The Pediatric Breathing Project with Dr. Piya Gandhi, DDS
The Pediatric Breathing Project with Dr. Piya Gandhi dives into the critical but often overlooked link between how children breathe and how they grow. Hosted by Dr. Piya Gandhi, DDS—functional pediatric dentist and airway health expert—this podcast explores mouth breathing, snoring, jaw development, and pediatric sleep apnea, and how each impacts sleep, behavior, and long-term wellness.
Parents will gain tools to recognize early signs of sleep-disordered breathing in their children, while healthcare providers will discover practical strategies for screening, prevention, and treatment. Each episode features expert insights, real family stories, and actionable steps to support healthier, happier kids.
If you’re a parent, dentist, pediatrician, or healthcare professional passionate about giving children the best start in life, this podcast is your guide to better breathing, better sleep, and better development.
Helping kids breathe better, sleep deeper, and grow healthier.
The Pediatric Breathing Project with Dr. Piya Gandhi, DDS
The Pediatric Breathing Project: A Team Approach to Airway Disorders
The Power of Teamwork in Treating Pediatric Airway Disorders
Join Dr. Piya Gandhi, a pediatric dentist, as she discusses the critical role of a collaborative team approach in treating pediatric airway disorders. Through the story of a 4-year-old patient, she illustrates the importance of involving various specialists like ENTs and myofunctional therapists to achieve optimal outcomes. Gandhi emphasizes the necessity of continuous learning, parental advocacy, and open communication among practitioners. She provides insights for parents on choosing the right providers who employ a holistic, team-based strategy for their child's airway and sleep health.
00:00 Introduction to Airway Disorders
00:38 Case Study: A 4-Year-Old's Journey
01:19 The Importance of a Team Approach
02:31 Collaborative Treatment Success
02:54 The Humbling Experience of Treating Airway Disorders
03:49 Choosing the Right Provider
04:55 Parental Involvement and Advocacy
05:11 Questions Parents Should Ask Providers
07:03 Conclusion: The Journey of Treating Pediatric Airway Disorders
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The Pediatric Breathing Project with Dr. Piya Gandhi explores how airway health, jaw development, and sleep impact childhood wellness. Parents and practitioners will learn to spot early signs of sleep-disordered breathing and discover practical solutions for healthier futures.
If you’re a parent, dentist, pediatrician, or healthcare professional passionate about giving children the best start in life, this podcast is your guide to better breathing, better sleep, and better development.
Piya Trehan Gandhi, DDS
BOARD CERTIFIED PEDIATRIC DENTIST, AIRWAY AND TONGUE TIE RELEASE SPECIALIST
A Team Approach to Airway Disorders
[00:00:00]
Dr. Piya Gandhi: effectively treating airway disorders takes a team approach. I'm Piya Gandhi and welcome to my podcast. We're gonna talk about the importance of a team effort in approaching airway disorders.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: And the different roles that different practitioners play. I myself am a pediatric dentist and definitely my role changes depending on what's going on in the patient's life and also who they got to first. I will tell you recently I had a little 4-year-old kiddo and, she came to me because her parents thought that she needed expansion.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: She was struggling with her sleep waking up multiple times a night, and you could just tell on this child's face that she was not well rested. And she had actually had her adenoids [00:01:00] removed a couple of years prior because there was audible snoring, a actually a sleep apnea diagnosis. But that was the only thing that was done was the adenoid removal by an ENT.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: And initially she did improve some and then six to eight months later, all the symptoms came back. The reason I bring this up is that's a great example of one practitioner trying to treat an airway disorder and one type of treatment trying to cure an airway disorder, and, it is extremely rare, if possible at all, that one thing is going to fix an entire airway disorder issue.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: And so this is the importance of teaming up. Do we still need the ENT? Absolutely, because she came to me for this palatal expander and we took a CT on her, and those adenoids were really big again, to the point that I decided I can't put in an expander until we address these adenoids again. Because there was no way she [00:02:00] was going to be able to tolerate and expander in her mouth, and we were not gonna get the results we were looking for.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: And so she went back to ENT, got the adenoids removed again, did what's called myofunctional therapy to really help train that nasal breathing. And then we put the expander in. She's now been in expansion for a little over six months. And she is doing beautifully sleeping through the night. Her face is bright, her eyes are lit up.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: She has the energy of a child her age now, and as a result, her parents do too. They are all living their best lives, and there is no way I could have put in that expander and been successful without my partnering, ENT helping out without my partnering myofunctional therapist teaching her, Hey, you can use your nose now, because she couldn't use her nose for a long time.