Aging, Airway, And Better Sleep: How Airway Focused Dentistry Supports Healthy Aging

Snoring that sounds like a lawnmower and energy that feels stuck on low battery can be more than an annoyance. We zoom in on a hidden driver that often gets missed as we age: the airway. I’m joined by Dr. Mark A. Cruz to connect the dots between airway-focused dentistry, sleep quality, and the subtle structural changes that can impact health, confidence, and even independence over time.

We start with the “structure” side of the story by looking at the aging face through a surprisingly practical lens: your facial skeleton is the scaffold that supports the soft tissues you see. When that support changes, the drape of the tissue changes and so can the space your airway has to work with at night. Dr. Cruz explains why bone support matters, how stressing the skeleton helps protect bone density, and why approaches that only chase symptoms can fall short. If you’ve ever wondered how orthodontic decisions like extractions and retraction might influence long-term facial support and breathing, we unpack that too in clear, human terms.

Then we shift to function: muscle tone. After 50, preserving muscle mass is not just about fitness goals, it is about staying resilient, steady, and capable. We bring that same thinking to the face, where hypotonicity and weak facial muscles can affect how well tissues hold posture during breathing and sleep. Myofunctional therapy and airway-centered care show up here as practical tools, not buzzwords, especially for people searching for real help with snoring, fatigue, and sleep apnea risk.

If you care about healthy aging, better sleep, and the real-world link between dentistry and breathing, this conversation is for you. Subscribe for more airway-focused insights, share the episode with someone who snores, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show.

To learn more about Dr. Mark A. Cruz, DDS. visit:
https://www.MarkACruzdds.com
Dr. Mark A. Cruz, DDS. 
32241 Crown Valley Pkwy #200  
Dana Point, CA 92629  
949-661-1006 

Transcript

Welcome And Why Airway Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Airway Focused Dentistry with Dr. Mark A. Cruz, the show where better breathing leads to better living. If your nights down like a lawnmower chorus or your energy's stuck on low battery, you're in the right place. Hosted by Dr. Mark A. Cruz, we explore how the airway impacts your sleep, your health, and your smile. So you can breathe, sleep, and be well. Take a deep breath, and let's get started.

Aging Changes Your Airway

SPEAKER_01 0:32

As patients age, airway changes can influence sleep, energy, cardiovascular health, and even independence, often without being recognized. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Julie Schwenzer in the studio with Dr. Mark A. Cruz. Dr. Cruz, it's always a pleasure to learn from you.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

So, Dr. Cruz, how does airway-focused dentistry support aging patients?

