Tip #145 [RE-RUN] – Empowering and educating parents on breathing and growth with Dr Shereen Lim

Re-run series: Finding your support network on Social Media

Picked by @christina_oralhealth

This series of re-run episodes is a curated selection of interviews to help listeners cut through the noise of social media and start finding their support network of dentists who are actively sharing their expertise and life online. These interviews reveal more about the real person behind the Instagram profile – I hope that it opens doors to a network of potential mentors and starts what may be a guiding and inspiring relationship beyond graduation.

In this episode, I am throwing back to a great interview with Dr Shereen Lim @dr.shereenlim . She was one of the first dentists to specialise in dental sleep medicine in Australia and has written a book called Breathe Sleep Thrive. Her mission is to highlight root causes of obstructive sleep apnoea and promote airway health in patients of all ages, in fact this is a topic that has attracted a lot of interest amongst Oral Health Therapists and dentists lately. Online she has over 4000 instagram followers and no surprise considering she creatively shares her expertise in the area of airway development. Continue listening to this episode to hear Dr Lim’s approach to educating and empowering parents on breathing and growth.

Key moments

0:00:00 – Dr. Shereen Lim got interested in dental sleep medicine due to her husband’s snoring. She enrolled in a graduate diploma to learn more about the consequences of poor breathing during sleep and the potential for early intervention through palatal expansion.

0:05:00 – Dr. Lim used her own children as examples to understand the importance of optimizing breastfeeding and nasal breathing in the earliest years of life for proper jaw and airway development.

0:09:15 – Dr. Lim discusses the importance of educating parents about issues like tongue ties, reflux, and the impacts of dummy/pacifier use on proper oral development and function.

0:15:00 – Dr. Lim suggests tools and exercises like the Mayo Munchie and myofunctional therapy to help train proper tongue and lip posture in young children. She also recommends referring to speech/feeding therapists or dental therapists trained in myofunctional therapy.

Dr Shereen Lim

Shereen Lim is an Australia-based dentist with a post graduate diploma in dental sleep medicine from the University of Western Australia. She was one of Australia’s first handful of dentists to obtain a qualification in dental sleep medicine. She has been involved in managing snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea for over a decade and has seen the physical, developmental, mental, and emotional problems that are often associated with these breathing disturbances throughout the lifespan. Her mission is to highlight root causes and promote airway health, or a shift from managing disease and symptoms towards ensuring healthy nasal breathing and good airway development from infancy. She works in private practice and has a special focus on unlocking greater health and wellness through addressing tongue ties, oral dysfunction (during infant feeding, swallowing, breathing, chewing, and speech), and guiding good jaw development during childhood.

Instagram: dr.shereenlim

Find Dr Shereen Lim’s book Breathe, Sleep Thrive here

Esesson Foundation Annual Gala 2024

In Australia, the Queensland Health publicly released adult waiting lists are approximately 150,000 people long and have an up to a 24-month wait for the initial appointment for comprehensive treatment. There is an identified need for emergency and comprehensive dental services that unable to be accessed by vulnerable groups of people within South East Queensland. These vulnerable groups include children, Refugee and Asylum Seekers, Children in Care and others from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and individuals or families who have been impacted by domestic &a