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: And I would say like it worked beautifully for her, just the three of us working together. But sometimes it takes more, and I would say going through as a practitioner, [00:03:00] going through treating multiple children with airway disorders is a very humbling process. Working with the human body is a very humbling process.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: You take your training, you think you know what's gonna work for this child, and then you have to realize, wow, I'm working with a human being and it's not gonna work the same for every single person. And I would say all the practitioners that I partner with, sometimes it's ENT, sometimes it's myofunctional therapist, sometimes it's sleep medicine physicians.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: 'cause we need a sleep study and we're, we're trying to figure out is this central sleep apnea, obstructive sleep apnea, what's going on? All of these practitioners that we partner with, one thing that we all have realized is that the human body is unique and we all have to keep pushing ourselves to learn and grow together because we don't know it all.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: And that's what I would say when you're looking for a provider, look for someone that is constantly educating themselves and partnering with other people. Because if someone thinks they know [00:04:00] everything, well, then they have stopped learning. And they're not gonna be able to provide the best for your child.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: And I learned this by doing, going through on my own child, I tried to do things just isolated on my own, just a tongue tire lease with no interdisciplinary partners. And my older daughter did not get better, and I had to go back and educate myself and partner with other practitioners and go visit with my chiropractors and my ENTs and figure out, wow, they're looking at this from a different lens.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: And so the more eyes you have on your child, we're all looking at it from a different lens. And we can all pick up different things that are gonna help support you and your child to breathe better, sleep better, and live their best lives. So I would say like partnering with other providers is key. If you are with a practitioner that is just working on their own you really need to start looking for other practitioners.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: We all communicate really well, but you also have to be an advocate for your child. [00:05:00] So we try to stay on top of things and email each other, but the more knowledge you have, the more you can get involved with your child's care, the more you can push this along and help them get better. . So what should parents ask to know that they are working with a provider?
Dr. Piya Gandhi: That has a collaborative approach. One is when you go for a consultation making sure that the provider is looking at the entire airway. So, not just looking at the palate, but also like, I personally take CT scans because I love to see what adenoids and tonsils look like. Also, does the provider have referral lists of partners that they work with?
Dr. Piya Gandhi: Can they direct you? Right? Because if you go somewhere and someone says, Hey, you need to now go see an ENT, but they have nowhere to send you, well, they probably don't work with ENTs then, or myofunctional therapists or sometimes. Parents come to me for expansion [00:06:00] and the child is too old, so I have to send them to an orthodontist that can do a more involved expander.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: But you wanna make sure that there's a network, that there is collaboration, constant communication. And honestly, in the Houston area, we have, an airway study club and that's where we all like meet and collaborate. Learn from each other. And so you really, one way as a parent you can check is, Hey, do you have people that you can send me to?
Dr. Piya Gandhi: Who do you work with most often? What order should I go in? Do we do this first or do we do this first? And one thing I will say is don't be scared away if a practitioner says, you know what? I'm not really sure. Let's check in with this practitioner, and then we'll chat, and then we'll come up with the best plan.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: Again, working with a human body is very humbling, and every case is very specific, so sometimes it's not straightforward and we have to get multiple angles and multiple diagnosis first [00:07:00] before we figure out the best plan of care.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: So in conclusion, when. We treat a pediatric airway disorder, it takes a team approach. The improvement is not always linear, it is a journey. But just know that if you are working with a team, they are going to do everything in their knowledge and power to figure out the best treatment option.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: And as a parent, sometimes that takes patience. I have parents that come in and say. Oh my gosh, I saw improvement from day one, the minute you put that expander in. And then I have parents that come in six months into expansion and say, we're still seeing all of these things. Just know that I'm always listening and I will always try to figure out what's going on.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: But sometimes we have to try different things and your feedback about it and what you're experiencing is super important in that process. So never shy away from giving feedback about your child and your concerns because we're not going home with you. And [00:08:00] we only see it from the lens of seeing you every few weeks.
Dr. Piya Gandhi: So be involved, be engaged in your child's treatment. It's only gonna benefit them.
