Sleep Apnea & Snoring
Dentist Kent WA
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a sleep disorder in which breathing is momentarily and regularly stopped while you’re asleep, according to the Sleep Foundation. Adults in America who have sleep apnea number over 18 million. It’s not unusual, to put it mildly. It’s an issue that can develop for a number of reasons, including heredity, alcoholism, and weight increase. The first step in treating sleep apnea is certainly identifying the underlying problem.
What Is Sleep Apnea?
A person with sleep apnea may experience many pauses in breathing throughout the course of the night. If not appropriately managed, this ailment may be fatal. At Seablue Dental, our oral medicine specialist, Dr. Rashmi Malhotra, is skilled in using dental appliances to treat sleep apnea.
You might have sleep apnea if you constantly feel exhausted, even after receiving a good night’s sleep. Because you can’t tell if you snore at night if you sleep alone, this ailment is difficult to diagnose. Even while not everyone who snores has sleep apnea, it is one of the symptoms.
Types Of Sleep Apnea:
There are three types of sleep apnea:
Obstructive : The most typical type of relaxation of the neck muscles is this one.
Central : When the brain and respiratory muscles are unable to communicate, this occurs.
Complex : This combines both central and obstructive sleep apnea.
Sleep Apnea Symptoms:
Other signs of sleep apnea, besides being worn out and lacking energy during the day, include
- Loud snoring that wakes you up at night or disturbs your companion
- Dry throat caused by mouth-opening when sleeping
- Breathing problems as mentioned by a partner
- Early in the morning, you experience headaches
- Insomnia or trouble falling asleep
- Excessive sleepiness or inadvertent daytime sleepiness
- Trouble focusing
- Choking or snorting noises at night (indicating a restart of breathing)
- Waking up with a headache and a stiff neck
- Waking up during the night to use the bathroom
- Erection problems
- Abnormal heartbeat
- Blood pressure that is not well-controlled after using several drugs
What Causes Sleep Apnea?
When you are asleep while lying in bed, your tongue changes and slides deeper into your throat. Your airways can narrow or even close completely if the muscles in your throat relax, which would stop you from breathing.
When you have obstructive sleep apnea, your blood oxygen levels may drop if you can’t get enough air into your airways. Because of the lack of oxygen, you could wake up unexpectedly, but you soon go back to sleep, and the cycle repeats. You may have sleep apnea if you awaken gasping for air or choking. Because these episodes might occur numerous times throughout the course of the night, sleep apnea has an impact on your daytime activities.
The most dangerous form of sleep apnea is the central kind because you don’t instinctively wake up from lack of oxygen. You may still wake up, but if you don’t that could be dangerous.
The central type of sleep apnea is the most hazardous because you don’t automatically awaken from oxygen deprivation. You might still awaken, but it might be risky if you don’t.
How Is Sleep Apnea Treated?
If you think you may have sleep apnea, you must inform us so that we can choose the best course of action for you. The severity of each case of sleep apnea and the type of apnea will determine the best course of treatment. We’ll need you to spend the night at a facility where you’ll be linked up to a machine that will track your breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, sleep patterns, oxygen levels, and limb movements in order to diagnose the disease. There are options for conducting testing at home.
Using a CPAP mask over your face while you sleep may be a part of your sleep apnea therapy. Although it keeps your airways open at night, many patients find it difficult to adjust to. There are other airway devices if this describes your circumstance. The lower jaw can be slightly moved forward to widen the airway using oral appliances akin to orthodontic retainers.
Another choice is surgery, but we only use that after exhausting all other options.
If you think you might have sleep apnea and would like to be treated with an oral device, please contact Seablue Dental at 253-336-3000 to schedule a consultation.
Sleep Apnea References:
- https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-apnea
- https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/sleep-apnea
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sleep-apnea/symptoms-causes/syc-20377631
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sleep-apnea/in-depth/cpap/art-20044164
- https://www.healthline.com/health/sleep/obstructive-sleep-apnea#treatment
