Breathing, Sleep, and Optimal Wellness
As an airway-focused dentist, I’ve spent years treating issues that go far beyond the mouth.
What I’ve learned is this: oral health doesn’t exist in isolation.
From tongue posture and breathing patterns to head and neck alignment, everything is connected. When we bring together the expertise of different disciplines, we’re not just managing symptoms. We’re identifying root causes and helping patients achieve lasting, whole-body health.
That’s why I’m so passionate about collaborating with like-minded practitioners such as manual therapists and podiatrists who understand that the body functions as a single, integrated system. Working together allows us to look beyond isolated symptoms and uncover the underlying causes of chronic sleep issues, airway dysfunction, and postural imbalance.
Understanding the Full-Body Connection Behind Airway Issues
When patients come to me with concerns like snoring, fatigue, mouth breathing, or TMJ discomfort, we often think “airway problem”—and that’s true. But where that airway dysfunction starts isn’t always that straightforward.
Many postural and airway challenges are influenced by a combination of descending (motor) and ascending (sensory) input. That means a patient’s breathing difficulty might be related to poor tongue posture or it might originate from a collapsed arch in the foot. These may seem unrelated at first, but in practice, they are often part of the same functional pattern.
Here’s a simplified breakdown of how dysfunction can affect the airway:
- Ascending dysfunction involves instability in the feet, altered gait mechanics, or pelvic misalignment. These issues can send compensatory signals up the body, changing postural alignment and ultimately influencing airway performance.
- Descending dysfunction occurs when head and neck posture is compromised. Forward head posture or tight jaw muscles can interfere with breathing patterns, swallowing, and proper tongue function.
Why I Collaborate with Podiatrists and Manual Therapists
When I work with a podiatrist like Dr. Emily, or skilled manual therapists, each of us brings a unique perspective to a shared concern. A child with mouth breathing and low tongue posture might also have limited proprioceptive feedback from the feet. A teenager with crowded teeth might struggle with tight fascia or cervical tension limiting their ability to hold their tongue up properly.
- Manual therapists release soft tissue restrictions and support craniosacral rhythm, which enhances neuromuscular coordination and improves breathing mechanics.
- Podiatrists assess the foundation—literally. They restore function and balance at the feet and ankles, which improves posture all the way up to the head and neck.
By working together, we help patients achieve better alignment, improved breathing, and overall balance from head to toe.
How This Impacts Patient Care
Whether a patient comes to me for airway support, orthodontic guidance, or a sleep assessment, I now assess each case through a whole-body lens. I ask questions like: Is there instability in their gait? Is their diaphragm functioning well? Could their tongue posture be limited by restrictions in the feet or pelvis?
With a collaborative care model, I can refer with confidence. Patients benefit from a team that is aligned, communicative, and focused on addressing the root causes – and patients can feel empowered knowing their care team is communicating, aligned, and focused on treating the root causes—not just the symptoms.
Better Sleep, Better Posture, Better Health
If you are a practitioner, know that your perspective matters. Your role in this collaborative model is essential to supporting whole-body health.
If you are a patient, know that your symptoms are real, and they are rarely isolated. It’s not just about your teeth, your feet, or your sleep. True healing begins when we address the body as a connected system—and when you have a team committed to treating it that way.
I’m grateful to share this space and this vision with Dr. Emily and all the dedicated providers who are raising the standard of care through thoughtful, integrated collaboration.
Conclusion: A New Standard In Integrative Dental and Healthcare
The future of dentistry—and healthcare as a whole—lies in breaking down silos and embracing collaboration. As we continue to explore the intricate connections between oral health, posture, breathing, and systemic wellness, our responsibility as practitioners is to stay curious, work together, and treat the person, not just the problem. Whether you’re a parent concerned about your child’s mouth breathing or an adult struggling with poor sleep and fatigue, know that healing is possible—and it starts with a team that sees you as a whole. At the heart of this work is a simple truth: when we breathe better, we live better. And that journey begins from the ground up.
