Dental Library- Snoring (Sleep Apnea)

We're all familiar with the sound. But even though snoring is more a nuisance than a health concern, there is the possibility that it will develop into sleep apnea - a serious disorder in which the snorer stops breathing several times an hour during sleep. This can adversely affect a patient's health in several ways. The interruption of deep sleep cycles leaves patients with sleep deprivation even though they are sleeping a full seven to eight hours. This is due to the fact that deep sleep is the most rejuvenating type of sleep and even if a patient is getting seven to eight hours of overall sleep if the amount of deep sleep is insufficient they will start to suffer from sleep deprivation symptoms. These include difficulty staying awake, falling a sleep while driving or working, decrease attention span, decreased cognition especially deductive reasoning, loss of appetite, increased irritability and general physical fatigue. Other complications can include hypoxia, lack of oxygen to the brain that can cause brain damage, or even asphyxiation.

Snoring affects more than 40 percent of men and 30 percent of women and tends to worsen with age. Narrowing the airway passage between the back of the tongue and the soft palate causes snoring. Air than passes across the soft palate and uvula, the small droplet shaped tissue that hangs off the back of the throat, causing both to vibrate, which creates the sound we know as snoring. The level of snoring can be exacerbated by excess weight, alcohol intake, smoking, allergies, use of tranquilizers, and sleeping on your back. Therefore some simple steps to avoid or reduce snoring are to reduce your weight, moderate your alcohol consumption, stop smoking, take your allergy medications, avoid tranquilizers or other narcotics and try sleeping on your side.

Sleep apnea occurs when the tongue falls back over the airway and blocks the flow of air. As a person tries harder to breathe, their airway becomes even tighter, until breathing stops altogether. This can happen a few times during a night's sleep or 100 times an hour depending on the severity of the patient's condition. When a patient's symptoms become health threatening then their sleep cycle needs to be monitored to determine the frequency and severity or their apnea. This allows for proper diagnoses and treatment planning to most effective reduce of eliminate the patient's apnea. When sleep apnea causes air intake to be reduced, oxygen levels in the body will also decrease, which can be a precursor to heart attacks, strokes and other serious conditions.

The Good News - Now there are dental appliances that can prevent or reduce snoring and sleep apnea. Your dentist performs a thorough examination to rule out other conditions, and then determines the best positioning of your jaw for a free flow of air, and then an appliance is custom made for you. Your dentist will then show you how to place the appliance in your mouth to keep your airway open while sleeping. The appliance will also prevent the tongue from falling back and blocking your airway. This is an inexpensive noninvasive treatment that is often very effective and can be used in lieu of or at least prior to surgical treatments.

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