Dr. Adair has a unique perspective on orthodontics. He practiced as a general dentist for 10 years before returning to school to specialize as an Orthodontist. He wanted a better esthetic and a healthier outcome for his patients and was unhappy with the results he was seeing. He sought out an approach that would give patients beautiful smiles, better facial balance and increase their overall health. During this exhaustive search he also read many medical journals as well as dental and orthodontic literature and spent many weekends away from his family attending lectures all over the country. What started to become clear to Dr. Adair was the importance of the airway and the many long term health problems that can affect a person if the airway is compromised. Recent medical research and medical studies have vindicated his views and shown that the jaws and teeth can affect the function of our airway.
If we can determine the causes of a person’s bite or jaw problems, then we have a chance of treating the core problem and not just a symptom. An analogy would be using cough medicine. It makes us feel better and yet it does not really treat the actual infection.
When studying the airway we are looking at the tonsils, adenoids and especially the tongue! The mouth is the home for the tongue. When the mouth is not large enough it can cause the tongue to fall backwards and reduce the airway. So our jaws and teeth can indirectly affect our airway and this can lead to sleep issues that can cause all sorts of problems for years to come. We do not extract adult teeth or push teeth backwards in the face. The orthodontic term for this is “retraction.”” Retraction is the current orthodontic “standard of care” and is still widely taught in orthodontic universities.
Each person is unique and their threshold is unknown. We do not yet know how to determine how small a person’s airway can be reduced to without causing health problems. Therefore, we rarely use any ‘retraction’ mechanics and try our best to educate our patients why.
Dr. Adair’s goals are to create beautiful smiles and healthier people. We are looking at the long term well-being of the patient as well as esthetics when carefully creating our individualized treatment plans.
We offer the following orthodontic services in our Fairfield, CA office:
- Airway Orthodontics
- Crozat Appliances
- Icon Resin Infiltration
- Skeletal Expansion
- Reopening Extraction Spaces
- Orthotropics