Sleep Apnea & Snoring

Snoring is the harsh sound that occurs when air flows past relaxed tissues in your throat, causing the tissues to vibrate as you breathe. Nearly everyone snores now and then, but for some people, it can be a chronic problem. Sometimes it may also indicate a serious health condition. In addition, snoring can be a nuisance to your partner and disruptive to your sleep.

What Causes Sleep Apnea?

Snoring can be caused by a number of factors, such as the anatomy of your mouth and sinuses, alcohol consumption, allergies, a cold, and your weight.

When you doze off and progress from a light sleep into a deeper sleep, the muscles in the roof of your mouth (soft palate), tongue and throat relax. The tissues in your throat can relax enough that they partially block your airway and vibrate.

The more narrowed your airway, the more forceful the airflow becomes. This increases tissue vibration, which causes your snoring to grow louder.

What Are The Symptoms Of Sleep Apnea?

Snoring is often associated with a sleep disorder called obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Not all snorers have OSA, but if snoring is accompanied by any of the following symptoms, it may be an indication to see a doctor for further evaluation for OSA:

• Witnessed breathing pauses during sleep
• Excessive daytime sleepiness
• Difficulty concentrating
• Morning headaches
• Sore throat upon awakening
• Restless sleep
• Gasping or choking at night
• High blood pressure
• Chest pain at night
• Your snoring is so loud it’s disrupting your partner’s sleep
• In children, poor attention span, behavioral issues or poor performance in school

OSA often is characterized by loud snoring followed by periods of silence when breathing stops or nearly stops. Eventually, this reduction or pause in breathing may signal you to wake up, and you may awaken with a loud snort or gasping sound.

You may sleep lightly due to disrupted sleep. This pattern of breathing pauses may be repeated many times during the night.

People with obstructive sleep apnea usually experience periods when breathing slows or stops at least five times during every hour of sleep.

Again, not all snorers have OSA, and not everyone with OSA snores; therefore, if you do snore and you are looking for relief from your snoring, it is important to be seen by a physician to determine if you have OSA, simple snoring, or both OSA and snoring. This diagnosis can only be made by a sleep physician, or your PCP working with a sleep specialist.

What Is Obstructive Sleep Apnea?

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) occurs when your muscles of your mouth, tongue, and throat relax during sleep, allowing the soft tissue to collapse and block the airway. As a result, OSA causes you to stop breathing up to hundreds of times a night for anywhere from a few seconds to more than a minute. Snoring, excessive daytime sleepiness, memory problems, irritability, fatigue, and insomnia are all signs that you could be losing quality sleep to OSA. If left untreated, OSA can be a potentially life-threatening condition. It can increase the risk for other serious health problems such as high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, depression, and impotence.

The traditionally prescribed treatment for obstructive sleep apnea is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy. It involves sleeping with a face mask connected by tubing to a constantly running machine. Although CPAP is effective and is considered the “Gold Standard” of OSA treatments, up to half of the patients are not able to use CPAP treatment. Dentists can provide an alternate sleep solution with oral appliance therapy.

Oral Appliance Therapy

Oral appliance therapy is an effective, non-invasive treatment option for snoring and obstructive sleep apnea that fits easily into your lifestyle. A dental oral appliance looks like a sports mouthguard and is worn only during sleep. It supports the jaw in a forward position to help maintain an open upper airway, preventing sleep apnea and snoring.

Once you have been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea by a sleep physician, a dentist experienced in dental sleep medicine can make a custom-fitted oral appliance using impressions and models of your teeth. Patients like it because it’s comfortable, easy to wear, quiet, portable, convenient for travel and easy to clean.

Treating snoring or sleep apnea with oral appliance therapy can help you feel like a new person. You will find that your symptoms, and your quality of life, can improve dramatically when you remain committed to your treatment and use it nightly. Custom-fit oral appliances from Norwood Dental Sleep Medicine LLC can improve your sleep, restore your alertness and revitalize your health.

If you have concerns about snoring and sleep apnea, it may be time to make an appointment. If you suspect you may have sleep apnea, I can recommend a sleep physician to help get you started on your path to treatment. If you have already been diagnosed with sleep apnea, I can fit you with an oral appliance. Our team at Norwood Dental Sleep Medicine LLC is ready to answer your questions about obstructive sleep apnea, dental sleep medicine, and oral appliance therapy.

What Are Other Treatments for OSA?

The strategy for treating sleep apnea will depend on different factors. Sometimes lifestyle changes are all it takes to improve sleep. In mild cases, weight loss might help. Also, changing your sleeping position can stop snoring and sleep apnea both.

If the apnea is the result of an obstruction than medication therapy like nasal steroid sprays can play a role in fixing the problem. The obstruction may be related to an underlying illness, too, like hypothyroidism. Treating that condition can eliminate the obstruction.

An oral appliance can create a physical barrier that holds the soft palate in place to prevent the obstruction. You wear the dental appliance at night as you sleep.

Finally, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment hooks you up to a machine that uses air pressure to keep the airway clear from obstruction. CPAP machines are for more severe cases that don’t respond well to other treatment methods.

What Should You Do About That Snoring?

It starts with a specialist diagnosis from a physician. Norwood Dental Sleep Medicine LLC and Dr. Robert Stoddard focus on sleep medicine and TMJ disorders. Give us a call today to make an appointment and find out the best way to keep snoring at bay.