Could six visible signs help identify a child who may be struggling to breathe during sleep?
In this special Airway Circle Podcast episode, Renata Nehme welcomes Dr. Soroush Zaghi for a behind-the-scenes look at the research behind the FAIREST-6 screening tool and the importance of recognizing pediatric sleep-disordered breathing early.
They explore the six red flags:
✨ Mouth breathing
✨ Mentalis strain
✨ Enlarged tonsils
✨ Restricted tongue mobility
✨ Dental wear
✨ A high, narrow palate or dental crowding
Dr. Zaghi explains how these findings may work together to alert clinicians that a child needs further evaluation. The tool was developed to make screening more accessible to dental professionals, speech-language pathologists, myofunctional therapists, school nurses, teachers, and other members of a child’s healthcare team.
The conversation also dives into:
✨ Why sleep-disordered breathing includes more than sleep apnea
✨ How mouth breathing, snoring, and increased breathing effort may affect children
✨ Why the screening tool focuses on children before puberty
✨ The relationships among tongue function, tonsils, facial growth, and breathing
✨ Why tongue-tie is only one piece of a much larger clinical picture
✨ How allergies and inflammation may contribute to airway obstruction
✨ Why treatment should consider tongue tone, tongue space, nasal health, and oral function
✨ The time, collaboration, and repeated revisions required to publish meaningful research
Dr. Zaghi also honors the legacy of Dr. Christian Guilleminault, whose groundbreaking work helped establish our understanding of obstructive sleep apnea, upper airway resistance syndrome, pediatric sleep-disordered breathing, and multidisciplinary care.
The FAIREST-6 is a screening tool, not a diagnosis. Identifying one or more findings should encourage appropriate evaluation rather than automatically determining treatment.
Dr. Soroush Zaghi is an ENT and sleep surgeon whose work focuses on tongue-tie, nasal obstruction, mouth breathing, snoring, and obstructive sleep apnea. He graduated from Harvard Medical School, completed his ENT residency at UCLA, and pursued fellowship training in sleep surgery at Stanford University.
If you’re a dentist, hygienist, myofunctional therapist, speech-language pathologist, pediatric provider, educator, or parent interested in recognizing airway concerns earlier, this episode offers six important signs to keep on your radar.
🎧 Learn the story behind the FAIREST-6 and how simple clinical observations may help guide children toward the care they need.
#AirwayCirclePodcast #FAIREST6 #PediatricAirway #SleepDisorderedBreathing #MouthBreathing #MentalisStrain #TongueTie #TonsilHypertrophy #DentalWear #NarrowPalate #MyofunctionalTherapy #EarlyScreening #InterdisciplinaryCare #AirwayCircle
Support the show
ABOUT OUR HOST:
Renata Nehme RDH, BSDH, COM®, OMS™ has been a Registered Dental Hygienist since 2010. In 2016, when she was introduced to the world of "Myofunctional Therapy" she immediately knew that was her calling, especially when she learned that it encapsulated many of her passions- breastfeeding, the import of early childhood development, and airway health.
In 2021 Renata founded Airway Circle with the intention of creating a collaborative and multidisciplinary group of like-minded health professionals who share the same passion for learning and giving in the dental health and airway space.
Myo Moves - Become a Patient: www.myo-moves.com
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