have been asking, well, what will this do to her airway?
And which is at this point in time, if that person, if the doctor would have come back and said,
oh, she'll be fine, no big deal. Then asking, well, what proof do you have of that? Let's feel a
little more specific about that. And then get into what really happens to it. And our feeling was
that then we would go refer her, Sally, to an airway that this is an airway or the daughters,
somebody who's actually claiming that they know something about this. And now, back at that point
in time, they're really working to my knowledge. I mean, you had Bill Hange, and Kevin was learning
at that time, and Ben were all in, and some other people around who are really good at this now,
and experts. And one of the things we want to do with the website is to have a referral,
where we can ask, well, who can I see? We're going to get to that point. We're not there yet,
but we want to get to there. But so it really goes back to, as a parent, because no one else is
going to do this. And Rebecca, you mentioned the insurance companies. Well, I find it very
ironic, as a finance guy, that the insurance companies and corporations have got this benefit
of orthodontics for the kids. And so we slap these braces onto the kids. We don't ask a whole lot
of questions. It smiles nice. We don't really recognize what's going on. But what we're really
doing is causing a huge problem for the medical side of the insurance company, the insurance
industry. Now in the road, where these kids are having ADHD, and I don't know, types of other
issues, and sadly, to the point where she had maxivacial surgery to correct the problems that
will really be a little bit, that maybe not cause, but certainly exacerbated by putting these
attractive orthodontics on. So in fact, you know, the mechanic I have been talking about,
you know, what next, what are we, who do we need to see? So we plan on seeing insurance executives,
here in Texas, and eventually all over the country, to let them ask them, what are you doing? And
being a finance guy, you know, I'm kind of like, wow. So I'm doing a great job on the dental side,
not making a whole lot of money at it. And then we're causing huge problems, huge financial
problems for the industry, for the individuals involved, you know, no one should be happy about
this. So why are we doing this? Why are the insurance companies paying for this? And so
my thought would be, okay, well, as a parent, we want a second opinion to make sure that whatever
orthodontic work is going to be done is not impaired in the airway. Well, you know, actually,
the insurance companies ought to be doing the same thing. They ought to be some kind of a screening
before they pay for any orthodontia. It ought to be their standards that are met, but that are
ensuring that that the airway is not impaired in any way. That's not happening to them. But
I will, that's one of the things that can happen. We are going to focus in that area to make sure
that from the insurance side, and the same thing is in coverage is really good. This is life threatening
stuff. So, you know, we need everybody, you know, Ken, you know, I've been fortunate that we've got
to work for large corporations that have very good insurance plans. But what about those kids who don't?
You know, right? All those kids, they're just innocent kids. And so we need to make sure
that everybody has access to healthcare that, and it's particularly in this breathing side of it,
and Ken, you know, throughout the thing, what about those kids that are in a 20-story building
with black mold and they're breathing through their mouth, and so they're not developing correctly.
You know, are there some allergies? There's all kinds of things, and I think Susan Naples
of her books points out some of that. So, you really look at this as parents, you know, you really
got to ask and educate yourself. And as soon as you start seeing the symptoms that can be alluded to
and pointed out about, you know, mouth-bringing all that, there's so many things. There's all
these indicators that your child is down an issue, and we saw we didn't get it. And so we're just,
you know, we want to educate parents to be looking for these things, and when you see them,
then you get to an airway-centric dentist who can fix these things. And of course,
hopefully the pediatricians will start doing this automatically as part of their training,
so that when these little kids come out and have a lot of fix by their snips. Right, and that's part
of what we're doing. We're not just here to educate parents. We are here to change how
insurance is going to be handling these things, and we're here to tackle education for pediatricians,
dentists, everybody. Because if everybody knows what's going on, they're also not going to be
siloed. Pediatricians don't talk to dentists. We got to fix that. Rebecca, we see this as a huge
public health issue, and you're just getting into that. And this first year has been learning and
reading all these books, and the books that you and Candy identified, they're fascinating books.
