Advanced Clear Aligners for Airway-Focused General Dentists

Airtho is the Premier Airway-Focused Clear Aligner Solution for Dentists

Treating patients for breathing disorders and sleep apnea requires a clear aligner partner that understand arch expansion and tongue space. Our clinical protocols are designed to support your airway-focused practice. Contact us and find out how you can send us a case for treatment planning and compare to your existing clear aligner company. We'll show you how we can improve your results!

Aligner Options

Airtho Clear Aligner Options

Two purpose-built aligner systems, one orthodontist-guided standard of care.

Airway-positive clear aligners

Our flagship orthodontist-guided system designed for optimum expansion to maximize the impact on improved breathing to support healthy airway development.

Use Airligners when:

You are using clear aligners to achieve the maximum expansion which can range from 6 to 10 mm of arch expansion. Maxillary expansion may result in spaces that can be consolidated either posterior to the canine(s), bicuspid(s), and/or both.
You are using clear aligners to finish a palatal expansion case with VIVOS or another palatal expansion tool and you want the orthodontic finish to preserve your expansion and consolidate the teeth to the best degree possible so expansion is maintained but with a great orthodontic finish.

Airway-Neutral Clear Aligners

Treatment plans that don't compromise the airway. Movements are neutral to foward with arch expansion built into treatment creating wider, broader arches while aligning teeth without spaces or without the use of IPR.

Use Smile Shapers when:

You are looking to provide alignment of teeth with a focus on proper function by uprighting molars and creating vertical loads that allow the forces to protect teeth vs. damage teeth.
You want to avoid subtractive and retractive dentistry. You want to align teeth in a healthy way that does not negatively impact the patient’s airway or tongue space. You want to avoid IPR whenever possible. You want a treatment plan that improves arch width and tongue space without aggressive expansion that may creates undesired spaces.

When you work with Airtho, you can have the full confidence that we will NEVER compromise your patient's airway. Whether you want maximum expansion or are looking for a more traditional approach to orthodontics, our treatment plans won't retract teeth and won't compromise the patient's tongue space. Send us a case so we can show you the difference.

Meet our experts

Our Clinical Leadership Team

Dr. Kevin Goles

Director of Dental Sleep Medicine

Dr. Dustin Coles

Director of Orthodontics

We have treated thousands of patients with clear aligners using expansion techniques that have refined over the years. This experience and knowledge are built into our clinical protocols at Airtho. When you work with our orthodontists to provide oversight and guidance on your airway cases, you are tapping into that vast experience, allowing us to build great cases for you that achieve results and track properly. With Airtho, every airway case is set up for optimum results that improve patient outcomes with life changing impact to their health.

Clinical Benefits

Why Airway Dentists are choosing Airtho.

Forward & Wider Treatment Plans

Creating space for the tongue is critical to helping patients breathe better. Our treatment plans move teeth forward and wider allowing the tongue to fit between the upper and lower teeth and enabling the tongue to move forward and out of the patient's airway.

Larger Nasal Cavity: The maxilla forms the floor of the nasal cavity. Advancing and widening this bone increases nasal volume, making it easier to breathe through the nose instead of the mouth.
Reduced Sleep Apnea Risk: By providing more room for the tongue to rest in the roof of the mouth, it helps keep the back of the throat clear, which can alleviate snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.

Oversight by Airway Trained Orthodontists

Our orthodontists know what you want and what your patients need. We will build treatment plans for you that incorporate all of our combined knowledge and experience that deliver the results you expect from an airway-focused clear aligner company.

Prioritize Breathing: Our airway-trained orthodontists design cases to prioritize functional breathing to foster improved long-term health of the patient.
Address Structural Root Causes: By addressing the structural root causes of restricted airways—such as narrow jaws or improper tongue posture—they help improve airflow, alleviate sleep apnea symptoms, and ensure greater stability of orthodontic results over time.

Aligner Auxillaries that work for Airway Cases

Using elastics during treatment can help move the mandible forward to enhance breathing while tongue space is being created. You want slits that work and won't break due to improper manufacturing. We know how to create the slits so they hold up and perform.

Forward Posturing: For patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) or restricted airways, specific elastics (e.g., Class II configuration) pull the mandible forward. This opens the retroglossal space and increases overall airway volume.
Bite Stabilization: Airway-focused aligner therapy aligns the dental arches while simultaneously retraining the musculature and jaw joints into a more functional, breathing-friendly position.

Practice Benefits

Grow Your Dental Practice with Airway Dentistry.

Hands in blue gloves holding a tooth model

Enhanced Clinical Outcomes & Long Term Stability

When you are evaluating a patient’s airway health, you are looking at the whole picture – the jaw width, the tongue posture, the patient’s nasal breathing and sinus capacity, and their craniofacial structure.

Prevents Relapse: By addressing the root cause of mouth breathing and restricted space, dentists can improve tooth and jaw function that will stabilize orthodontic or restorative work.
Protects Dentition: Treating underlying airway obstruction often reduces subconscious teeth grinding and clenching at night and during the day, which saves enamel from wear and prevents cracked teeth.

Modern dental office exterior with mountain backdrop

Practice Revenue & Business Growth

Integrating airway assessments with CBCT for diagnosis and treatment modalities for airway cases, introduces new revenue opportunities as the practice expands to see more patients.

Early Intervention: Pediatric airway cases, including arch expansion and myofunctional therapy referrals, drive recurring, early interceptive treatment revenue.
Oral Appliance Therapy: Providing palatal expansion, customized mandibular advancement devices (MADs), and other treatments, as an alternative to CPAP units, yields significant new high-value cases. Patients want treatment and understand the value of the investment.

Increased Patient Acquisition and Referrals

Millions of adults suffer from sleep-disordered breathing but refuse or fail to tolerate CPAP therapy. Offering airway-friendly alternatives naturally acts as a massive patient magnet.

Referral Engine: Building a reputation for treating snoring and sleep apnea opens doors to a network of cross-referrals from local ENTs, sleep physicians, and myofunctional therapists.
Holistic Patient Loyalty: Screening patients for "hidden" symptoms (like chronic fatigue and morning headaches) positions the dentist as a comprehensive healthcare provider, boosting patient retention and word-of-mouth referrals.

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