Dr. Hilary Pada and her all-women team are part of a global shift in how we think about health and health care – right here in Kelowna. They are professionals in dentistry, oromyofunctional therapy, craniosacral therapy, community health, and breastfeeding counseling.
To some, they are seen as controversial and renegade. To others, they are viewed as courageous, skilled, compassionate, and a valuable resource for preventive root cause care. Their goal is to build bridges between providers involved in the patient’s circle of care. What are they all about? Tongue Ties, Tethered Oral Tissues, and ultimately a functional swallow.
Dr. Pada’s journey began with her youngest daughter, whose severe oral ties had contributed to growth and function that showed up as croup, colic, troubled breastfeeding and sleep, a retruded jaw, seasonal bronchitis, dental deep bite, and baby teeth that would not fall out on their own. She needed inhalers for exercise by age 8. Through guided development and oromyofunctional therapy, breathwork training, and oral releases, she now has a normal healthy bite with no use of inhalers, even for her athletic pursuits. “I couldn’t ignore this… so I ended up starting a clinic to offer this care for others.”
As women, all the moms at CO2llaborative Care + Research wish they knew what they know now when their own children were younger. “It is so much more complicated and harder to treat at older ages, and we can see similarities in our own experiences – it is humbling to learn what is connected.”
As environmental stewards, they recognize the waste streams from medical interventions, devices, medications, and dental care treatments that stem from early swallowing struggles that ultimately snowball into more problems down the road. Research shows that abnormal oral habits have immediate and long-term effects on the skull, jaws, and teeth. “Once we began studying baby function, jaw development, and head form… we started to see early dental conditions in infants.” After all, form follows function.
It hasn’t been easy being changemakers! Both Dr. Pada and Charlotte Collingwood, a Registered Dental Hygienist and Orofacial Myofunctional Therapist, had long careers in conventional dentistry before discovering and committing to this path. And after over 20 years in the dental field, they delved into the root causes of symptoms previously unnoticed by them. “Once you see it… you can’t unsee it,” Charlotte says. “Although we will always need dental care, dental hygiene, and caring for teeth and gums, it’s been a steep learning curve, moving away from ingrained systems supported by familiar practices.”
“At first, it seemed uncomfortable to think a patient’s breastfeeding history was a part of their grown-up oral conditions. We know that the tongue swallows upwards of 2,000 times each day, so how it does this makes an impact. The tongue is critical to the body’s overall functioning,” Dr. Pada continues. “It’s connected to so many of our body’s systems. We have 12 cranial nerves, and 5 of them connect to the tongue – a clue to its importance. Our community is worldwide and also close to home. Finding mentorship along this path has had them travel far and learn with diverse online communities.”
At CO2llaborative Care + Research, they often say, “we are all grown-up babies.” They continue to study, learn, and reinvent how to implement treatments that address what the mouth, tongue, palate, and airway need for proper function. “Our goal is to meet people where they’re at and nudge them in their journey toward healing.”
When we think about our work supporting women, it is empowering to offer care that helps moms experience innate aspects of motherhood they were struggling with. Research on post-partum depression shows that moms who can successfully breastfeed their babies have significantly less depression, and that pre-partum depression can actually decrease with successful breastfeeding. We love helping moms who were struggling to breastfeed and seeing them return for follow-up care with improvements in feeding, greater calm, comfort, and ease, improved sleep for themselves and their baby. And we love hearing, “It is like we have a different baby.” We also see bottle-fed infants with symptoms unrelated to weight gain and work with many Lactation Consultants around the province for the care of all babies.
The team’s flagship goal is a “conversion to a functional swallow,” a simple yet profound idea. A functional swallow, Dr. Pada explains, is a cornerstone of overall health. The consequences of a dysfunctional swallow, often related to tethered oral tissues such as tongue tie (ankyloglossia) and lip tie, can ripple throughout the body. Breathing problems, poor digestion, headaches, neck pain, as well as body alignment conditions, can be traced back to something as distant as a dysfunctional swallow. Their goal is to bring ethical, conservative, compassionate, and evidence-based knowledge to tethered oral tissue care. They are fueled by the dedication of their collaborators, their team, the hugs from patients, and the joy of seeing individuals thrive.
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