Some are easier to read than others, and but they're all good. They're really good. And
as a concerned parent, it's worth the time to read them. Right, right. So before I give you guys
a final thought, let me just kind of wrap up for people so that, because this is a lot to throw
at everybody, and this is just our first podcast, and there's so much more for us to cover. And we
are going to be bringing in experts, and we really want to talk about this from every possible angle.
But some of the books that we want you to check out are on our website that we mentioned,
Breathe, Why We Sleep, Sleep Right Kids, Brave Parent. They're all on our website under our
resource area. You can go there. We have a full recommended reading list, and it's great for
parents. It's great for medical professionals. We're trying to get all the information out there to
everyone. For parents, if you're really not sure where to start, you're wanting to go through
those signs again. If you go to our website under the 2022 Airway Awareness Project,
there's all this information, signs to look for, symptoms. There is our initial
search for an airway-centric dentist, which came from, as Candio alluded to, Ben Morales. We're
going to be expanding on that, but we're here to help you. We're here to provide you with this
information, and we hope you'll use it. This month, we launched our airway huddle, which is
now our forum for parents. We don't want you to have to go through what Brad and Candy went through.
We're giving you a forum, a place that you can come. You can talk to other parents. You can
share your stories. If there is an airway-centric dentist you're working with, tell us about it.
Put it on the forum. We'll make sure we talk to you. If there's somebody we can put you in
touch with, we'll get you their information. We're putting these tools and resources there
for you to help you and to help your children. With that, I would like to turn it back over
to Brad and Candy for a final thought that you could tell parents.
Well, when is the substance in nasal breathing? It's Microsoft-side. It helps your immune system.
The second thing is, if we had known in 2002 when our daughter was born that we should ask for
comprehensive airway exam, and that we should begin seeing the dentist, then I would do one,
and we should seek out an airway-centric dentist. If we knew all of those things, our daughter would
not have gone through so much and still having issues today. She's a very, very special young
woman and so capable, and yet she's had to deal with all of these issues. So, without a beat,
no. In the last year that is preventable, it's avoidable, it's treatable, we might help everybody.
Like, spring from a rooftop, please, if you see a mouth breathing in your child or any of these
signs we've talked about, go to our website, take them, call us, email us. We'd be happy to help it anyway.
Just to add to that, I think the biggest thing from my standpoint for parents is to educate
yourself as soon as you realize, and it's good to educate yourself anyway, but as soon as you
realize that your child might have some airway issue, start learning about it, and then seek out
help. And again, it's hard to find that help right now. If you're living in a large city, great,
the website, you'll find somebody faster than if you're like where I grew up, I grew up in
Northern Idaho, quite a ways away from the big city. But the big thing is educate yourself
to realize that what the issues are. And then the other part of it is get your child to help
infect as early as possible because the younger they are, the easier they are to correct any kind
of an issue that they have. So, the longer you wait, then you get to our point where there was no
choice like macsivation surgery. That was the only choice we had. So, educate and get treatment.
And if you're at that point of macsivation surgery, say you have a teenage daughter or son who
needs this type of help, a person that you might consult is Dr. Larry Wilkford in Dallas,
and he is number one in the world. And he, there isn't anything he hasn't seen. He's a great person
to consult. Yep. And you can find his information on our website. Yeah, thank you both. Thank you
both for everything you're doing. It's an amazing organization and I personally am honored to be
part of it. And I look forward to seeing what we can do in all the lives we can change and help.
So, thank you both. Thank you. Thanks for that. Thanks for everyone who's listening.
Thanks again to today's guests, Brad and Candy Sparks for sharing their story,
and to each of you for listening to today's episode. If you're new to our podcast, please
don't forget to subscribe. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please remember to leave us a
review or comment about what you enjoyed most. You can stay connected with the Children's Airway
First Foundation by following us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you'd like
to be a guest on an upcoming episode, shoot us a note via the contacts page on our website,
or send us an email directly at info at childrensairwayfirst.org. Remember, this podcast and
the opinions expressed here are not a medical diagnosis. If you suspect your child might have
an airway issue, contact your pediatric airway dentist or pediatrician. And finally, thanks to
all the parents and medical professionals out there that are working to help make the lives of
kids around the globe a little bit better. Take care, stay safe, and happy breathing, everyone.