"I’ll keep my mouth closed and I’ll breathe through my nose."
Finn, The Very Stuffy Nose
Mouth Breathing and Nose Breathing are not the same.
Understanding the Differences
Our Story
Until our son, Finn, was 6 years old, he had not slept through the night… We thought we had tried everything, and we were tired. It never occurred to us to look at how he was breathing.
Look closely… is your child breathing through their nose or mouth?
It turned out, Finn was a mouth breather. We had no idea his mouth breathing habit led to nasal congestion. We learned that an open mouth posture makes it harder to get restorative sleep. Sleep quantity is not necessarily restorative unless it is quality.
He was a restless sleeper. Tossing and turning, he would repeatedly call out through the night for help. His breathing was labored, he was sweating profusely during naps and at night. He suffered from nightmares and dark circles under his eyes. Despite waking up tired and yawning, he had an abundance of energy throughout the day. He developed eczema on his face and was congested to the point of trying to clear his nose and throat several times a minute. He was clearly in distress.
Was it Physiology? Allergies? Diet?
After years of doctor appointments and medications, we were still no closer to finding the root cause. Until a conversation with a dentist. The dentist explained how the nose filters, warms, purifies and humidifies the air coming into our body. Mouth breathing doesn’t do this but instead can lead to nasal congestion and enlargement of tonsils and adenoids. The first step to resolving his fragmented sleep and disordered breathing was to transform Finn’s breathing habit from mouth breathing to nose breathing.
This was the beginning of our journey to helping our son sleep and breathe better, but it was a very crucial first step. Our intent is to spread the word that how we breathe matters, and with a focused approach you and your little one can become super nose breathers.
What worked for us
By transitioning Finn's:
-
Breathing - from mouth to nose and through proper nasal hygiene, breathing exercises and expansion orthodontics,
-
Sleeping - from restless and fragmented, to deeper and restorative levels of sleep by improving his breathing and sleeping environment.
The Healthy Airway
Hi, I'm Kelley (mom, wife, author and clinical education specialist) working to equip anyone wanting to know how to improve their breathing and sleep quality.
A majority of my 25 years in the dental industry have been spent training dentists on expansion orthodontics at Align Technology and Straumann, TMD solutions and dental airway education at the Dawson Academy. I have trained in Myofunctional Therapy at the AOMT and Breathing Coaching at the Buteyko Clinic International with Patrick McKeown.
Our focus with Super Breathers is to provide Awareness to parents, caregivers, teachers and medical professionals who can help identify and screen children who present with the signs and symptoms of disordered breathing and restless sleep. We aim to provide simple to advanced Implementation strategies with our partnering organizations for those looking to treat the cause of disordered breathing.
You can find additional information on our social media sites: Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Please Like / Connect / Follow / Subscribe for updates.
.jpg)
Interviews & Blogs
Learn more about Kelley and Airway, as featured here:
-
The Dawson Academy - Tongue Ties, Restricted Fascia and Mouth Breathing
-
The Dawson Academy - Sleep fragmentation: a leading factor of anxiety, depression, TMD?
-
Airway and Dawson Dentistry through the eyes of an Orthodontist
-
Airway and Dawson Dentistry through the eyes of an Orthodontist - Part 2
-
Podcasts:
-
Member of:
-
International Academy for Dental-Facial Esthetics (IADFE), Fellow
-
Florida Airway CoLab, Founder
-
American Academy of Physiological Medicine & Dentistry (AAPMD)
-
Academy of Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy (AOMT), Coffee Klatch
-
-
Speaking Engagements:
-
Greater New York Dental meeting, Foundation for Airway Health, November 2023
-
Toronto Symposium, Toronto, ON, June 2023
-
The Importance of Nasal Breathing on Sleep & Concentration, Cherokee Bend Elementary School, May 2023
-
Integrative Dental Medicine Scholar Society (IDMSS), April 2022
-
The Dawson Academy Hands-on Airway & Breathing Disorders, October 2019
-
Clearing Congestion - Video demonstrations
All Videos
All Videos


Blow spray blow Finn

Finn Nasal Rinse

Finn Breathe Right