Facial Bone Support And Aging

SPEAKER_02 0:59

So there are two ways of looking at about this. I mean, if you're we're talking about structure, that's one way. If we're talking about function, it's another. So I can maybe break it down briefly. Let's just focus on structure. So let's look at the aging face. So if you look at the literature of plastic surgery literature and aesthetic surgeries, cosmetic surgery literature, there's a lot looking at how the face ages in those certain markers. So for example, the aging face, as we're getting older, you start seeing the whites of your eyes. We call that the sclera, call the scleral shine. Why? Because a lifelong effect of gravity that has everything through. So we know that what supports the facial mass, the soft tissue facial mass, the things that we see is the underlying. So the more robust or well-developed the facial skeleton, the better the soft tissue mask or the face that we look at when we're looking at somebody is supported. And so, like anything, we know that stressing the skeleton lifelong uh allows for a more youthful appearance because aging, by definition, is to some extent, a great extent, a loss of the bony support. And so if you're in the gym or power walking or whatever the case may be, where you're stressing the skeleton, that's what upregulates the growth of the skeleton, um, especially during growth and development, and downregulates loss of that mineralized tissue later on in life as an adult. So women know that a good physician that is um following their health regarding their bone health, bone scans, osteokenia risk, osteoporosis risk, you know, hopefully their first their first intervention is not going to be to reach for the prescription patent saying you need to take, you know, a medication. It would be, you know, coaching and and and advising the patient to stress the skeleton by walking, because that muscle pull on the skeleton is what you know stimulates the um the uh the bone, if you will, and and and decreases that loss of bone that manifests initially as osteopenia and then eventually becomes osteoporosis, which is a a reality for women, especially in later life, but even men in later life. Well, that also pertains to the facial skeleton. So if you as a kid, teenager had orthodontics and you had teeth that were pulled, for example, they looked straight initially, but you've taken away by retracting the facial skeleton to get the teeth straight, you've taken away some of that support. And while you're young, it might look okay, but you don't age as gracefully as you would if you had your full dentition. Um of course we know that that also affects the airway, um, uh the the size of the airway, and that's its own discussion. So um bone sets the tone, tissues to the issue, meaning the bone sets a tone for the drape of the tissue. So the more that you have, the better. Um I liken it to if you have a garment and you put it on a small hanger, that garment just has more wrinkles and it doesn't have this, or you put it on a nice big hanger, it just, you know, you you're you're holding it up better. And it's kind of a little bit like that as it pertains to the aging process. I like to tell my patients it's like taking a grape and going towards uh a raisin, you're losing mass, and that's where the wrinkles come. And so, what if the plastic surgeons do? They do subtractive surgery. That's what we call a facelift. They're not adding bone necessarily. They might add restolin and fillers and Botox, but they're actually treating more of a symptom. Whereas really, if you just have more facial skeleton, uh, that would be much, much uh more stable and a better outcome still looks like you. And so um, those are some things to consider. And we in dentistry, there's a lot that we can do. In fact, my patients that I'm treating their breathing seed problems, that's what I'm addressing and targeting. And they always look like 10 to 15 years younger when we're dying. They also feel better. So form follows function. So that's that. Um with this time that we have in the podcast, I'll just say that there's another aspect that we won't talk about uh in this podcast, which is uh pertaining to the function, uh, it also relates to the aging process. But we'll leave that for that.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Oh, yeah, that's great if we can cover that topic in another episode. Um part two. Yeah, absolutely, Dr. Cruz. And

Muscle Tone And Myofunctional Therapy

SPEAKER_01 6:37

what what about reduced muscle tone? How does that contribute to like any um issues? Because we always are being reminded, especially, I mean, I hate to say, but women, you know, especially about the loss of the muscle tone.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Yes, uh a hundred percent. But also for men to bend the curve, to burn bend the aging um curve, no, no doubt. It comes down to maintaining, retaining muscle mass. So um, you know, getting on the treadmill and running marathons is fine, uh, especially when you're younger, but much past the 50 years of uh 50 years of age, really resistance training has a much benefit for uh uh health benefit because it's stressing the the skeleton and there's still a cardiovascular component to it and uh allows you to maintain that function. So if you trip, you can catch yourself, um, helps with the balance, um, etc. etc. So just being able to maintain that that muscle function is really, really super important.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

And then lastly, is there an example too that you might want to share with us about a real life story where you did help uh an aging patient with a certain treatment that worked particularly well for them because you know this was an issue for them?

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Oh, I I I I won't share one. Uh I it's my whole practice is on that. I can go through back to this last weekend, I was giving a three-day course, and that's all we did for three days is we went through cases, how they presented and what they what the outcome was as it pertains to breathing and sleep. But all of the patients look better. Um, they um, you know, uh they will report it and and uh you'll actually see it, you can actually uh measure it. So it's just one of the outcomes, the tangible outcome outcomes that we actually uh measure. Um one last uh comment in closing regarding muscle function. Most of us in the West have weak facial muscles. So that's a real problem. That's uh what myofunctional therapy and and physical therapy is super important. And a lot of it has to do with early development, the foods that we eat. But that's part of the problem, is we have what's called hypotonicity. Our muscles lack that tone. So a muscle that's weak also ages faster. So we really need to maintain really good facial muscle tone. So we don't think of the muscle as being or the face as being uh muscles, but it's dozens of muscles that make up our face. And if they function well, they uh age well.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Okay, Dr.

Measurable Results And Closing

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Cruz, thank you again so much for explaining everything.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

We always appreciate your expertise. And we'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

That's today's breath of fresh insight from airway focused dentistry with Dr. Mark A. Cruz. Remember, small changes in your airway can spark big changes in your life. Breathe, sleep, and be well. For more information, visit markacruzds.com or call 949 661 1006. If this helped you, share the episode and maybe give your pillow a quieter night. See you next time.