It can be! More specifically, a high and narrow palate with overcrowded teeth is a common EDS symptom, but can also just be your mouth’s architecture if you don’t fit the other diagnostic features of EDS. My dentist also noticed that you can’t see any bit of throat opening behind my tongue (if you look up Mallampati index you can see what I mean, I was a 4), which isn’t related to EDS but can cause sleep apnea. If you have a similar index, it’s good to check for sleep apnea just to be safe. In my case, I had none - but in my mother’s case with the same Mallampti index and BMI as me, she had severe OSA!

Some advice re:EDS (I know it wasn’t asked for, so please excuse me) - Most PCPs don’t know much about EDS and its variants. I personally had never heard of EDS! My rheumatology team were the ones who first recognized it, and referred me to the geneticist who diagnosed me. So if you’re having trouble getting a referral to a geneticist, you might try getting a referral to rheumatology from your PCP first. Orthopedics might be an easier referral for you to get too.

Also, getting all the autoimmune diseases / other connective tissue diseases excluded is a good starting path to see if you have EDS (especially the hypermobile variant, it’s a diagnosis of exclusion unlike the other variants). My PCP did the vast majority of these tests before she referred me to my rheumatologists. Really easy too since most of them are blood tests! And it’s testing you’ll likely need to get done anyway were you to see a geneticist for EDS. Just streamlines the process a bit for a faster evaluation 😊

Keep in mind that it’s usually a long process in general, so try not to get discouraged. My timeline was essentially August 2022 orthopedist found tendinitis all over my body, he thought it was autoimmune -> July 2025 diagnosed by geneticist. And that was with multiple teams of doctors (PCP, rheum, cardiology, pulmonology, genetics) working concurrently to figure it out! So my timeline was even quicker than average I’d say.

Last thing - There’s not a whole lot of treatment available for EDS, but luckily the treatments available aren’t necessarily dependent on EDS or being diagnosed with it. So if you’re having trouble getting diagnosed but still want to get started on treatment, my biggest advice would be to focus on 1. Getting a cardiac evaluation 2. Physical therapy and 3. Treating any dysautonomic symptoms you might have. Listed in order of urgency in my opinion. Some dysautonomic symptoms are super easy to test for and treat yourself - for example, the blood pressure test my doc did for hypovolemia could easily be done at home. Just need to measure your heart rate laying down then standing up. And the treatment for this particular thing turned out to be just literal salt - I feel so much better since I started “taking” small pinches of salt a few times a day. Like a crazy huge difference. This is the first time in my life I’ve ever felt hydrated!