FAQs

Aligness is a private, two-doctor practice. Dr. Heather Skeens reads the whole pattern, and Dr. Vladimir Pastouk is the creator of Glossodontics®. The consultation is real clinical work. This site educates, qualifies, and routes. Diagnosis, where needed, happens privately, including referral to sleep medicine.

Two doctors read your whole picture together, in one room, instead of one report at a time in offices that never speak. One makes the hidden visible, the airway, mouth, and jaw signs a blood panel never shows. The other reads the pattern across your labs, sleep, and history. You leave with one prioritized next step, not twelve more to-dos.

No, and it is not meant to. Aligness adds the conversation that has been missing, where your full picture is read across disciplines at the same time. It does not replace your physician or anyone else on your team. Often the Aligness review is what makes the rest of your care more useful.

No. Everything on this site is educational. It is designed to help you understand the model and find the right next step. It does not diagnose, prescribe, or replace the care of your own clinician. The actual clinical work happens privately, after you apply.

Then we will tell you, honestly, and point you toward the right person. A clear referral is a real outcome here, not a failure. You leave with direction either way, which is more than most people walk in with.

Glossodontics® is the method Dr. Pastouk created and presents to other doctors at conferences. It releases the tongue, then redevelops the airway, jaw, and face, so the body has a real chance to breathe through its nose and settle into calm. It is the reason a dentist sits in the room when you came in about your sleep or your energy. It is a whole-body method, not a tongue-tie snip.

The tongue helps shape the palate, drive nasal breathing, and set jaw posture. When it cannot do that work, the airway, jaws, teeth, and even posture can develop differently over time. Reading the tongue and airway alongside everything else is one lens a standard workup usually never includes, and it may be linked to patterns most charts leave out.

No. Glossodontics® is a whole-body method, not a single quick procedure. The release is only the start. Supportive layers are built around the healing, and the system is designed to redevelop the airway, jaw, and face over time, because physiology does the repair. The specifics are discussed privately, after the review, never on a page.

Dr. Pastouk created Glossodontics® and presents it to other clinicians. The clearest signal of a method is who else adopts it. A practicing physician who saw the work now refers patients and travels in to be seen personally.

How you breathe at night runs through your airway, and your airway is shaped by structures, the jaw, the tongue, the soft tissue, that a trained airway dentist is built to see and most charts leave out. Dr. Pastouk, the creator of Glossodontics®, adds a set of eyes a standard workup is not using. It does not replace sleep medicine, it sits alongside it.

Many people who reach Aligness say exactly that. CPAP can be the right and necessary tool, and we are never anti-CPAP. But the airway and oral picture is one lens a sleep study usually never includes. Reading it alongside everything else is what the two doctors do together.

Yes. One patient's airway measured 18.32 cm³ before and 28.00 cm³ after on 3D CBCT, a larger airway you can see on the scan, not a slogan. It is de-identified and shown for education only, and individual anatomy and results vary. You can view it on the proof page.

No, and we are never anti-CPAP. We read the airway alongside everything else and coordinate with your existing care. Any change to a treatment you are already on is a decision for you and your treating clinicians.

No. A sleep apnea diagnosis belongs with sleep medicine, and that is where we keep it. When a formal study or diagnosis is needed, we refer you for it rather than pretend to do it here.

We cannot promise to tell you why, and we are suspicious of anyone who can before they have met you. What we can do is take that experience seriously and read it across more than one discipline at once. The outcome is a serious whole-picture review and a clear next step, not a guaranteed explanation.

Your history, labs, sleep, mouth, airway, symptoms, and the iris as one integrative input are reviewed together, in one room, by two doctors at the same time, rather than one report at a time in offices that never speak. The work is to find the pattern that sits in the gaps between specialists.

The iris is an integrative input, nothing more and nothing less. Dr. Skeens uses iris observation as one structured way to read a signal within a much larger picture, alongside your history, labs, sleep, mouth, and airway. It is a starting point for a better conversation, not a verdict, and it is read with the rest, never alone.

No. The iris does not diagnose disease, it does not name or screen for any condition, and it does not rule anything in or out. No decision rests on it alone. It is one clue among many, and never read alone.

A personalized next-step map: your priorities, in order, and the single clearest place to start. It is educational, built specifically for you, and it is not a prescription, a diagnosis, or a treatment plan.

Consults run online, and patients fly in from across the country to be seen in person. After you apply, the doctors tell you which parts of your review are best done remotely and which are worth the trip. The two-doctors-in-one-room review is at its strongest in person.

Yes. This is a nationally referenced, conference-taught method, and people travel from across the country to be seen. A practicing physician who saw the work now refers patients and flies in personally. Distance reads as proof of value here, not a gate.

The application is private and online, so the first review can begin before you ever travel. Both doctors read your case together, then map which parts are best handled remotely and which are worth flying in for. Out-of-state and international clients are planned around one unhurried in-person review, not many short trips.

Doing it properly takes both doctors' time, and that time is limited. An application lets Dr. Skeens and Dr. Pastouk review your case together before they meet you, so the consultation starts from understanding, not a blank page. If your situation is better served elsewhere, we would rather tell you up front.

Plan for an unhurried visit, a few hours, so the full picture is actually read together rather than rushed. The exact length is confirmed when you are scheduled. This is intentionally not a fifteen-minute appointment.

Both doctors review your application together. If it is a fit, we reach out to schedule, online or in person. If it is not, we point you somewhere you would be better served. Everything before the review is educational and by application.

Yes. The review is built to make the rest of your care more useful, not to compete with it. When something belongs with a specialist or your primary care physician, we name it clearly and route you there.

The first integrated review with both doctors is a set fee, and the path beyond it is shaped to your case after the consultation, when there is a real picture to price against. The exact figure for the first review is on the program page. You will know the number before you commit to anything.

No. We do not make cure promises, and we are suspicious of anyone who does. Symptoms like fatigue, poor sleep, and brain fog may be linked to many things across the body, and those connections are what the two doctors read together. What we offer is a serious, whole-picture assessment and a clear next step.

Aligness is a fee-for-service educational, integrative consultation, and insurance is not billed. The path is discussed privately, by application, so you know the cost before you commit.

Yes. Your application is private and reviewed only by the Aligness physicians. We never share your information. The clinical conversation happens privately, between you and the doctors, after you apply.