SMILES. BREATH. LIFE.
Most people who struggle to breathe never find out why.
Breathing well should not depend on what you can afford.
We pay for airway care for people who would otherwise go without it, we train the dentists who provide it, and we support the research the field still needs.
Why Airway, and Why Now
The Foundation started in 2022, so that people who could not afford dental care could still get it. That work continues.
Dr. Stevenson added airway care to his practice, alongside the restorative and implant work he has always done, and now teaches it. Sleep apnea alone affects close to 30 million Americans. About 80 percent do not know they have it. People sleep badly for years, feel tired, get sicker, and never learn why.
Dentists are usually the first to see the signs, and most were never taught to look. Insurance rarely covers the treatment. Very few charities help with the cost. That is the gap, and we are built to fill it.
Children Come First, for a Clinical Reason
We help adults and children. Children come first, for a clinical reason.
Airway problems in children peak between ages two and eight, the same years the face and jaw do most of their growing. While a child is still growing, treatment can work with that growth. Once growth is finished, the options narrow.
In a five year study of 263 children, those whose sleep apnea persisted were seven times more likely to have learning problems and three times more likely to be getting C grades or worse. Many are treated for attention problems instead. Nobody checks the breathing.
“A six year old still has something extraordinarily valuable. Growth.”
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Richard G. Stevenson III
DDS, FAGD, FACD, ABOD
Dr. Stevenson teaches dentists how to find and treat airway problems. He co-created and co-directs Airway Nexus with Dr. Mark Cruz, a 32 day, roughly 256 hour clinical program, and developed six airway curricula covering identification, stabilization, pediatric treatment, high resolution pulse oximetry, treating children under six, and upper airway resistance syndrome. He belongs to the Airway Collaborative and the American Academy of Physiological Medicine and Dentistry.
Airway is a major expansion of his clinical and teaching work, built on nearly four decades in restorative dentistry, orthodontics, occlusion and implants. He still practices and teaches both, while increasingly directing his clinical, research and teaching effort to airway.
He is a board certified operative dentist and Professor Emeritus of Clinical Dentistry at UCLA, where he taught for 26 years and led the Division of Restorative Dentistry for 17. He has published more than 30 articles and reaches more than 190,000 dentists and dental students on YouTube. He teaches in person at Stevenson Dental Solutions in San Dimas.
He founded the Foundation in 2022, so that people who could not afford dental care could still get it. Airway came later.