Research integrative providers through networks like H.E.A.L. Medical Directory. This collaborative model, though effort-intensive, prevents worsening symptoms and promotes lasting wellness by addressing airway, brain, and oral health for both genders.
More About Dr. Mandeep Johal, D.M.D, Functional Dentist
Dr. Johal was born and raised, in Toronto. She graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Dentistry in 2010.
Her curiosity of the her son’s crowded teeth at the age of 3 led her to learn more about tongue ties, oral myofunctional therapy, airway dentistry, sleep dentistry, nutrition,TMJ and orthotropics, science of Facial Growth Guidance, and Holistic Dentistry. What she discovered was that it is all connected.
She is certified to perform laser surgery by the American Board of Laser Surgery. She is also a member of the International consortium of Oral Anklyofrenula Professionals and a member of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine. In addition, as a AAPMD airway Colab Chapter President for Toronto, is building relationships with the community and collaborating with other long time and emerging leaders in the field. This has allowed her to build a collaborative approach on how she treats her patients. She is feels very privileged to be apart of the Well.ca family as their online Dentist.
She feels fortunate to go to work happy everyday knowing she is changing people lives for the better, they can breathe better, eat better, speak better, sleep better and feel their best.
Read More:
References:
- https://www.naboso.com/blogs/the-barefoot-advantage/from-head-to-toe-how-collaborative-care-optimizes-airway-health
Recommended Reading
If you are interested in learning more about breathing and how it affects your optimal health, see below.
A New York Times Bestseller
A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2020
Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR
“A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe—and how we’ve all been doing it wrong for a long, long time.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat Pray Love
No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly.
There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences.
About James Nestor
Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe.
Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is.
Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.
About James Nestor
James Nestor is an author and journalist who has written for Outside Magazine, The Atlantic, National Public Radio, The New York Times, Scientific American, Dwell Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, and more.
Nestor’s book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, was released through Riverhead/Penguin Random House on May 26, 2020. Breath spent 18 weeks of the New York Times bestseller list in the first year of publication and was an instant bestseller in the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Sunday London Times, and more. Breath was awarded the Best General Nonfiction Book of 2020 by the American Society of Journalists and Authors and was a Finalist for the Royal Society Science Book of the Year. Breath has sold more than two million copies and has been translated into more than 35 languages.
Breath explores how the human species has lost the ability to breathe properly over the past several hundred thousand years and is now suffering from a laundry list of maladies — snoring, sleep apnea, asthma, autoimmune disease — because of it. Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of Sao Paulo.
Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head.
Nestor’s first narrative nonfiction book, DEEP: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What The Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) was released in the United States and UK in June 2014. DEEP was a BBC Book of the Week, a Finalist for the PEN American Center Best Sports Book of the Year, an Amazon Best Science Book of 2014, BuzzFeed 19 Best Nonfiction Books of 2014, ArtForum Top 10 Book of 2014, New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, Scientific American Recommended Read, and more. The book has been translated into German, Chinese, Italian, Polish, and more; the audiobook, read by Nestor, was released by Audible in June 2016.
Nestor also wrote a “little, silly booklet” released in 2009, which he described as “a coffee table thing culled from notes on meditation and other ancient/hippy practices discovered in the crawlspace of my uncle’s retro-mod bachelor pad in the Hollywood Hills. The book combined medical science with humor and illustrations and was given a horrid and misleading title by a dishonest editor, which I soon after—and still—very much regret.”
Nestor has presented his research at Stanford Medical School, the United Nations, UBS, Global Classroom (World Health Organization+UNICEF), as well as more than 40 radio and television shows, including Fresh Air with Terry Gross, the Joe Rogan Show, BulletProof, ABC’s Nightline, CBS Morning News, and dozens of NPR programs.
More at mrjamesnestor.com.
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